Michael Yang

Founder and CEO, Michael Yang Capital Management

Michael is currently the Founder and CEO of Michael Yang Capital Management and MSY LLC. Most recently, he was a board director for Become Japan Holding. Previously he was the Founder & Board Director of Become.com, a global leader in ecommerce search engine, and served as its President & CEO from 2004 to 2012. Michael is the Founder & former CEO of mySimon.com, a pioneer in Internet price comparison shopping service. mySimon raised $30 million in venture capital and was acquired by CNET for $700 million in 2000. Previously, Michael held engineering, marketing and management positions at Xerox Corp., Intergraph Corporation, and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. Michael has a BS degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley, MS degree in Computer Science from Columbia University and MBA degree from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. He has served on the advisory board of the Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) at Stanford University as well as on the IT Advisory Council for President George W. Bush. Michael is an advisor to several Silicon Valley startup companies and non-profit organizations. Michael holds fourth degree black belt in Taekwondo and enjoys riding motorcycles.

Articles by Michael Yang

How Shaun Merritt Vibe-Coded Karrot.ai As A Solo Builder

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Shaun Merritt, cofounder and CTO of Karrot.ai, a LinkedIn ABM tool. Shaun was kind enough to share a comprehensive breakdown of how...

7 Steps to Build a Product That Sells Itself

Learn the 7 steps to product-led growth (PLG) to build a product that sells itself. Drive activation, boost conversions, and scale efficiently with Wes Bush from ProductLed....

The Founder’s Mental Health Playbook: What I Learned After Nearly Burning Out

A hard-won guide to staying mentally healthy while building a startup I founded Stitcher, the podcast platform, in 2007 and ran it for seven years until we sold in 2014....

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for Early Stage Companies

In our latest session from the Mucker Growth Series featuring Ethan Smith from Graphite, we explored AEO, a significant new approach for optimizing visibility in AI-driven search, particularly relevant as...

Startup Guide to AI Visibility: Be the Brand ChatGPT Recommends

Introduction Today, users aren’t just searching on Google. They’re asking ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI systems for advice. AI visibility is the new frontier of brand awareness....

Practical Uses of AI & Automation for Startup Operations

In a recent Mucker Growth Series session, we invited Rock Vitale, Founder & CEO of Easie, to share how he’s helped early-stage teams move from manual, fragmented workflows to streamlined,...