Christine Tsai spent seven years at Google in product marketing roles spanning AdSense, Analytics, and YouTube's developer platform before co-founding 500 Startups with Dave McClure in 2010, built around a deliberately global thesis at a time most Silicon Valley firms invested almost exclusively in US-based founders. She became CEO in July 2017 after McClure resigned following multiple allegations of inappropriate conduct toward female entrepreneurs, steering the firm through that period and rebranding it to 500 Global in 2021 to reflect its genuinely international footprint. Under her leadership, the firm has backed founders across more than 80 countries, grown to $2.7 billion in assets under management and more than 2,600 portfolio companies, and produced 35-plus unicorns including Canva, Credit Karma, Grab, and Twilio.