Cassandra Doeng

Cassandra Doeng began her venture career at Hone Capital, the U.S. arm of China's CSC Group, one of the largest private equity and venture firms in China. Hone Capital was founded in 2015 by Veronica Wu and built a data-driven, machine-learning-assisted platform for constructing a diversified portfolio of early-stage technology companies alongside syndicate leads and co-investors. Doeng joined as an Investment Associate (roughly 2016–2018) and later held the title of Director, Investment, working on seed and Series A technology deals during a period in which the firm deployed well over $150M across hundreds of startups.

After Hone Capital, Doeng moved into operating and capital-markets roles at Doorvest, a proptech company enabling everyday investors to buy income-producing rental homes. There she wore many hats over several years — Capital Markets Lead, Head of Growth, VP of Revenue Operations, VP of Capital Markets, and Business Advisor — structuring the company's first customer-growth function, leading sales and transaction-closing teams, and building out capital-markets and business operations workflows.

Today she is Vice President, Investments at Pier Asset Management, a private-credit investment firm focused on specialty finance. In this role she leads capital solutions, equity and credit fundraising, and investor relations, and serves as a deal lead sourcing and structuring credit facilities for lending platforms. Her educational background includes a Master's in Applied Psychology from Liaoning Normal University (2010–2012).

Doeng describes herself as having worked "on both sides of the table — equity and credit, investor and operator" — a cross-functional vantage point spanning early-stage venture, startup operations, and institutional private credit.

• Early-stage tech at Hone Capital: Seed / Series A checks (~$1–5M) into technology startups, selected through a proprietary, data-driven / machine-learning screening approach and a network of syndicate leads and sector experts, aiming for a broadly diversified early-stage portfolio.
• Credit vs. equity mindset (her own words): "Credit isn't about the dream, it's about the details." She stresses that credit investors care about present-day cash mechanics — *"How does the money move (daily, weekly, monthly)? What protects it?"* — rather than the growth narrative equity investors chase.
• What makes her say yes (private credit today): Strong underwriting, responsible growth, and technology-driven operations serving underserved markets. On the Kapitale facility she cited *"strong underwriting and responsible growth"* and a *"technology-driven approach and focus on underserved business owners"* as reasons to partner.
• Advice she gives founders: Engage directly on financial mechanics and asset-level protections when raising credit, rather than pitching vision the way you would to an equity investor.