Military + Venture Capital: Mental Health, D&I, and Leadership
Hi, everyone! I’m Sean and I’m from a family that is one of the first Asian-American families to be recognized in war. My family’s journey from Asia to me sitting in a comfortable chair in Southern California involved a lot of racism, too much armed combat and an importance on keeping up good mental health. Now, I’m realizing that this background helps shape my passions and perspective in the professional world. I’ve been urged by a handful of VCs to write this post so here you all go:
My family’s history can be traced back to 1880, when my great-great-grandfather was a Chinese Army General, the Commander-in-Chief of Overseas Propaganda, working directly under Sun Yat-sen who served as the provisional first president of the Republic of China and the first leader of the Kuomintang. Unfortunately, in a Civil War, my ancestor was poisoned at a dinner party by the rival faction. The family then fled to nearby British-ruled Burma for safety just south of the Chinese border.
My ancestor’s son, my great-grandfather, joined the British Army and saw combat in World War I as the British sent most of its Asian colonies to East Africa. I am sure that having shellshock from WWI wasn’t too fun. Society not recognizing that as a real condition probably wasn’t that fun either. Trench warfare is fun in video games and cool to see in movies like 1917, but definitely terrible in real life. He spent the interwar period as an architect in Burma. Funnily enough, he designed the hospital that my dad was born at (this ancestor is through my mom).
When WWII broke out, the Japanese sprinted through Burma. The guy had maybe 10 kids including my grandmother. She was just a kid, carrying her sisters and running through the Burmese forest as the Japanese dropped their bombs mercilessly throughout the countryside. She knew semi-decent English and would negotiate with the British Armed Forces to allow the family to hop a ride on the convoys. Her sister knew even better English so she worked as a radio operator in British Intelligence. Another sister became a nurse during the war tending to the wounded and then a coat check girl to the Americans after the war. She got lucky at one party when a United States Army Air Forces Lieutenant walked in and asked her to come back to America with him. He and his three brothers would later be honored with Congressional Gold Medals in December 2020. I’ll touch more on this later. Some of my other great uncles were KIA. One got his first taste of America when he learned how to become a bomber pilot in Arizona; his plane was later shot down over Manchuria. Another brother came over for weapons school; he later lost a knife fight against a Japanese Officer whose body was then thrown into the river.
Meanwhile, my grandfather (re: grandmother’s husband) and his brother got sucked into combat. Before America’s formal entry following Pearl Harbor, the Americans already had a presence in Asia through the American Volunteer Group. He and his buddies were known as the “Flying Tigers of China” famous for sharks painted on their planes and the best kill-death ratio of any pilot group. Some would argue that they were instrumental in keeping the Japanese out of China thus winning the Pacific for the Allies. After WWII, they rose through the ranks in America and kept in touch with their war buddies — recognized as Asians who helped Americans as equals.
Remember the four brothers who got the medals? One of them worked on the atomic bombs, something that messed with his head for his entire life. Another, David, was supposedly the first Chinese-American who was accepted into West Point though he went MIA over the Pacific so never got to attend. During the war, the Milwaukee paper wrote an article about them as they were the only Chinese family in a town called Oshkosh. Imagine that! The only family, the token Chinese family who used the “Lo Mein Loophole” to make a life in this country got an article about them — amazing.
Through marriage, I’m also related to the Akune brothers which is one of history’s rare moments of brothers shooting at each other through opposites of the war in WWII. It’s worth highlighting that the two Americans got placed in a concentration camp in Colorado and despite insane amounts of racism, they joined up. However, the racism didn’t stop there such as when white officers took away their weapons prior to the jump. For context, 20% of soldiers died during the jump so having no weapons upon landing was a death sentence. Somehow, they all survived though were still mistreated in post-war Allied Occupation. The Akune’s couldn’t catch a break.
Nowadays, in VC though also in other industries, we’re seeing a big push on D&I. It’s amazing to me that there were so many heroic actions that went unnoticed for 80 years and are now being talked about. My family was first in this so I hope to carry on some legacy and be an advocate for D&I.
Even though the guys in photos above look good in uniform, some had serious mental health problems. Even today, 1 in 5 have some mental health issue. The guy who introduced me to VC a few years ago took his own life, but you would have never seen it coming. He always had a smile on his face, he hosted some fun parties, and it took a lot of people by surprise. With more than $1bn invested in mental health startups, I want to see these win.
What’s also crazy to me is how some guys could survive the most brutal stuff like aerial combat, but the cause of death ended up being cancer. Imagine that some cells in your body acting up took you, but you could dodge bullets and shoot the bad guys for years and be ok. Whether it’s mental health or bodily health, I want to see VC bets here win. The world needs to tackle some of the toughest structural issues effectively.
What a military family did teach me though was the importance of good leadership. You learn a lot in boot camp, like how a four-man fireteam has a complimentary skillset much like a company’s C-suite does or the importance of rank to yield strong leaders. It is absolutely fantastic to see organizations like Bunker Labs get out there and give Veterans the tools to succeed.
Growing up, I thought that my grandma telling her stories of war were crazy, but I didn’t know that they’d shape my outlook on the world.
