2025 to now
I live in San Francisco and mainly work on Paso, a founder's partner for teams building toward product/market fit. Before that I cofounded Tap Go, a cold brew coffee brand in Shanghai, and A'GAIN, which made home goods from spent coffee grounds. I grew up in Tianjin, trained as an ecologist and previously studied at Penn.
You can reach me at ranyang@alumni.upenn.edu.
What I think about
Timing
What is the right product at the right time? It is the question I work on with founders at Paso. How does a founder tell a wrong product from a right one that is early?
Markets
In my earlier companies, my idea of a product was missing the market. How often does a founder need to meet customers before the product starts to change?
Craft
What makes an object both functional and tasteful? When does taste help a young company, and when does it get in the way?
Workflows
Cold brew reaches a customer through a supply chain, a store and a delivery. Tap Go taught me how much of a business sits in that sequence. How does a founder learn a complex workflow without first working inside it?
Investors
Where do founders and investors disagree about the same company? What does each see that the other cannot?
Group decisions
What lets a group reach a decision its members could not reach alone? I gave lectures for 200 to 300 people at Studio Alpha. I am starting Open Discussion, a monthly live conversation online where founders bring a decision they are facing. It runs in Chinese first. The first date is not set.
Ecology
The longer aim. How can people and nature live better together? At Penn I worked on a regional plan for Dhaka's leather industry and its river. What would it take for an industry and the river beside it to both do well?
Work
2023 to 2025
Tap Go
CofounderI designed the brand, its design system and the first 2 stores. The chain grew to 6.
2021 to 2023
A'GAIN
CofounderI defined the product and the brand, and we tested demand with a presale to luxury and EV brands.
2016 to 2022
Studio Alpha
Head of Growth and Academic ProgramsAn education company in Shanghai preparing architecture graduates for graduate school. I wrote the workshop curriculum.
2013 to 2014
Penn
Graduate fieldworkLandscape architecture and regional planning, and a municipal master plan for Harare. I practiced landscape architecture in the US before 2017.