Interview Series: Elizabeth Yin for The Hustle Fund Crew

Meet the team behind Hustle Fund and Angel Squad.

Welcome to Hustle Fund, where the coffee is strong and the startup ideas are stronger! This band of merry venture capitalists doesn't just fund your dreams—they practically hop in the trenches with you. With a penchant for puns, minivan, hippos and a portfolio packed with potential, the Hustle Fund team brings a mix of expertise, energy, and just enough eccentricity to make finance fun. Whether they're dissecting data or debating the best snack for late-night brainstorming, one thing is clear: they're here not just to invest, but to make investing exhilarating! And to achieve this lofty goal, they are not scared to share with you their secrets.

Enter Angel Squad, where the wings are metaphorical but the support is real! This vivacious group of angel investors isn’t just sprinkling capital; they're throwing confetti at your start-up parade. Armed with insights, instincts, and an inexhaustible supply of "you can do it" vibes, Angel Squad turns funding rounds into round-the-clock adventures. And it is opened to (almost) everyone. The golden rule of “This is a safe space. We have a strict no a-hole policy. If you're an a-hole, you're not invited.” is not just a mere rule, it is a guiding principle strictly enforced. And for that, it creates a unique, fun community of angels (and friends!) ready to help, learn or guide others without any pompous attitude. (full disclosure: I am a life member of Angel Squad and love the community/connection among members.)

So let’s jump into our monthly Interview Series with Elizabeth Yin, co-founder and General Partner at Hustle Fund (and indirectly at Angel Squad which will be another interview opportunity!). Let’s Hippo!

The Delivery Man (DM): Can you share the story of how you first met and what led to the creation of Hustle Fund and Angel Squad?

Elizabeth Yin (EY): When Eric and I first started Hustle Fund in 2017, we had actually been chatting for quite a while about potentially starting a business together. We were both former entrepreneurs who ran our own respective companies, and we also started a company together as well. We had worked together before in a variety of different capacities and understood each other's strengths and weaknesses and also really wanted to help startup ecosystems. With those aligned entrepreneurial backgrounds and values, it was the premise for Hustle Fund.

I think we quickly hit upon the actual fact that the #1 problem that startups have is actually capital. A lot of startups are over mentored and over advised, but capital, especially at the pre-seed stage when a founder has nothing and no revenue, is the stage where we felt like we could have the biggest impact.

In 2017, we started Hustle Fund, and we quickly brought in Shiyan Koh and then added to the team as we went on.

But we have always looked at Hustle Fund as a company rather than a VC fund, because we're trying to solve a problem just as how entrepreneurs set out to solve problems.

And the problem that we're trying to solve is that startups have trouble getting access to capital, knowledge, and networks at the earliest stages if you're a great founder.

If you're not super well connected, those three things are actually really hard.

And a VC fund can only do so much, we can only write a check.

And that's what we were doing with Hustle Fund.

But we felt like there needed to be other ways to help early-stage startups.

And that was the beginning of Angel Squad.

We had been talking about the idea for a while, but it wasn't until we found Brian Nichols, that we really started thinking, “oh, wow, this could be really interesting”.

Without Brian, we would never have done Angel Squad.

But Brian had the perfect background to run Angel Squad because he had run essentially a very similar offering at on deck.

He knew the angel world in and out having run the Lyft syndicate and having run programming for angels before.

And so when he came to meet with us, and he was talking about all of these ideas he was already working on, it was a no brainer to try to recruit Brian over to Hustle Fund to build out Angel Squad because we feel that angels can help founders scale up capital, but they can also help founders with knowledge and networks in a way that a VC fund cannot.

Angels are uniquely suited to help connect in domain expertise, in domain-based networking, and really provide a fresh set of eyes from operators that VCs cannot.

So that is the main reason why we really like Angel Squad.

And I am so grateful that Brian said yes to us in building Angel Squad here at Hustle Fund because it's such a valuable group of people for our founders.

DM: What were some of the initial challenges you faced when starting out and how'd you overcome them together?

EY: I mean, I think just simply like any other business and again, with a startup lens, the number one problem that startups have is money and the number two is getting eyeballs or people to your product marketing.

So, everyone's got a financing problem and a marketing problem. And so that's what we had to, that's what we had to do with Hustle Fund from the get-go. We had to market ourselves and we had to raise money.

Obviously other startups that are product-based startups can crack this in other ways.

