DC Palter is a startup founder and venture investor, with twenty-five years experience leading tech companies. His weekly articles on Medium on startups and venture capital are followed by 60,000 readers. His blog, Pitching Angels, is a popular resource for founders. 

Living in Japan for many years, DC developed a deep appreciation for the language and culture. He’s the editor-in-chief of Japonica, a daily journal of Japanese culture, and the author of Colloquial Kansai Japanese, a popular guide to the Osaka-Kyoto dialect. He holds the top level certification in Japanese language proficiency, and is the first non-native speaker to be certified as as a Japanese language instructor by the Japan Society. A self-professed sake snob, he’s a certified sake professional by the Sake Education Council and has trained in sake brewery at the Gakkogura brewery in Niigata, Japan.  

His first novel, To Kill a Unicorn, was a American Fiction Awards finalist for Best Mystery Novel and Best Debut Novel, and NIEA awards finalist for Best Suspense Novel and Best West Region fiction. He is a two-time winner of the Little Tokyo fiction contest for short stories in both Japanese and English.

DC holds an MFA in creative writing along with degrees in engineering, marketing, and law. Together with his wife, the famous ikebana artist, Satsuki Palter, he splits his time between Kobe, Japan, and the Silicon Beach area of Los Angeles.