By day, Andrew Yeung works at one of the world’s most recognized tech companies. By night, he hosts exclusive parties to bring together founders, investors, operators, creators and the tech-curious. 

Yeung’s gatherings are curated to encourage guests to walk away with a new friend, a solution to a problem or a job offer. From newcomers checking out the scene to unicorn companies, Yeung decentralizes opportunity. 

Bullish on IRL events, Yeung has hosted over 100 parties across New York, San Francisco, Miami, and Toronto. 

“I moved around a lot as a kid, so I had to learn how to build my network from scratch,” he said in an interview. “I’ve lived in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Shanghai, Toronto, and now New York City. I moved to New York in 2020, when everyone was leaving. As an immigrant, I didn’t know anyone, which prompted me to start building an IRL community and bring novelty to networking.”

Yeung helps forge connections and break the ice by assigning each guest a color based on who he thinks they’ll get along with. “Figure out what y'all have in common. You’re put in a specific group for a reason,” he instructs. 

The idea of “infinite leverage” connects both his tech and community-building worlds. “I’m most inspired by positively influencing how people think and behave towards each other. That’s the culture I instill at all my events,” said Yeung. 

One of Yeung’s soirees

As society continues to splinter – post-pandemic, in challenging economic and social times – in-person human connection is more important than ever and the interest in Yeung’s events highlights the collective craving for connection, especially in big cities. 

“I think this year is going to be an important one for community, given the macro shifts we’re seeing,” he said. “People are losing their jobs, the VC funding has dried up, and founders are scrambling to raise money. Everything’s sort of built into a flywheel. Community becomes critical because it helps founders get fundraising and job seekers get hired.”

There’s also an exodus of tech talent out of major cities, Yeung said “But that’s where the natural ecosystem exists,” he said. “You either need to be in a big city if you’re trying to raise money or build a startup, or someone needs to build a tech stack that can facilitate that kind of connection.”

One of the main challenges before one of his parties is to get the guests to connect ahead of time, so that the event can be “more intentional,” he said. “And then post-event, if they’ve met someone, how do they follow-up and keep in touch? I’m interested in how the community tech stack will evolve to help facilitate that serendipity and help people stay better connected.”  

Yeung said there’s no dominant player yet but cited the social app, Saturday, as a leader in the space, which he uses to keep people connected post-events. Hundreds of mini communities have sparked from Saturday. 

Cliff Lerner, a serial entrepreneur and frequent attendee at Yeung’s parties, is the co-founder of Saturday. Lerner is a former advisor for online dating app, Bumble. He’s launched multiple apps before, some of which have grown to over 100 million users.

That’s the beauty of these events. Tech needs community and community needs tech. We’re at a point in time where community, just like work, is hybrid. It’s both online and IRL. The more digital the world becomes, the more we crave in-person experiences. 

“At last night’s event, we had a TikTok famous creator-turned founder with four million followers, a worldwide IMG model turned CEO, multiple Forbes 30 Under 30 folks, and many big tech operators from Google, Meta and more,” Yeung shared. 

Founders found funding, hiring happened and friendships were formed. 

One event at a time, Yeung is decentralizing Silicon Valley – democratizing opportunity and making your next tech job or funding just a drink, or nametag, away.