Alex Dang · Building What’s Next

Strategist

Advising global enterprises.

For 20+ years, I’ve helped global enterprises see what’s possible, shape the strategy,
and build the ventures and capabilities to make it real.

Click a sector to see matching case studies below.

Sector Type

Sector

Type

Executive Education

Worked with 1,000+ executives.

I regularly lead workshops to kickstart transformations, or to update leadership on trends from Silicon Valley: AI adoption, how AI products actually get built, AI Champions programs, and a 5-day program training 100+ digital intrapreneurs.

DurationFormatExample

2 Hours

Executive Briefing Trends, use cases, and tech-native practices tailored to one leadership team.

Stanford, VC Unlocked · taught 500 Global’s fund managers and family offices at Stanford how the best venture minds pick winners in the age of AI. Learn more →

Half Day

Hands-on Workshop Enough time to move from inspiration to frameworks, tools, and decisions.

Bay Area Founders Club · a hands-on workshop on what separates winning AI products from the ones that never scale. Learn more →

Full Day

Executive Program An immersive day built around a company’s specific AI agenda.

Tata Group · a full-day AI Champions program focused on real cases, practical tools, and turning AI opportunities into products. Learn more →

Builder

Built at Amazon and AWS AI.
Then took the CEO seat.

I spent four years at Amazon and AWS at the intersection of eCommerce, logistics, and AI, leading global teams across a portfolio of high-stakes bets that drove $1B+ in new-category GMV. Then I co-founded CancerCompass and ran it as CEO through COVID, building a 25-person team that reached millions of patients and caregivers.

2015–2017

New Shopping Models

01 Try It. Keep It.Shop Again. WSJ↗The Independent↗

02 The Magic ofNot Choosing CNET↗TechCrunch↗

03 Big & Bulky,Solved WSJ↗CNBC↗

2017–2018

AI and Automation

04 Every Camera,Smarter Fast Company↗

05 Data,Not Guesswork Bloomberg↗

06 Scale AI.Not Headcount. MarketplacePulse↗

2020–2021

Digital Health

07 Care Withoutthe Waiting Room

08 Beyondthe Treatment

09 From Clickto Nurse

Author

Published a global bestseller.

Co-authored with Stanford’s Ilya Strebulaev and published by Penguin Random House. The book has become a calling card that opens boardroom doors around the world.

The Venture Mindset

Ilya Strebulaev & Alex Dang · Penguin Random House · 2024

Published in twelve languages and counting

A playbook on how to adapt to a rapidly changing world, make smarter bets, launch new ventures, and transform traditional organizations into hubs for innovation, from a top Stanford professor and a technology executive.

GlobalBestseller US NationalBestseller Financial TimesBook of the Month Amazon#1 New Release Wall Street JournalWhat CIOs Read CFO BookshelfFeatured Title

Buy on Amazon →

What founders, CEOs and board members say.

Eric Schmidtformer CEO and Chairman, Google

Full of powerful, practical lessons on changing how we think and act.

Eric S. Yuanfounder & CEO, Zoom

Many principles mentioned in the book helped us build Zoom.

Gen. CQ Brown, Jr. (Ret.)21st Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

Adopting the VC mindset can significantly enhance our efforts to drive innovation and modernization.

Chamath Palihapitiyafounder, Social Capital

There are a handful of useful business books every year. This is one.

Hiroshi MikitaniChairman & CEO, Rakuten Group

Brilliantly compiles how exceptional investors and founders think about risk, growth, and the long term.

Jerry Yangco-founder, Yahoo!

Strebulaev and Dang really know their stuff.

Carlos BritoCEO of Belron, former CEO, AB InBev

A must read for CEOs on how to launch a successful corporate VC initiative.

Amy BanseBoard Member, Adobe and Clorox

It is a must read for board members, executives, and investors.

Claudia Fan MunceBoard Member, Best Buy

A very important book for corporations and investors.

Then took it on stage.

