Meet Haomiao Huang, Founding Partner at Matter Venture Partners

Haomiao Huang, Founding Partner at Matter Venture Partners

Haomiao Huang is a Founding Partner at Matter Venture Partners, an early-stage, hardtech venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. Trained as an engineer at Caltech, with a PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford, Haomiao began his career as a founder and operator. Over the course of his schooling, he had tinkered with a few business ideas, a couple of which evolved into startups–including two that graduated from Y Combinator. One of them was Kuna, a smart home security company he co-founded and led as CTO, guiding the company through its Series A and into profitability. Haomiao hadn’t contemplated a future for himself as a venture capitalist, but in 2019, Kleiner Perkins offered him a role to help build out the firm’s hardtech practice. Haomiao initially declined, but curiosity got the better of him, and he soon joined the firm, where he worked closely with longtime Kleiner partner Wen Hsieh. In 2023, the two teamed up to co-found Matter Venture Partners, a firm focused on backing the kinds of ambitious, deeply technical founders–builders like Haomiao, those working at the intersection of atoms and code. Haomiao hasn’t looked back since.

In this interview, Haomiao reflects on the path that shaped him—from growing up in Austin as the child of Chinese scholars, to building his own startup, to stepping into the world of venture capital, first at Kleiner Perkins and later as a co-founder of Matter Venture Partners. Along the way, we talk about Haomiao’s former life as a founder, the joys and challenges of early-stage investing, and the quiet comforts of hot pot dinners, boba runs, and life in Millbrae. It’s a portrait of someone who never set out to be a venture capitalist—but found a way to make the role his own.

Sam: Where did you grow up?

Haomiao: I was born in Chongqing, China, but I grew up in Austin, Texas. My parents were part of that first wave of scientists, scholars, and grad students who came out of China in the ’80s when the country started opening up. They initially came to the U.S. for a one-year program but quickly realized, hey, this is pretty good. It took two years to get me out of China, and I finally joined them when I was six. So I spent my childhood in Austin.

My dad was an engineer and researcher. My mom worked in early childhood education. They were both products of the Cultural Revolution—schooling essentially stopped during that time. My dad’s formal education ended in ninth grade, and my mom’s in fifth. But when colleges reopened, they self-studied, managed to test into university in their mid-20s, and eventually made it into American graduate programs.

My dad became a research scientist, and my mom got her Master’s at the University of Texas at Austin. That’s how we ended up there. The day after I got off the plane, I set foot on the UT campus. So even though I don’t have any academic ties to the Longhorns, I’ve always been loyal when it comes to sports—I bleed burnt orange.

Sam: What was it like growing up in Texas?

Haomiao: Austin is very different from the rest of Texas. We were always surrounded by tech. I lived just a mile from the Motorola campus, and AMD was out there too. I was exposed to tech and computers at an early age, mostly because of my dad.

Culturally, of course, it was very white. We’d see another Asian family at the grocery store and go, Oh! You’re Asian! We’re Asian too! Even if they were Korean—it didn’t matter. Close enough, right?

That was a unique experience, but I think it’s pretty typical for a lot of folks who grew up outside of California. These days, Austin has Asian grocery stores—there’s even a Ranch 99 now—but back in the early ’90s, it was extremely white.

Sam: What eventually brought you out of Texas and to California?

Haomiao:  I left Texas in 2001 to start college at Caltech, where I studied Electrical Engineering.  I’ve been in California ever since.

After graduating, I actually turned down an offer to be the third person on the controls team at SpaceX. At the time, I wanted to stay focused on research—something Caltech really encourages—so I decided to pursue a PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford.

While I was at Stanford, I took an entrepreneurship class taught by Steve Blank—around the whole lean startup thing. That class really lit a fire for me around the idea of building a startup focused on drones. But I think my upbringing played a big role in the timing of my startup journey. There’s a common mindset in many Asian families: finish your degree first, then you can do whatever you want. That was deeply ingrained in me, so I stayed the course and completed my PhD.

After graduating, I finally gave myself permission to explore the startup world. I launched a couple of ventures, and eventually, one of them turned into something real—that company was called Kuna. Kuna was an app-based home security platform that integrated smart cameras and outdoor lighting to help people protect their homes. I spent over seven years there as CTO. We went through Y Combinator, raised both a Seed round and a Series A, and ultimately brought the company to profitability.

Sam: What led you to leave the operating side and jump into venture, starting with your role at Kleiner Perkins?

