Tyson
Chen

Tyson Chen is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Avoca AI, an AI workforce platform built for home service businesses. A product of MIT's Computer Science program, Chen spent his early career conducting AI research at MIT CSAIL and MIT Media Lab before moving into strategic consulting at BCG and autonomous vehicle product management at Nuro. In 2022, he co-founded Avoca alongside Apurva Shrivastava — a partnership that began at an MIT poker night — originally targeting the restaurant industry before a chance encounter in Texas redirected the company toward HVAC, plumbing, and other home services. The pivot proved transformative: Avoca has since raised a $125M Series B at a $1 billion valuation, backed by Kleiner Perkins, becoming a unicorn in the home services AI space. Chen is known for his thesis that AI doesn't replace human service teams — it fills the gaps that cost contractors booked jobs every day.