David Ongchoco is a Gen Z venture capital investor at Comma Capital who started building startup ecosystems as a high school student in the Philippines through YouthHack, giving him unusually early exposure to founders across multiple countries before entering VC. He combines hands-on go-to-market experience from working at startups like Rutter with a decade-long practice of writing candidly about the messy parts of company building, positioning himself as both operator-turned-investor and community architect who designs Comma around peer relationships rather than traditional VC dynamics.

• Appreciation for high-intensity work environments and the resurgence of the San Francisco grind. He frequently comments on the tangible energy in SF, noting that extreme work hours feel like the new baseline and expressing excitement about the urgency he sees in current founders.
• Strong interest in very young founders, specifically high schoolers and 17-year-olds. He often tweets about being impressed by this demographic, sharing anecdotes about teenagers doomscrolling research papers and even joking about needing to learn Gen Alpha slang to keep up on intro calls.
• Focus on specific geographic connections, particularly Canadian and Filipino talent. He actively seeks out Canadian founders in New York and explicitly listed the Philippines alongside people and product as a key ingredient for startup success.
• Preference for unconventional or outlier startup ideas. He stated he is gravitating toward weirder categories rather than standard software tools, while also highlighting technical investments like search APIs for AI agents and developer platforms.