20VC: Why VCs Fundamentally Assess Founders The Wrong Way, Why VC Needs To Innovate On The Scouting Model & Why SAFE's and Convertible Notes Are The Future Of Investing with Elizabeth Yin, Founder & General Partner @ Hustle Fund
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 15 November 2017
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Elizabeth Yin is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ Hustle Fund, as they describe, the ventue fund for hilariously early hustlers. Elizabeth is also the co-founder of HustleCon, a conference series for non-technical entrepreneurs to launch and scale their startups. Prior to Hustle Fund, Elizabeth was a Partner @ 500 Startups where she ran the 500 Startups seed program in Mountain View and where she and her partner saw over 20,000 startup decks. Before that Elizabeth was a successful operator, as the Co-Founder and CEO of Launchbit, an adtech platform that was acquired by BuySellAds.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Elizabeth made her way from successful founder with LaunchBit to Partner @ 500 Startups to now founding partner of Hustle Fund?
2.) Why does Elizabeth believe that VCs fundamentally assess founders the wrong way? What is the right way to assess founders in such early stages? How can one really stress test the level of hustle from the founding team?
3.) How does Elizabeth assess innovation in the practice of venture capital? Why does Elizabeth believe that there has been very little creativity towards innovation? Who has innovatively addressed sourcing the best companies?
4.) In a world of noted rounds with a cap structure, how does Elizabeth feel about gaining the pro-rata in deals? Why does Elizabeth believe that ownership stake and portfolio size are not in conflict with one another?
5.) How does Elizabeth view the future of the VC industry? How can the early stage funnel be flipped on it's head? Why does Elizabeth believe that SAFEs and convertible notes are the future of investing?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Elizabeth’s Most Recent Investment: The Pill Club
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Elizabeth on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the 20 minute VC with me Harry Stebbings at H. Stebbings with two Bs on Snapchat. |
| 0:05.0 | Now, a lot of people very kindly attribute me with Hustle, but my guest today is so focused on |
| 0:09.6 | hustle that her and her partner named their fund after it. So joining us in the hot seat, |
| 0:13.7 | I'm thrilled to welcome Elizabeth Yin, found and general partner at Hustle Fund. As they describe, |
| 0:18.6 | the venture fund for hilariously early hustlers. Elizabeth is also the co-founder of Hustle Fund. As they describe, the venture fund for hilariously early hustlers. Elizabeth is also |
| 0:22.0 | the co-founder of HustleCon, a conference series for non-technical entrepreneurs to launch and scale |
| 0:27.2 | their startups. Prior to Hustle Fund, Elizabeth was a partner at 500 startups where she ran the 500 |
| 0:32.7 | startup seed program in Mountain View and where her and her partner saw over 20,000 startup decks. Before that, |
| 0:39.1 | Elizabeth was a successful operator as the co-founder and CEO of LaunchBid, an ad tech platform that was |
| 0:44.5 | acquired by buy-sell ads. I'd also want to give a big hand to Jess Lee at Sequoia for the intro to |
| 0:49.3 | Elizabeth today, without which this episode would not have been possible. But before we dive into the show |
| 0:53.8 | today, in this profession, we all do a lot of travel, |
| 0:56.5 | and it was always a nightmare for me. |
| 0:57.9 | My phone would die, I'd worry about lost cases, the list goes on. |
| 1:01.4 | And then I had Josh Eadashkin from Raiden on the show. |
| 1:04.1 | I bought one in the cases after the episode, and it's genuinely changed the game for me. |
| 1:08.0 | With a removable battery in two external USB ports, I never have to worry |
| 1:11.9 | about a dead battery when travelling now. It's also location aware with built-in Bluetooth, meaning |
| 1:16.4 | you have this incredible digital passport from your Radin. It even has this self-wearing ability, |
| 1:21.1 | so you ensure you never go over your allowance. So awesome, and I'm absolutely in love with mine, |
| 1:25.6 | and if you're in the US, you can get yours on Raiden.com. And if you use the promo code 20VC, 2.0 VC, you'll get a year of tablet plus membership |
| 1:33.6 | from tablet hotels for free. And if you're in the UK, you can head over to selfridges.com |
... |
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