Elizabeth Yin (Hustle Fund) - Investing When There’s No Traction and How To Mitigate Risk When Founding

Elizabeth Yin is a co-founder and General Partner at Hustle Fund, a pre-seed fund for software entrepreneurs. One of Hustle Fund’s missions is to level the playing field in the world of venture-backed businesses by investing in non-Stanford and non-Ivy League founders.

Previously, Elizabeth was a partner at 500 Startups where she invested in seed-stage companies and ran the Mountain View accelerator. Elizabeth also co-founded and ran an ad tech company called LaunchBit (acq 2014). Her work and writing on startup fundraising have been featured in numerous publications including TechCrunch, Forbes, Huffington Post, BetaKit, and more.

If you’d like to keep up to date with Elizabeth, you can @dunkhippo33 and subscribe to her insightful blog posts at www.elizabethyin.com. To follow along behind the scenes of the show, you can follow @mikegelb and @consumervc.

One book that inspired Elizabeth personally is Born To Run by Christopher McDougall. One book that inspired Elizabeth professionally is The Lean Startup by Eric Ries.

In this episode you will learn -

1. What compelled Elizabeth to start LaunchBit and what attracted her to startups in general? Why did she switch to become an investor? What were some of the learnings from being a founder that influenced her as an investor? What compelled her and Eric to leave 500 startups and start Hustle Fund? Advice for founders that didn’t go to Stanford or Ivy League schools? Advice for founders that live in secondary and tertiary markets?
   
2. What are some of the differences in her diligence process when investing in consumer vs enterprise? What is her own due diligence process? What are her expectations for companies at pre-seed? What are some qualities she likes to see founders have?
   
3. What are the ideal traits of an investor for startups? What are some consumer trends that she is excited about? What is one thing that she would change when it came to venture capital? What is your most recent consumer investment and what makes her excited about it? What is one company she had the opportunity to invest, didn’t, and in retrospect wish she did? What is one piece of advice she has for founders of consumer companies?