Who is Sonny Vu? Overview
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Sonny Vu is listed as Chief Builder at Liminal, based in Salem, New Hampshire, United States. AeroLeads shows a matched LinkedIn profile for Sonny Vu.
Sonny Vu previously worked as Founder at Alabaster and Director (Founder) at Elemental Machines. Sonny Vu holds Phd (Abd), Linguistics from Massachusetts Institute Of Technology.
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Liminal
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Profile bio
About Sonny Vu
I help founders build companies that will have a positive, planet-level impact. Investor, advisor, and/or director in 47 early stage companies (pre-seed to Series A). Themes in advanced materials, industrial biotech, sensors/semiconductors, enterprise AI, digital health.Co-founded:* Impact Biosystems (2019)- novel muscle fitness sensing devices (Series Seed, firesold)* Elemental Machines (2014) - hardware and software for lab operations and analytics (Series B, in operation)* Misfit (2011) - fashion-centric wearables and smart home devices (Series C, acquired by Fossil for $260m; served as President and CTO for Fossil Group)* AgaMatrix (2001) - blood glucose monitors and digital health for diabetes (Series C, acquired by i-SENS)* FireSpout (1998) - ML / NLP for autosummarization (Series B, acquired by Ask Jeeves)Select boards:AmalgamRX - enterprise digital medicine AI (Director, 2021 - present)Cyabra - misinformation cybersecurity AI (Director, 2021 - present)Matrix - thermoelectric-powered security (Director, 2017 - present)Neteera - private, contact-free patient monitoring (Director, 2017 - present)Netspark - inappropriate content cybersecurity AI (Director, 2023 - present)Perfect Day - industrial biotech for animal-free dairy (Chairman, 2016 - 2019)VI - enterprise health AI (Director, 2017 - present)Raised $257m in 22 rounds (Seed to Series C) for companies I’ve founded; helped portfolio companies raise a lot more. Before startups, I worked at Microsoft Research in NLP under Kai-Fu Lee, worked on a PhD in linguistics at MIT under Noam Chomsky and Ken Hale, and studied math at UIUC. Outside of work, when I’m not playing with my two kids, I’m mostly trying to learn new math / science / languages, playing games, or just wondering about things I don't understand. I love listening to cool dreams about the future so if you have one, I'd love to hear it! Please excuse my slowness to respond in advance.
Current workplace
Sonny Vu's current company
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10 roles
Sonny Vu work experience
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Founder
CurrentInvesting in founders of startups that have the potential for positive, planet-level impact. Mostly seed to series A. Themes in materials science, industrial biotech, sensors / semiconductors, enterprise AI, digital health.
Jan 2016 - Present
Director (Founder)
Supported CEO on a variety of strategic, commercial, and operational matters. Company invents and sells lab operations monitoring and analytics tools and services. Supported CEO in raising $60m (Seed, Series Seed, A, B).
Oct 2014 - Sep 2023
Chief Executive Officer
Lead efforts to industrialize and bring to market a suite of inventions in materials science, design software, and robotics to automate the production of continuous carbon fiber composite structures. Raised $70m (B Bridge, B1, B2, C, crowd).
Jan 2020 - Feb 2023
Director (Founder)
Supported CEO on a variety of strategic, commercial, and operational matters. Company invented and sold products with a novel muscle fitness sensing technology; raised $6.5m (Seed, Series Seed).
Sep 2019 - Oct 2022
President And Cto, Connected Devices
Lead product development for connected hardware and software for 14 of Fossil Group's owned and licensed brands. Developed new business for connected devices. Scouted emerging technology. Grew Asia-based engineering, design, and marketing teams. Supported growth of wearables revenue to over $300m annually.
Dec 2015 - Feb 2018
Ceo, Chairman (Founder)
Lead brand / product design (wearables and smart home), marketing, sales; oversaw technical development. Recruited leadership and key team members. Raised $65m (Seed, A, B, C, other). Acquired by Fossil Group in 2015 for $260m.
Oct 2011 - Dec 2015
Ceo, Chairman (Founder)
Chairman (2005 - 2011): Secured long-term deals and partnerships with Sanofi and Apple, raised $25m (Series C). Designed and implemented digital health strategy; drove product, including the award-winning iBGStar, the world's first iPhone-connected hardware med device.CEO (2001 - 2005): Recruited core teams, drove product strategy/design, helped establish.
Sep 2001 - Jun 2011
Cto (Founder)
Firespout
Lead R&D of natural language processing and machine learning technology for autosummarization and unstructured text search applications. Recruited key technical staff. Raised $8m in venture capital in two rounds. Acquired by AskJeeves (now Ask.com) in 2001.
Nov 1999 - Jul 2001
Researcher
Did research in Chinese natural language processing and statistical language modeling for speech recognition, handwriting recognition, and parsing applications.
Jan 1999 - Oct 1999
5 education records
Sonny Vu education
Phd (Abd), Linguistics
Massachusetts Institute Of Technology
Mandarin
Beijing Normal University
Mathematics, Hungarian
Budapest University Of Technology And Economics
Bachelor’S Degree, Mathematics (Bs), Linguistics (Ba)
University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Hebrew
The Hebrew University Of Jerusalem
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Sonny Vu
Quick answers generated from the profile data available on this page.
What company does Sonny Vu work for?
Sonny Vu works for Liminal.
What is Sonny Vu's role at Liminal?
Sonny Vu is listed as Chief Builder at Liminal.
Where is Sonny Vu based?
Sonny Vu is based in Salem, New Hampshire, United States while working with Liminal.
What companies has Sonny Vu worked for?
Sonny Vu has worked for Liminal, Alabaster, Elemental Machines, Arevo, and Impact Biosystems.
How can I contact Sonny Vu?
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What schools did Sonny Vu attend?
Sonny Vu holds Phd (Abd), Linguistics from Massachusetts Institute Of Technology.
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