We wrote this book to start a movement, one to help investors, founders, and corporate innovators think differently. Today, that movement has reached hundreds of thousands of decision-makers worldwide.

Workshop with startup founders from Kuwait

On stage in

Community

Helping the next generation of founders.

Venture investing

Advising from the outside only goes so far. I'm now a Venture Partner at a venture fund, evaluating deals directly, with the first AI deals already closing.

Founder advising

Helping a select number of mission-driven startups: AI-drug discovery, Alzheimer’s immunotherapy, and more affordable access to medical care.

Stanford community

Applicant interviews, career sessions, and talks for future founders. A privilege to give back, and the earliest place to meet them.

Q&A

Real questions. Answered directly.

Ten questions the résumé does not answer. The thinking behind the facts.

Everyone is an AI expert now. When did your journey start?

My path into AI began with applied mathematics, statistics, and econometrics in 1999. By 2003, at SYAC, my first employer, we were experimenting with computer vision. At Amazon, I worked on AI and automation projects. At AWS AI in 2018, I defined the initial vision and business case for what became AWS's first commercial edge AI device. Today, my work focuses on turning AI capabilities into measurable value.

What is the hardest challenge you have ever taken on?

Pushing the restart button on my career. In 2013, I crossed the Atlantic to attend Stanford and start over in Silicon Valley, leaving behind an equity partnership and a reputation I had spent a decade building. My experience came with me. My status, network, and credibility did not. I traded certainty for a steep learning curve and went all in on becoming an operator. Everything that followed began with the willingness to start again.

Are you fundamentally an advisor or an operator?

Both. I have built products at Amazon, led a startup, run a strategy business, and advised CEOs. My best work starts in the boardroom and ends with customers using something new.

CancerCompass was a hard pivot from consulting. Why?

Healthcare was a chance to build something that genuinely mattered. Within a year, we had a team of 25 reaching millions of patients. The venture later became part of Cancer Treatment Centers of America (acquired by City of Hope).

What did Amazon and McKinsey teach you?

Amazon taught me that speed comes from mechanisms, not urgency. McKinsey taught me how to move complex organizations from ambition to action.

You have been both a McKinsey Partner and a Senior Advisor. What changed?

I left the Partnership to build CancerCompass. When I later returned, it was in a different capacity: as a Senior Advisor brought into selected situations where my operating experience is most useful.

What came before McKinsey and Amazon?

I started in Italy building computer vision systems, advised investors at PwC, and became one of EY’s youngest equity Partners globally. Stanford GSB brought me to Silicon Valley.

Have you ever failed?

At Amazon, I launched and shut down several businesses. Some same-day models failed operationally. Ultra-local marketplaces could not scale. CancerCompass met a healthcare system that was not ready to change. Silicon Valley taught me that the goal is not to win every time. It is to take enough intelligent risks that you do not miss the opportunity to win big.

What do most companies get wrong about AI?

They expect a miracle, and then spread their attention across too many experiments. In the enterprise, what matters most is reliability. Then comes the harder work of choosing the right problem, redesigning workflows, earning trust, driving adoption, and proving the economics.

How do you use AI every day?

A lot. I use it for research, meeting preparation, writing, prototyping, and pressure-testing investment ideas. I have built agents for my workflows, an app tracking how Fortune 500 companies use AI, a digital avatar, and an evolving second brain. Daily use is the only way to know what these tools are good at, and where they still fall short.

Career

Two decades of building.

Across consulting, technology, and ventures of my own.

2010–2014Ernst & YoungPartner, Strategy

2015–2018Amazon & AWS AIProduct Leader

2019–PresentMcKinseyPartner (19–20), Senior Advisor (since 21)

2020–2021CancerCompassCo-founder & CEO

2022–PresentThe Venture MindsetCo-author & Co-founder

Education

Stanford GSBMSx, Sloan Fellow

HSE UniversityPhD, Innovation Management

PRUEMS, Applied Mathematics & Economics