Welcoming Danny Chu To XO!

Andrew Pierno -

Happy New Year everyone! Hope your 2022 is off to a great start.

2021 was a roller coaster to say the least.

Some of the highs included:

  1. The birth of my wife and I’s first child.
  2. Helping my previous startup get through Y-Combinator, raise a $3million seed round, grow from 15 to 30 employees, and generate ~$2million ARR.
  3. Deciding to join XO Capital full-time as the third co founder/partner.

After putting our son to bed the evening of New Year’s Eve, to usher in 2022, my wife and I sat and watched the newest season of Queer Eye on Netflix. If you haven’t seen an episode, I highly encourage it. Personally, I wasn’t surprised to see Netflix release the new season of Queer Eye right before the start of a new year. The show’s premise is about reminding people to love themselves and how loving oneself will improve the overall pursuit of one’s dreams and goals.

My name is Danny Chu, and I’m a partner and cofounder here at XO Capital. I was born and raised in the suburbs of Dallas, TX. I spent time in NC going to Wake Forest University and finding my passion for entrepreneurship and building and growing software companies. Since 2016, I’ve been back in Texas with my wife and son, and I can’t wait to start this new journey with XO.

I’ve been in sales most of my career at early-stage software companies like Argyle Social, RevBoss, and Blockit. I’ve experienced the lofty expectations that come after raising venture money, the fun months of grinding to grow revenue, and the complex decisions in the midst of countless “what ifs” and “unknowns”.

It wasn’t enough for me to simply participate in the startup journey. After learning from amazing mentors and startup founders, I co-founded and bootstrapped Noteninja, a sales enablement platform that records and transcribes sales calls, and we were eventually acquired by SalesLoft in 2018. Over the 2+ years of building Noteninja, I proudly carry these two specific lessons:

  1. Building a company is not a justifiable excuse for giving less than 110% to my marriage and family.
  2. Success looks different for everyone and the motivation for building a company should never be founded on or influenced by someone else’s definition of success.

Joining Andrew and Henry, I will be responsible for supporting growth across our portfolio of profitable software businesses. XO Capital gives me a chance to put into practice the lessons I learned, and because our mission includes giving founders an alternative vehicle for a successful exit, I get to engage with brilliant people and drive growth for their profitable SaaS businesses.

XO, Andrew and Henry all give me a wonderful platform to love myself. Maybe having a child made me a bit more sentimental or the idea of betting on myself feeds my “control freak” tendencies, but as of, January 7, 2022, I’m unabashedly optimistic that the choices I will make in 2022 will help me love myself better so I can love my family, XO, and our portfolio of businesses for a long, long time.

I'm around and would love to talk to you, so feel free to ping me on Twitter or shoot me a note.

Cheers,

Danny