Designing high-signal rooms for future founders, operators, and capital.

Building high-signal communities and events for early-stage founders and the investors who back them — from Stanford & Berkeley campuses to Sand Hill Road.

About Me

I started Velvet Hills Club to understand what truly makes communities work, not in theory, but in practice.

My background sits at the intersection of journalism, founder communities, and venture:

from leading marketing for a real-estate fintech and private credit fund, to running DECODE’s Stanford–Berkeley founder events, to interviewing founders and VCs as a reporter.

Across all of that, one theme keeps coming back:

I’m most energized by bringing the right people together at the right moment.

Velvet Hills is where all of that comes together — my studio for designing rooms, stories, and programs that help good people find each other earlier.

editorial work
Press about me

SELECTED ROOMS I’VE DESIGNED

  • DECODE Founder Community

    Co-designed and marketed the flagship DECODE Conference and year-round founder programs serving 5K+ subscribers. Curated 200+ early-stage founders and operators with speakers from Lightspeed, Carta, Roblox, and more. Owned audience strategy, programming, and on-site experience from backstage to breakout rooms.

  • YouLand Club & Investor Lab

    Built YouLand Club to turn a private-credit lender into a real-estate investor community. Designed educational labs on topics like “Equity vs. Debt” and “Financing Ground-Up Projects,” plus mixers for builders, flippers, and brokers. Helped drive a 187% increase in inbound leads and a 42% improvement in deal conversion.

  • Velvet Hills Salons

    Velvet Hills is my personal lab for small, high-intent rooms: founder dinners, investor salons, and the occasional slightly-theatrical gathering. These aren’t “event” as much as experiments in how space, rituals, and prompts can change the conversations people have. I strive to host these events monthly.

Testimonial

“Aria made a warm intro between me and an editor at Business Insider, which led to an interview about my building journey. I’m incredibly excited for what’s next and thankful she put my work on the radar.”

Brandon C.

Follow My Substack

Follow My Substack

Writing, Talks & Notes

I write and speak about founder-led marketing, tech PR, and the art of hosting rooms that actually move the needle — from UC Berkeley SCET guest lectures to essays on events as a GTM channel.

Read Here

Get in touch

Most of my time is spent building with and inside companies and funds — not consulting publicly. But I’m always open to thoughtful conversations about:

  • Early-stage founder/investor programs and events

  • Community-driven GTM experiments

  • New media and storytelling around launches

If you’re a fund partner, platform lead, or founder and something here resonates, I’d love to hear from you.

Email: aria.yang@berkeley.edu