Benjamin Tseng
Benjamin is focused on advanced technologies in energy, healthcare, food, agriculture, and new manufacturing models at 1955 Capital. Ben was the first team member to join the firm in 2016 and has known Andrew for almost 15 years, dating back to his time at Bain.
Benjamin is an active advisor & investor in numerous startups, including Stir, a leading company in the creator economy space, and Maximus, a telemedicine infrastructure platform. He has led product and strategy for both companies. He also serves as an Associate Fellow in Technology and Public Policy for the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
Prior to 1955, Benjamin was a Vice President at DCM, a leading cross-border venture fund managing over $3B in assets. His sectors of focus included frontier technologies, technology infrastructure, connected platforms, and new models of healthcare, and he also worked actively on DCM’s Android Fund initiative, the venture industry’s first and largest vehicle dedicated to exploiting global opportunities created by Google’s Android platform raised from global strategic partners such as Tencent, KDDI, GREE, GMO, and Naver. Benjamin worked actively with management teams at DCM companies including Rayvio (ultraviolet LED), Enovix (energy storage), Augmedix (Google Glass for physicians), Athos (wearables), Whistle (pet care / hardware), Yik Yak (mobile social app), FreedomPop (next-gen MVNO), and 1Mainstream (video delivery platform). He subsequently joined Yik Yak as Vice President of Product and Business Development, where he helped raise over $60M in venture capital for the company, built and managed a team of product managers, designers, and UX researchers supporting all product and systems development within the company, and managed partnership conversations and execution.
Prior to DCM, Benjamin spent 3 years at Bain & Company in the Bay Area working primarily in the semiconductor industry. Benjamin is also an advisor to a number of startups as well as the product management resource Product Manager HQ.
Benjamin graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Highest Honors from Harvard University with a major in Biochemical Sciences and a minor in Mathematical Sciences. At Harvard, his research interests covered gene regulation in innate immunity, mathematical biology, and bone marrow transplantation. He is an avid scifi & comic book fan, a (very) amateur coder, a blogger, and an unabashed knowledge junkie.