Shangyanyan Li

As a Venture Builder at 1848 Ventures, I built and validated AI-powered solutions for SMBs from idea to seed-ready startup. • Drove two ventures from opportunity exploration to validated, seed-ready startups within one year, overseeing ideation, product development, and go-to-market strategy. • Conducted customer discovery and market research, synthesizing insights to shape venture concepts within 3 months. • Designed and executed experiments to validate business hypotheses, iterating quickly to achieve problem-solution fit and accelerate MVP delivery. • Secured design partners and early users to accelerate development and validate key assumptions, driving early adoption and engagement. • Collaborated with cross-functional teams (engineering, design, marketing) to align strategy and meet key milestones. • Facilitated investor decision-making by presenting clear metrics and compelling data-driven storytelling. • Piloted AI solutions across research, product development, and go-to-market to increase productivity and drive stronger business outcomes.

As the co-founder and CEO of BruceAI, I led the development of an AI-powered compliance platform for manufacturers to streamline regulatory processes and reduce operational risk. • Led product development from concept to MVP, collaborating closely with design partners and the founding team, resulting in a fully functional product within 6 months. • Defined initial ICP and go-to-market strategy, driving adoption and engagement across multiple channels. Generated 200+ leads, conducted 50+ demos, and created 20+ qualified opportunities, contributing to early customer pipeline. • Designed and executed a close beta program, recruiting 10+ pilot users to validate product-market fit and inform feature prioritization. • Prioritized product features using customer feedback, ensuring product roadmap aligned with business goals and growth targets. • Led discussions and negotiations for seed investment and potential M&A opportunities.

Managed the strategic direction, development, and successful execution of the product roadmap of Barkably (a Tenney 110 venture), ensuring alignment with company goals and delivering innovative solutions that meet customer needs. • Successfully led the development and launch of the initial MVP product, receiving 600+ high-quality leads within 8 weeks. • Led the collaboration with marketing, sales, and customer support teams. Implemented an agile product development methodology and led a cross-functional team of product managers, designers, and engineers, delivering scheduled features on time 95% of the time. • Pioneered the integration of AI and machine learning into Barkably's product suite, enhancing personalization capabilities and increasing the conversion rate by 30%. • Established a robust user feedback loop through various design methods, doubling the customer satisfaction rate within 3 months.

Served pivotal roles in setting up and operating the venture studio (Tenney 110) of American Family Insurance to create majority-owned subsidiary companies or minority-owned spinouts. • Led or co-led 10+ new ventures through different stages of the venture development process with a success rate of more than 60%, exceeding a 2X return in financial value and creating meaningful and non-obvious strategic value for the enterprise. • Performed key tasks during the venture creation process, including conducting workshops to generate new concepts, identifying customer needs and market insights, conceiving innovative business models, designing and iterating products or services, testing market signals and collecting customer feedback, and engaging with internal and external stakeholders. • Led the integration of design thinking methodologies into the venture creation process. • Created the first Tenney110 Build Studio playbook, including detailed information about the studio, investment thesis, venture design characteristics, build process, tools, and resources.

Established the initial vision and structure of the client’s venture studio and set up a repeatable venture creation process for them. • Led the development of 10+ viable new ventures or internal innovation projects in fintech and insuretech space for the client through the process of conceptualizing, designing, prototyping, testing, and executing. • Performed key tasks during the venture creation process to ensure a high venture success rate and efficient use of capital, including facilitating new concept generation and evaluation, running market and user research, analyzing qualitative and quantitative data for informed decision-making, prototyping new products, conducting user testing, and collaborating with engineers to build functional products. • Delivered tangible strategic and financial returns to the client and received strong acknowledgment from multiple internal sponsors across functions.

Led a high-impact project to optimize the grant application process for a newly established medical research department using design methodologies. Successfully communicated and implemented key research-driven recommendations.

Co-led a project to enhance the experience of sickle cell patients both within and beyond the healthcare system. Developed frameworks and designed solutions informed by research insights from multiple stakeholder groups.

Contributed to UX research projects to drive user-centered product design, utilizing heuristic analysis, wireframing, and usability testing. Collaborated with cross-functional teams to develop intuitive solutions that balanced user needs with business objectives, ensuring the delivery of impactful and innovative designs.