They can bootstrap and that helps with the financial aspect, but we couldn't bootstrap our fund.

DM: Could you describe a memorable moment from the early days that solidified your partnership and vision for the future?

EY: I mean, I think we had been talking a lot about this even well before starting Hustle Fund.

And that's so, so important.

I see so many partnerships created, and the partners don't even know each other.

But Shiyan, Eric and I have known each other for over 20 years and have even worked together as well. I think that really helped build a foundation of trust on the friendship, as well as we know our strengths and weaknesses from having worked together before.

DM: How did your individual backgrounds and experiences contribute to the formation and success of Hustle Fund and Angel Squad?

EY: One of the things that I very much value in my teammates is that they are all entrepreneurs.

Everybody has started a company or was super early at a company. Everyone has done this before. And again, I very much see Hustle Fund and Angel Squad as a startup.

You know, I think that we're trying to solve specific problems and helping founders out.

And we have the same problems that any other startup has, which is raising money and marketing.

So having done it before, as second time founders, was a huge, huge leg up because the fundraise process, while it wasn't easy, it was comfortable and what we knew already.

And marketing, same thing. It wasn't easy to build up, but we knew exactly what to do. And that's huge as a serial entrepreneur. I think that the other thing is that we really have good strong domain Knowledge about what we're working on. I couldn't start any business.

There are many things I know nothing about but investing or angel investing and portfolio construction and how to get deal flow and how to find founders and all of that, even back-office stuff. Those were all things we had experienced in before, not only as personal angel investors, but also having come from 500 startups, we had seen how they have set up everything and learned from them.

DM: What strategies did you implement in the beginning to build a strong and lasting relationship as co-founders?

EY: One of the things I really value in all of my colleagues at Hustle Fund, but also includes my co-founders, Eric and Shiyan, is communication skills. Everyone at Hustle Fund is top-notch at communication. When we have a problem, we nip it in the bud.

Like people have a good understanding of how to be direct to solve problems right away, but also how to convey that information in an appropriate way that isn't hurtful.

Everyone is so kind to each other. So, the communication skills at Hustle Fund I think are top-notch. Not only written but also verbal.

And I couldn't have asked for better business partners, whether it's my co-founders or other leaders at Hustle Fund, Brian, Haley, Janel, Kera, etc. And so that's something that I'm very very grateful for.

DM: Moving on to the current state of venture capital, with the rapidly evolving landscape of venture capital, how do you differentiate Hustle Fund and Angel Squad from other firms?

EY: That's an excellent question (DM: Blushing slightly) that I think that most capital allocators don't think anything about.

But since we are looking at this very much from the perspective of how you build a company, if you were to assess like the landscape of our company, we're in a commodity industry.

Our product money is the same as anybody else's product, so how do you compete?

And I think that this kind of industry is one where you wouldn't normally want to be packing startups in it because it's a commodity product.

But since we are in it, you know, how do we kind of rise above that?

This is the reason we do a lot in marketing because I think that is the number one way that venture funds can differentiate themselves.

And this is why we also build out programs like Angel Squad because anybody can provide money but not anybody can build a great network of advice and people in certain domains with expertise etc that's not commoditizable so so we try to do more and more things like that content generation networking creation to try to move away from the commodity of money, just pure money.

DM: In what ways do you navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by the current economic and market conditions?

EY: Honestly markets come and go and every market is a double edged sword.

When it's easier to raise money, it also means it's more competitive to deploy money.

And I don't mean opportunities going away, but fundamentally, you know, fundraising is a supply and demand problem for founders.

And when there's a lot more demand from investors, then they have supply of their fundraising rounds and valuations just go up. In a market like this, valuations don't go up. There's a double-edged sword, as there is always something challenging at a given time. I would say there isn't, you know, any particular problem that needs solving.

There's just always a problem that needs solving.

DM: How do you approach diversity and inclusion within your investment portfolio and team? And why is it important to your mission?

EY: Philosophically, it's certainly very important to our mission. As people, we are inclusive, and open. We like to be inclusive and open to everybody though that we are capital firm and that it is just good business to be as open and inclusive as possible, because that is what drives your returns.

The more companies you see, and consider, the more choices you have, and the more options to pick the best company you have. And I see that from a variety of different perspectives, certainly from the investing perspective, you want to see as many companies as you can.

