About Me

Welcome! I’m David, a student of life currently doing Growth @ Amplitude, experiencing the front-seat of a rocketship. I was born and raised in the Philippines before going to college at Penn where I studied Computer Science & Cognitive Science. Previously spent time founding & scaling for-profit & non-profit organizations, working in venture capital and writing about startups for national publications.

On the side, I enjoy writing, traveling to new places and meeting all sorts of interesting people. I’ve also started angel investing so if you’re working on something interesting or want to chat, feel free to reach me at david [dot] ongchoco [@] gmail [dot] com.

This is my attempt to start the new decade 2020 sharing more of my thoughts and creating a way to document all the lessons I’m learning –> check out my latest post here.

In my previous life…

In 2014, I started a for-purpose organization called YouthHack with a goal of helping students learn more about technology, startups and entrepreneurship through educational programs like code weekends, startup weekends and summer academies. Since then, YouthHack has gone on to run programs in over 8 countries and currently operates in the Philippines and in the US.

At Penn, I met some of my best friends and worked on a bunch of stuff. I was a part of a student-run VC firm called Dorm Room Fund backed by First Round Capital which got me first interested in venture capital. I spent a lot of time writing about startup founders and investors for the HuffPost & Inc. Magazine – some of the best hits can be found here. I also got the chance to help SeventySix Capital Managing Partner Wayne Kimmel author a book about building genuine relationships in business. Finally, I got to work with inspiring people on startups & projects like SkillStackers, ThirdEye, AskPery and BlockCrunch — among many others, all of which have taught me countless of lessons.

The past decade has been such a crazy one but it goes without saying that I’m truly thankful to my family and my parents for giving me the opportunity to go to college in the US which opened up this whole new world from me. Here’s to the next decade…

A group photo from the very first YouthHack event in 2014… 🙂