Bruce Lai

About

I am a multi-skilled business development executive and startup operator, specializing in launching and growing early stage startups, igniting innovation in large enterprises and developing and implementing large-scale programs. My greatest strength is sourcing, nurturing and growing relationships, both internally and externally, to achieve ambitious revenue, product and/or organizational goals. I have raised, sold and lobbied for over $40 million, led a number of organizational restructurings and brought to market several new programs, products and companies. My deepest subject matter expertise is in edtech, govtech, socialtech, healthtech and media/entertainment. I am a graduate of Williams College and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Currently, I am leading business development for Trusty.care, a Startup Health Moonshot Company, whose mission is to make Medicare easy and affordable for all. I am also helping grow 59 Studios, a social media startup, and Metabias, a corporate learning company with a unique psychometric assessment.

Most recently, I was a Managing Partner at backCODE, an immersive media studio that developed games, VR & AR solutions, helping catalyze the company’s re-boot from zero revenue to $1.5M in one year. Before that, I was the Vice President at Cricket Media, where oversaw product and strategic accounts for the enterprise platform business.

Previously, I had a successful 12 year career in the education, political & political worlds. At the NYC Department of Education, I raised the funding and led a program providing computer and Internet access to 25K lower-income NYC students with a total budget of $36 million. I also served as Chief of Staff to NYC Member Gale Brewer, where I managed all legislative, policy, lobbying and press efforts and day-to-day operations. For 3 years, I served as Chair of the Board of Directors for the national $105 million nonprofit, Heluna Health, during its national expansion and transtion to a new CEO.