This is why we invest globally. This is why we invest across many sectors. This is why we have all kinds of founders, age-wise, demographics-wise, gender-wise, et cetera.

So that's just good business.

Within the team, I would make the same argument. We are a global team, we work remotely. I want to see the world's best talent for the roles that we have. And this is how we landed a pretty diverse team across many different roles and geographies and demographics.

For us, it's just good business to say that very tritely. But then the question is, like, how do you create that large top of funnel, whether it's in hiring or in your companies?

And this is where it goes back to marketing, because obviously, if nobody knows about you, especially beyond your networks, then it is hard to achieve that.

This is why we spend a lot of time marketing not only for deal flow, but also for hiring.

And I think that the reason why a lot of people don't do this is marketing is a lot of work.

But I think even beyond marketing, if you extend your top of funnel, then there's a question of, all right, well, how do you pick?

DM: How do you really know that a company is good or someone is good?

EY: This is where we have our models of trying to work with either teams or people before we go all in. That is what we do on both our investment side as well as in our hiring side.

We have brought in actually a couple of amazing hires, Haley and Jamie from Angel Squad.

And we got to know them by working with them when they were in Angel Squad.

Our investment model is actually very similar to our hiring model as well. You get to know a lot of people and then you get to whittle it down and this allows you to attract the best talent whether it's on the company side or the hiring side and then also be able to pick well.

DM: Can you discuss any recent trends or shifts in the venture capital industry that may have influenced your investment strategy?

EY: I mean the big one these days is AI. Artificial intelligence companies are coming out of the woodworks left and right. Some of them are not really AI companies, but that's okay.

I think that it's just sort of another tech shift that will help productivity of software.

And we're excited about that certainly and have been investing a lot in AI, but I think that we also invest a lot in things that are not trendy as well.

We are very driven by what entrepreneurs are building rather than particular themes or trends of the day.

DM: What measures do you take to ensure transparency and trust with your investors and portfolio companies in today's competitive VC environment?

EY: On the trust and transparency side with our LPs, our investors, we provide monthly updates and quarterly audits. Our big one is yearly, but then we also have unofficial audits throughout the year as well. And this allows them to see, up to date numbers and allow us to see on a month-by-month basis what we're investing in as well.

We think that we're quite an open book and through our own software that we've been building we try to internally even have that all updated on a day-to-day basis.

I mean just like how founders should have real-time dashboards; we believe that the same should happen for a VC company as well.

For our portfolio companies, it's just in spending time, trying to be helpful beyond the money, and I think also just empathy.

I think, you know, founders are not necessarily asking for you (seems to be missing end of sentence here)

DM: Beyond AI, what emerging sectors or industries do you see as promising areas for VC funding in the near future?

EY: I think there are opportunities everywhere. There isn't any one particular sector that we look at more than others. We just kind of see what founders are building.

There's a lot in emerging FinTech in emerging markets. Everything from banking, new banking is still not solved. Payments and loans still not solved. Data infrastructure for FinTech and other countries still not solved.

So many problems are that we take for granted here in the US are still not solved.

In emerging markets, we do a lot in telemedicine. A lot of health issues can be taken care of now online or through video conferencing.

So that's another area and that applies to the US and more broadly speaking abroad.

Then every sector adopts is going to adopt AI.

Those are just a handful of things that we've been investing in, but we're very open to things that are not trends even.

For example, one of our portfolio companies is called Meowtel.

They are a cat sitting marketplace for cat owners and cats. And people have had cats for decades. That's not a recent trend, but it's a booming business.

And we are willing to follow entrepreneurs and see where things go.

DM: How do you identify and evaluate potential investment opportunities in niche markets or industries that may be overlooked by traditional VC firms.

EY: I think this is where our top of funnel is really important.

One of the reasons why it's important for us to see so many companies and we we see about a thousand companies per month is we want to know what areas are really crowded because we really like areas that are not competitive, where no one is building.

When we see an investment that we haven't seen anyone else work on or very few people work on, then we think that those are interesting opportunities.

DM: With the rise of impact investing, how do you integrate social and environmental considerations in your investment decisions?

EY: This is like any other investment decision, which is what are the drivers of change?

And, you know, some of those drivers of change are more consideration for the environment, more legislation for cleantech startups that work in their favor, changes in regulation, and so things like that.

And if we think that any of these changes will drive different behavior that can, you know, benefit the business of a startup and we like what they're working on, then that could be a really good investment choice.

