Investing in Emerging Markets, Lessons from Raising a Second Fund, and the Story behind Those Twitter Threads, with Elizabeth Yin of Hustle Fund

The VITALIZE Podcast: Venture Capital | Startups | Angel Investing

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Elizabeth Yin (@dunkhippo33), Co-Founder and General Partner at Hustle Fund, a VC fund that invests in pre-seed software startups. Hustle Fund is often the first check into a startup or in the first round of funding. Beyond the usual criteria that VCs typically look for, they prioritize founders' speed of execution above all else. Per their name, they also make a fast decision after speaking with a company.

Elizabeth is a tech entrepreneur turned startup investor. Her mission for the next 30-40 years is to democratize wealth through entrepreneurship. She also blogs about how to raise early stage capital. Previously, Elizabeth was a partner at 500 Startups where she invested in seed stage companies and ran the Mountain View accelerator. In a prior life, Elizabeth co-founded and ran an adtech company called LaunchBit (acq 2014). Elizabeth has a BSEE from Stanford and an MBA from MIT Sloan.

Elizabeth has reviewed over 20k startup pitches from around the world in the last few years and has helped numerous portfolio founders raise hundreds of millions of dollars. Her work and writing on startup fundraising has been featured in numerous publications including TechCrunch, Forbes, Huffington Post, BetaKit, and more.

Website: Hustle Fund

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/elizabethyin/

Twitter: @dunkhippo33

Elizabeth’s Website: https://elizabethyin.com/

Show Notes:

• The transition from founder to investor and why Elizabeth doesn’t actually see herself as a VC
• The variety of ways Hustle Fund is supporting founders and investors beyond investing capital
• Behind the scenes of developing Camp Hustle
• How Angel Squad came about and the power of angel investing communities
• Elizabeth’s perspective on crowdfunding
• How Hustle Fund provides value and stands out in a crowded industry
• Becoming widely known for her Twitter threads
• What Hustle Fund looks for in their potential investments
• How they evaluate founders in emerging markets
• Lessons from raising a second fund
• Their fund strategy and portfolio construction
• What’s next for Hustle Fund

More about the show:

The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 300+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.

Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series.

The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors.

The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital.

More about us:

Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The Vitalize Team:

Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVC
Caroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_
Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:
https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/