From keynote speeches, to hands-on workshops, to lightning talks — I leave audiences with new ideas, practical tools, and newfound enthusiasm. That’s why my talks have reached millions of viewers across YouTube and TED.
Topics
- Product management
- Early-stage startups
- Asian American men
- Gaming & esports
- Finding & hiring talent
- Achieving personal performance
Jason is an accomplished presenter who is at ease on stage and has a natural flair for storytelling
Jen Marshall, Leading the Product
Bio / Intro
Jason Shen is a tech entrepreneur and TED speaker. He is the CEO of Midgame, a gaming and social technology company backed by Techstars, Betaworks, and the Amazon Alexa Fund. He previously founded Headlight, a tech hiring platform, and Ridejoy, a ridesharing startup backed by Y Combinator.
Jason served as Presidential Innovation Fellow (PIF) under the Obama administration and is a board director of the PIF Foundation. He advocates on behalf of Asian Americans via speaking, writing, and survey research.
Jason has written about business and culture for Fast Company, Quartz, and Vox. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Vanity Fair. He holds two degrees from Stanford, where he was co-captain of the men’s gymnastics team that won the D1 NCAA championship in 2009. Jason holds two Guinness World Records: Aztec Pushups (2014) and Burpee Pull-ups (2018).
Past Speaking Engagements
Product Tank NYC
When and How to Pivot Your Startup
July 2020, New York NY + Virtual
Nielsen
ALL-IN & Crushing the Myth – AAPIH Month
May 2020, New York NY + Virtual
Presidential Innovation Fellowship
VC’s & Founders: Scaling Startup Culture in Government
April 2020, Washington DC + Virtual
The Alexa Accelerator Demo Night
Midgame
October 2019, Seattle, WA
World Cyber Games
How Voice Technology Will Transform Gaming
July 2019, Xi’an, China
The White House
Presidential Innovation Fellows Homecoming
July 2019, Washington D.C.
Amazon
Asian Americans at Work
May 2019, New York, NY
Empower
The Asian American Man Experience
March 2019, Los Angeles, CA
More Info
Crushing the Myth
The Asian American Man Experience
February 2019, New York, NY
More Info
Leading the Product
Product Madness: 5 Ways to Bring Sanity Back to the PM Hiring Process
October 2018, Sydney + Melbourne, Australia
More Info
Cooper Union
School of Engineering: A Conversation on Identifying Technical Talent
May 2018, New York, NY
General Assembly
Product Management — Accelerated Course
February 2017, New York, NY
More Info
TED Residency
Hiring for the Future
November 2017, New York, NY
More Info
Productized
The Five Personas of Product Management (and How to Hire for Them)
Ship Your Side Project Workshop
October 2017, Lisbon, Portugal
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Product School
The Five Personas of Product Management
September 2017, New York, NY
C.I.T.Y. Club Gymnastics Academy
Lessons From a Gymnastics Life
June 2017, Chicago, IL
Pinterest
Tech and Asian American men
May 2017, San Francisco, CA
More Info
TQ
Building Strong Teams and Products
March 2017, Amsterdam, Holland
More Info
purpl
Ship Your Side Project Workshop
February 2017, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY
More Info
AIGA / NY
Citizen Designer Now! February Townhall (Panelist)
February 2017, New York, NY
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PRCA State Conference @ Auburn University
How to Compete in a Winner-Take All World
April 2016, Auburn, AL
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Tacklebox Accelerator
14 Compelling Startup Pitch Archetypes
February 2016, New York, NY
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Ignite Gotham: The New Workplace
Feedback Is a Gift
May 2015, San Francisco, CA
More Info
Suzhou University
Owning Your Future Through Entrepreneurship
November 2014, Suzhou, China
MaGIC Academy
Set Yourself on Fire: Startup Lessons from a YC Founder
November 2014, Cyberjaya, Malaysia
Video Link
Work—Bench Workshop
Marketing & Product Design for the Enterprise with Dom Goodrum
July 2014, New York, NY
More Info
Google
Lessons on Building a Nationwide Ridesharing Platform
January 2014, Mountain View, CA
FailCon
How to Quit Your Startup
October 2013, San Francisco, CA
Video Link
Inter-American Development Bank
We’ve Read Your Blog: Creating Compelling Corporate Content (team training)
October 2013, Washington D.C.
George Mason University
Digital Marketing (guest speaker)
November 2013, Fairfax, VA
Ignite SF
Rejection Therapy: What I Learned From Getting Rejected Everyday for Month
April 2012, San Francisco, CA
Video Link
Testimonials
Jason Shen was a speaker at Leading the Product Sydney and Melbourne in 2018. He is an accomplished presenter who is at ease on stage and has a natural flair for storytelling. I found him very engaging and thought his talk was well structured, easy-to-listen-to and highly informative. In addition, Jason’s slides were of an extremely high quality. From a conference organiser’s perspective, it was a pleasure to work with Jason, because he met all milestones and responded quickly to requests.
Jen Marshall, CEO of Brainmates (Leading the Product conference host)
Jason delivered fresh, insightful, and hands-on training on product management. He skillfully managed a large class of senior professionals with varying degrees of experience by sharing anecdotes from his own extensive background as a product manager and entrepreneur. Further he brought out lots of great ideas and suggestions from folks in the room. Jason is a thoughtful, entertaining, knowledgeable & all-around excellent instructor and facilitator. If you can get him at your event or organization, you won’t regret it.
Brad S. Digital Engineering Director, Fortune 500 Digital Systems & Technology Company
Jason was great, and super impressive as a first-time instructor. He kept the class engaged, came up with fantastic examples on the fly to illustrate his point, drew on a wide variety of personal experience and anecdotes, and kept the class moving on a really good timeline. Would absolutely take a class from him again.
Student Feedback from General Assembly Course
As a follower and fan of Jason’s work, I was confident he could put together a powerful message for our PR group, despite the fact that public relations wasn’t precisely his field. I could not have predicted or been more pleased with the outstanding results. The work that Jason put into preparing his presentation, into researching our experiences and expectations, was far beyond that of our “typical” presenters. Rather than delivering a canned speech pulled from an existing repertoire, Jason went out of his way to customize a message that was germane, engaging, and fresh. I could not have predicted or been more pleased with the outstanding results.
Robyn Bridges, Public Relations Council of Alabama
Less than a minute into the presentation any hesitation I’d felt was gone. Jason commands the room – he’s a fantastic storyteller and immediately gets everyone engaged. He outlined 12 different types of pitches, going into detail on what makes each pitch effective. He then had our startups pick a pitch that resonated with them and present on the spot. He gave insightful, actionable feedback after each.
We refer to his deck and presentation constantly and he was the highest rated speaker in our program. Hiring Jason is a no brainer.
Brian Scortado, Tacklebox Accelerator
Jason’s workshop on blog writing was one of the most productive we have ever held. He packed a startling amount of practical advice (and humor) into two hours, and his advice reflected extensive preparation and understanding of our business and our audience.
Paul R. Constance, Inter-American Development Bank
“It was terrific having Jason in to speak to our enterprise community at our Work-Bench Workshop. Jason did a fantastic job of not only sharing the tactical secret sauce behind Percolate’s marketing success – but also the greater story and vision, which is just as critical (if not most important of all) to the success of anyone building out a marketing engine.
Jessica Lin, General Partner at work-bench