I've done a lot more cleantech software investing in the last year or so than in the first several years of Hustle Fund because I think now is the right time with a lot of regulation and incentives that have been coming about lately.

DM: What role do you believe international markets play in the future of venture capital and how do you approach global investment opportunities?

EY: In a similar way, we're looking for investment opportunities that can yield, call it 100x.

And so that could be in the US, but it could also be abroad. And generally speaking, valuations abroad tend to be lower. So the outcomes can be lower as well in order for that to work.

And I truly believe that a lot of the best opportunities are outside of the US because if you think about it, a lot of things in the US actually work.

We may not like all of them and we may want incremental changes, but when you think about international markets, in some markets people are really leapfrogging technologies and they're going from did not have a solution or had a very manual solution to now we have a mobile software solution.

And so that's those are interesting opportunities to me and that's why we invest globally.

DM: Can you share any examples of innovative startups or entrepreneurs you've recently funded that embody promising trends in VC funding?

EY: A lot of our founders fit this because a lot of them are working on interesting companies that have only come about because of legislation changes or new technology.

So pretty much every AI company fits into this bucket.

Almost every climate tech company fits into this bucket.

Even a lot of our health companies fit into this bucket with the rise of telemedicine.

But I think the one that I would point out or that I would share just for the purpose of this interview is a company called Anadro. And Anadro is essentially a really unique system of alternative energy for homeowners.

The founder is a successful serial entrepreneur who made great money in his own right.

And when he was working on his home post acquisition, he really wanted to try to do something to solve his electricity usage just for his own house.

And for those of you who live in California, PG&E bills are extremely expensive.

This was kind of a major driver for him.

Long story short, he rigged up this combination of a solar power system with a Bitcoin miner.

And what this allows him to do is, it allows him to kind of regulate his solar power.

Traditionally when people just put solar power on their rooftops, what they're really doing is they're trying to either optimize for matching the amount of solar energy you can get with your usage so that you don't create excess power.

Or if you do have excess power, then traditionally people have sold that energy back to the grid.

But that price of what you can get now is no longer that great.

And that is a driver for Anadro.

Where now people are no longer really incentivized to create excess electricity through solar and so by adding in the system a Bitcoin miner it allows you to actually take off some of that excess electricity and run it through the Bitcoin miner and be rewarded for that.

And so actually digging into their financials of how this all works is extremely fascinating and I think just really creative.

DM: If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring one item, what would it be?

EY: I guess I would assume that I am going to be stranded on it so I'm gonna be there for a while. What would make things more fun on a desert island?

Maybe like a paddleboard or something like that, if I'm going to be on this island.

DM: What's the weirdest pitch you've ever received from a startup? And how did you react?

EY: I've received so many weird pitches from startups. But the thing is, I don't even think about them as weird. I mean, think about it. Some of the hottest companies today are companies you would have thought were super weird.

Airbnb, Uber, like get a staying at someone's house on an air mattress is like super weird.

Getting into someone else's car whom you don't know is super weird.

My mom always told me “Don't interact with strangers.” Certainly, don't stay at their houses or get into their cars. And that's fundamentally what we do, what we all do today.

But if I had to put a pin in, And I would say at 500 Startups, we backed a company called Coeio, which is a mushroom death suit.

And they were trying to sell this, this essentially suit made out of mushrooms.

So that way, when people died, they could be buried in the suit, and it would help with you know I guess the you know the breakdown of the body.

DM: If you could have any superpower to help you with your work in venture capital what would it be?

EY: More time.That's a no-brainer for pretty much anything.

DM: What's your go-to karaoke song?

EY: Don't really have one.

DM: And if you could switch roles with any fictional character for a day, who would it be and what would you do?

EY: I don't know about a fictional character, but I would love to switch roles with Warren Buffett and better understand his day in a life.

DM: Lastly, what is the story behind the hippo?

EY: You know, in all honesty, there really isn't one.

I have a lot of stuffed hippos at home and have been collecting them since I was a child.

And they all have their own lives and characters and their own little world.

And that's kind of the world that I live in.

And yes, we hope to have many hippocorns in our portfolio.

DM: Thank you so much Elizabeth for this important insights into a unique fun fund. Next time around, we will try to get Eric’s take on minivans and garage decoration.

The Delivery Man with the Hustle Fund jacket and Hippo protecting the book.