62: Mallun Yen, Founder and GP of Operator Collective

The Founders we have had on the show have collectively raised over $1B in venture capital. I’ve heard which investors they enjoy working with, which are most helpful, which are not so helpful but the consistent piece of feedback I have heard is the desire for a more diverse cap table and a more operator centric focus. It’s why I was so excited to chat with Mallun Yen, Founder and GP of Operator Collective this week. Operator Collective was founded on the belief that venture capital concentrated among a homogenous group doesn’t represent where the tech industry is now or where it’s going. Operator Collective has created a new access point for operators from diverse backgrounds; the $50M fund has over 100 LPs, of which 90% are women and 40% are POC. The LP base is filled with many of the best operators in the world having representation from the C-suites of tech’s fastest growth businesses (Stripe, Zoom, Pagerduty, TaskRabbit, Salesforce and more).

It was so fun to chat with Mallun. She truly opened my eyes with her thoughtfulness. Around the 50 min mark, after we ended the official podcast, Mallun and I continued the conversation for a few hours. Neither of us knew it was recorded, but I’m so glad it was - we decided to share excerpts from our conversation to continue to add perspective to how we can drive for a more inclusive tech industry. This was one of my favorite episodes I’ve done to date.