Haomiao:  I never actually intended to become a VC. Kleiner Perkins reached out because they were looking for someone to join and work alongside my future partner Wen to help build out their hard tech practice. They were focused on areas like robotics, semiconductors, aerospace—advanced technologies that combined hardware and software. They wanted someone with my kind of technical background.

At first, I turned the job down. I had no plans to go into venture. But the opportunity was just too interesting. I thought it would be fascinating to see how the best companies in the world are built—how they’re financed, how they’re pitched, and what the top investors look for. So I joined Kleiner in 2019 as Wen Hsieh’s Chief of Staff and as an investor.

Sam: Right—because not only did you stay in venture, you started your own firm–Matter Venture Partners. Tell me about that journey.

Haomiao: About two years ago, Wen and I were still at Kleiner when he told me “Hey, I’m thinking about starting a fund—do you want to do this together?”  And I said, “Heck yea.” So that’s what we did. We started Matter Venture Partners, a firm focused on hard tech: robotics, semiconductors, and AI systems.

My interest in starting such a firm  came from my own experience as a founder. I went through Y Combinator twice—first with a drone startup, then with Kuna. Both times, I realized the Valley just wasn’t set up to support companies with a hardware component. Everyone knows how to scale SaaS—but hardware? That’s a whole different game: manufacturing, cost optimization, volume production. These are areas the startup ecosystem has traditionally struggled to support.

At Kleiner, we were already doing things differently—connecting chip startups with TSMC, helping robotics companies build for AI-driven use cases. We wanted to take that approach and institutionalize it.

That’s what Matter is about. We don’t just offer capital—we bring a full ecosystem of strategic partners and operators with deep experience in scaling physical technologies. Instead of just investing, we bring in players like TSMC or Quanta Computer to help our founders build, scale, and succeed in the real world.

That’s the core of Matter: capital plus the hands-on support and networks that hard tech founders actually need.

Sam: Let’s go way back—what were you like as a kid?

Haomiao:  Clearly, I was a charming sports star, right?

No—truth is, I was a huge nerd. A big old nerd. I loved anything related to science, technology, and dinosaurs. I read every single book about dinosaurs in our elementary school library—at least, that’s what the librarian told my parents.

I’ve always been the kind of person who dives deep into things and gets really excited about them. That’s just how I’ve always approached life. It’s the best way to live, honestly.

Sam: What’s your favorite part of the role?

Haomiao:  Working with founders—without a doubt. I know everyone says that, but for me it’s about really getting into the heart of the business with them.

There’s something powerful about showing a founder you truly understand what they’re building, and then helping in a way that actually moves the needle. That could be helping them land a key hire, or in our case, convincing a strategic partner to invest in building new hardware rather than having the startup do it alone.

Delivering on something like that—and then seeing the product out in the world—that never gets old. Whether it’s something I built or something a portfolio company built, seeing it in use and making an impact is just an incredible feeling.

Sam: What do you like to do for fun on the side?

Haomiao:  Well, I’m a new-ish dad—my daughter just turned one—so hobbies have changed a lot over the last 15 months!

But I still love making things. I like to read, cook, and do woodworking. I actually designed and built our dining table. And if I can ever carve out five or six uninterrupted hours in a woodshop without driving my wife crazy, I’d love to get back to it.

One thing I’m throwing myself into - my daughter has a rare genetic condition known as Neurofibromatosis. It’s a complex disease with no current cure, and I’m working with my wife to support the Children’s Tumor Foundation in driving research behind the condition. We are actually throwing a fundraiser in support of the foundation.  

Sam: What do you like to read? Any favorite books?

Haomiao:  I like sci-fi—a lot. And there’s been some really great literary science fiction recently, which I’ve really enjoyed. I also read a lot of history books and political theory. Thinkers like Daron Acemoglu have written some excellent work on political structures and how nations build and sustain wealth. Francis Fukuyama’s series on the Origins of Political Order has also been really impactful for me. Lately, I’ve been reading books that aren’t strictly business books, but have broad relevance. One that’s stuck with me is Supercommunicators. At first, I thought it would be about broadcasting or storytelling—how to be more persuasive. But it turned out to be about something much deeper: how to build genuine understanding and connection with others. It’s really fantastic.

Sam: What’s the most Asian thing you do?

Haomiao: My wife and I do a lot of hot pot dinners. We get boba everywhere. We love Costco–I joke to my wife that we just don’t go if we have a “need” but for the “family experience.” Honestly I think the most Asian thing that I do though is that we live in Millbrae, which is almost 50% Asian demographically. We bought a house there a couple years ago.  It was not planned. We just liked the area, the neighborhood. It’s also close to the freeway. We bought it, and I'm like, Why is everybody around here Asian?