David Shelters

David possesses thirty years of entrepreneurial experience as a founder, CFO and board advisor to numerous tech start-ups in both America and Asia. For twelve years David was an active community-builder and advocate in the Thailand startup scene. Since January 2020 David has resumed his community-building efforts in the emerging Cambodian Startup community serving as mentor and pitch judge for numerous incubator and accelerator programs. For three years David served as Entrepreneur-In-Residence for Mekong Strategic Partners (MSP), the General Partner of SMART Axiata Digital Innovation Fund (SADIF). David was responsible for advising the startups in the SADIF portfolio. Following his time at MSP David would continue to informally mentor and formally serve as Board Advisor for numerous startups. In 2023 He co-founded with Khmer Enterprise (Agency of the Cambodian Ministry of Economy & Finance) the KH Founders Academy, providing practical capacity-building to local entrepreneurs. Additionally, David has been a leading advocate for local tech startups in his capacity as a former active member of the American Chamber of Commerce, serving as Vice-Chair of the ICT committee and a Founding Member of the Law Committee.

In addition to his work in Phnom Penh, David serves as an APAC Regional & Innovation Expert for the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a National Expert & Global Jurist for the World Summit Awards and Global Expert for the Blockchain Founders Fund. Other international organizations David has worked with include the World Bank, Seedstars World, Asia Foundation, Three-Day Startup, Startup Grind, the Global Startup Genome Project and Global Entrepreneurship Network.

David is a John Wiley published author who has written extensively on start-ups and startup ecosystems. David has four full-length books to his credit including his most recent titled, Emergence of Cambodia Startup Ecosystem. Publications also include several annual Thailand Startup Funding Reports and two comprehensive regional reports commissioned by the ITU. Additionally, he was Founder & Editor of two popular startup and community blogs and has had several articles related to entrepreneurship and ecosystem building posted in some of the leading tech media outlets in Southeast Asia. Recently David was a contributing writer to Ecosystem Arabia by best-selling author Amir Hegazi. In the book David is frequently cited and featured as a global thought leader in Startup Ecosystem Development.