# Ryan Choi **Founder** — San Francisco, CA, United States > Former SVB and Moelis tech investment banker who moved into operating roles, most recently Chief of Staff at Artie (YC S23) where he ran GTM, renewals and the Series A. Now building software products and advising a Korean accelerator's portfolio on US go-to-market. Career Archetype: **Launchpad Navigator** (HS-DG) — One of the first Launchpad Navigators on Saywise ## Links - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jinhyuk-ryan-choi - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5aewjLycATBjlEFp8QqTKw ## Experience ### Startup Consultant, Independent (2026-08 – present) San Francisco, CA · Mentoring a Korean government-backed accelerator's portfolio companies on go-to-market and fundraising strategy for the US market. ### Founder, Linchpin Labs (2026-03 – 2026-08) San Francisco, CA · Ran five time-boxed sprints from discovery to shipped prototype while learning to design and build software. Interviewed 18 banks for an AI-native sell-side diligence tool and shipped clickable prototypes on a mock data room, which got him into the Solo Founders Program. Also shipped PingNow Golf, a live app that tracks Bay Area public tee times and coordinates group bookings, now used by 12 people. Dropped a prior-auth workflow idea after physician interviews and moved to payer-side review quality. ### Chief of Staff, Artie (YC S23) (2024-07 – 2026-04) San Francisco, California, United States · Employee #5 and first non-engineering hire, working alongside the founders across GTM, ops and finance from seed to a $12M Series A. Helped grow revenue about 6x and ACV about 3x by building the sales playbook and ICP with the CEO and recruiting AEs. Built an automated multi-channel outbound system that became the main pipeline source at about 5 meetings a week with no SDR headcount. Ran account management and all renewals at about 170% NRR with zero churn. Led the rebrand and the first launch week, launched partnerships solo, and owned the Series A deck, model and data room, closing in 4 weeks from first outreach to term sheet. ### Growth Advisor, Kaiku (2024-05 – 2025-09) London, UK · Supported the founders' fundraising with more than 10 US angel introductions and a data room. Advised on building a scalable GTM motion. ### Tech Investment Banking Associate, Moelis & Company (2023-05 – 2024-07) San Francisco, California, United States · Ranked top in the associate class and covered Internet and Front Office Software M&A. Deal captain on Frequence's sale to Madhive, guiding the C-suite through its first M&A transaction. Ran all financial workstreams on Bain Capital's $8-10B sale of Rocket Software. Advised on the Khoros sale to IgniteTech, a three-year process, and built the models and data room. Led investor materials and valuation for Identity Digital's strategic review, which later closed as a TPG-backed continuation vehicle. ### Tech Investment Banking Analyst, SVB Securities (2021-09 – 2023-05) San Francisco, California, United States · Joined as part of the founding team and ranked top in the analyst class each year. Covered Tech M&A and Capital Markets advisory. Advised Roper (NYSE: ROP) on its $3.7B+ acquisition of Frontline Education, including valuation and roll-up strategy. Owned financial analyses on a ~$1.5B EdTech cross-border hostile takeover review and a ~$500M HealthTech PE take-private. Led recruiting and training for the San Francisco office. ### Research Strategy & Data Lead, Kaiku (2021-06 – 2021-09) London, England, United Kingdom ### Sergeant & Rifleman Squad Leader, Republic of Korea Army Missile Command (2019-12 – 2021-07) Republic of Korea · Received the Army Chief of Staff's Exemplary Soldier commendation, in the top 5% of more than 1.1K nominees nationwide. Reached the finals of the Army Startup Contest (top 20 of 300+) by pitching an AI system for predicting North Korean missile provocations to VCs, and received the Missile Commander's commendation. ### Research Analyst, MINDS AND COMPANY (2019-08 – 2019-11) Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea · AI Strategy Consulting ### Sales and Marketing, PTC (2017-07 – 2017-10) Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea ### Corporate Insurance, Samsung Life Insurance (2016-08 – 2016-09) Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea ### Co-Founder, Warwick Congress (2016-02 – 2017-11) London Area, United Kingdom · Student-run startup focused on providing online and on-site platforms for students and professionals to tackle the status quo by bridging the gaps between the disciplines of Economics, Finance, Law and Politics ## Education ### Bachelor of Science - BS in Philosophy, Politics and Economics with Major in Economics, University of Warwick (2015-10 – 2019-07) Upper Second-Class Honors (equivalent to about 3.7/4.0 GPA) ### West Sussex - UK, Worth School Academic Scholar in Mathematics; Head of House ## Projects ### PingNow Golf Mobile app that watches Bay Area public golf courses and coordinates group bookings · Owned product, UI/UX, front-end and the website for a live mobile app. It monitors every Bay Area public golf course and helps a group coordinate a booking. ### AI-native M&A deal execution software Sell-side due diligence management tool scoped from banker interviews · Interviewed 18 banks, from boutique to bulge bracket, from analysts to directors, to scope the product. Shipped clickable prototypes tested on a purpose-built mock data room. ## Skills Teamwork, Communication, Time Management, Strategic Planning, Social Networking, Social Media, Research, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Team Leadership, Public Speaking, Leadership, Teaching, English, Financial modeling, Valuation, M&A, Investment banking, GTM strategy, Sales playbook, Outbound automation, Account management, Fundraising, Product management, UI/UX design, Front-end development, Claude Code, Supabase, Vercel, Blender, HubSpot, Clay, Lemlist, PostHog, SQL, Figma, Webflow, Korean, French, Spanish ## Credentials - **Cello - Distinction** — ABRSM - **Series 63** — FINRA - **Series 79** — FINRA - **Co-Author** - **Acknowledgement** - **Contributor** - **Contributor** - **Contributor** --- Source: https://saywise.com/member1883 (last modified 2026-10-20T21:16:16.098Z)