Michael Lai

About

My life mission is to ensure every child, regardless of background, has the opportunity to become the next Michelle Obama or Warren Buffett. The highest impact way to do this is improving early childhood development. 90% of a child's brain volume develops by age five, but America's childcare system is failing children and their families — it's expensive, undersupplied, low quality, and pays teachers poverty wages. It got worse during COVID (16% of daycares permanently shut down). At Tinycare, we're building a scalable new model for daycare that sets up children with a strong and loving foundation for the rest of their lives while valuing care work more fairly for how critical it is. Previously, I was a founding team member at Promise Venture Studio, a nonprofit that empowers entrepreneurs working on early childhood development (birth - age five), and a volunteer toddler & preschool teacher in centers in San Francisco. Before that, I worked on the future of higher education and K-12. I was a Director of Outreach at Minerva, a new university led by a Harvard Dean and entrepreneur and funded with $128 million to reimagine higher education for the 21st century, at Google.org, and educa

Experience

Education