Hustle Fund

About

Hustle Fund is a pre-seed venture capital firm founded in 2017 by Elizabeth Yin, Eric Bahn, and Shiyan Koh, all of whom met at Stanford University over two decades ago ¹. The firm is headquartered in San Carlos, California, with operations in Singapore ². All three co-founders were previously associated with 500 Startups: Yin and Bahn served as partners, while Koh was an early employee and VP of Corporate Development at NerdWallet before joining ³¹. Yin previously founded LaunchBit, an ad-tech company acquired in 2014, and ran the Mountain View accelerator at 500 Startups ³. Bahn founded Beat the GMAT, a test-prep community he bootstrapped to 3 million members before its acquisition in 2012, and later worked as a Product Manager at Instagram ²⁵²⁶.

The firm has raised three funds to date. Fund I closed at $11.5 million in 2018 ³. Fund II closed at $30 million (originally targeting $50 million) in November 2020 ⁴. Fund III closed at $46 million in September 2022, bringing total AUM to over $125 million ⁵. As of early 2026, the firm is fundraising for Fund IV with a $50 million target ⁶.

Across Funds I and II, Hustle Fund invested in over 200 companies ¹. As of early 2026, the firm has invested in 375+ companies total ⁷. The firm’s mission is to “democratize wealth through entrepreneurship” by leveling the playing field for founders regardless of pedigree or geography ⁸. Fund I was anchored by Shanda, LINE, and Naver, with nearly half the capital coming from Asia-based investors ⁹.

In addition to its core fund, Hustle Fund operates Angel Squad, a community of 2,000+ vetted angel investors who can co-invest alongside the fund with checks as small as $1,000 ¹⁰. As of August 2023, Angel Squad had invested $23 million via special purpose vehicles (SPVs) into 65 deals ¹¹. The firm also runs Redwood School, a program teaching portfolio founders customer acquisition and sales skills ¹.

In December 2025, Hustle Fund promoted Haley Bryant from Principal to Partner, the first non-co-founder to reach that title at the firm ¹². Foundry (formerly Foundry Group) invested in Hustle Fund II as an LP ¹.

Stated Thesis

Hustle Fund publicly describes itself as investing in “hilariously early startups” ¹³. The firm states that its core investment criterion is speed of execution, not founder pedigree or market size. As Elizabeth Yin has written: “What we look for in our founders is speed of execution on whatever your priority item is” ¹⁴. The firm defines hustle as “great execution meets high velocity” ¹⁵.

The firm’s FAQ states that it invests in pre-seed software companies across the United States, Canada, and Southeast Asia, with selective investments in Africa and Latin America ¹⁶. Hustle Fund describes itself as a software generalist with no vertical preference, though it notes that B2B, fintech, digital health, and Web3 represent the majority of its portfolio ¹⁶. It explicitly avoids deep tech, most hardware, pharma, medical devices, art/film, land, restaurants, and traditional retail ¹⁶.

Hustle Fund states its first check is $150,000, with the ability to set terms and lead rounds ¹⁶. The firm says it can make investment decisions within 24 to 48 hours of a call and actively invests year-round, making up to 100 investments annually ¹⁶.

Elizabeth Yin has described the firm’s customer acquisition thesis: she evaluates startups based on CAC (customer acquisition cost), LTV (lifetime value), and payback period, favoring companies that can “acquire a customer for less money than you make from that customer” ¹⁷. She has stated she prefers companies that create new markets, serve emerging international markets, or offer a 10x superior user experience ¹⁸.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 375+ verified investments across three funds (2017 to early 2026), the following patterns emerge ⁷:

Stage distribution: Hustle Fund has made 134 investments at the seed stage and 19 at the Series A stage, with the vast majority of initial checks at pre-seed ⁷. The firm’s model involves a small initial check followed by larger follow-on investments in top performers ¹.

Sector breakdown: Based on Tracxn data across 375 investments: the portfolio is concentrated in Enterprise Applications/B2B, fintech, consumer, and software/SaaS ⁷. VCBacked data on 242 tracked investments shows the top sectors as Software (11 of 242 classified), AI (9), SaaS (5), fintech (5), and healthcare (4) ¹⁹. Sample sizes for sector classification are too small relative to total portfolio to compute reliable percentages; qualitatively, the portfolio is dominated by B2B SaaS and fintech with meaningful representation in digital health and AI.

Geographic concentration: 61% of portfolio companies across Funds I and II are based outside the San Francisco Bay Area ¹. The firm has made 86 investments in the United States and 15 in Singapore, reflecting its dual US-Southeast Asia focus ⁷.

Check size: The firm’s initial check evolved from $25,000 in Fund I to $150,000 in Fund III ¹⁶²⁰. Elizabeth Yin has noted the firm writes approximately 80 checks per year, “around one to two companies per week” ²¹.

Diversity metrics: 38% of portfolio companies have at least one female founder, and 17% have at least one Black or LatinX founder ¹.

Decision-making model: The firm uses a champion model where individual partners can make independent decisions rather than requiring consensus ²². Each partner uses a 4-point scoring system (no middle ground) evaluating Team, Market, Execution, Fundraisability, and Product, with Team scoring highest on average (2.98/4) and Product lowest (2.32/4) among funded companies ²².

Co-investor patterns: Hustle Fund’s Angel Squad provides a built-in co-investment syndicate. The firm frequently invests alongside First Check Ventures and Everywhere Ventures at the pre-seed stage ⁷.

Notable gaps: The firm claims to be a “software generalist” with no vertical preference, but its actual portfolio skews heavily toward B2B SaaS and fintech, with limited representation in consumer or Web3 despite listing both as focus areas. The stated $150K check size represents the current fund; earlier funds deployed much smaller checks ($25K in Fund I).

Portfolio

The following table represents a sample of Hustle Fund’s portfolio. The firm has invested in 375+ companies total; this table captures a small subset of known investments, with a focus on notable outcomes and recent activity ⁷. Note: Webflow, NerdWallet, Boom Supersonic, HoneyBook, and Acorns were previously listed but could not be independently verified as Hustle Fund portfolio companies and have been removed.

The firm reports 3 unicorns, 1 IPO, and 29 acquisitions across the full portfolio ⁷.

In Their Own Words

“What we look for in our founders is speed of execution on whatever your priority item is.” — Elizabeth Yin, Understanding VC podcast ¹⁴

“I am not looking for loads of traction but the ability to have a conversation with a team about what they’ve learned each new week based on something new they tried.” — Elizabeth Yin, personal blog, February 2018 ²⁰

“Speed or velocity matters because at pre-seed, companies lack revenue and product data, so the more iterations you can get in, the greater the probability of success.” — Elizabeth Yin, Sacra interview ²¹

“These super producers weren’t all Ivy League grads with PhDs… Yet they were outperforming teams with elite credentials.” — Eric Bahn, Hustle Fund blog, on his experience at Facebook observing that hustle mattered more than pedigree ¹⁵

“We really wanted to raise our fund in less than a year” — Elizabeth Yin, on prioritizing speed in fundraising for Fund I ⁹

“I’m working towards a 30-40 year mission — to try to democratize wealth through entrepreneurship. If I can help raise many other people up — both builders and funders who have drive and hustle — then that is exciting and motivating.” — Elizabeth Yin ⁸

“By having a range from 1-4, it forces the decision maker to pick a number that is either on the weaker or stronger side.” — Elizabeth Yin, on Hustle Fund’s scoring system that eliminates the middle ground in investment decisions ²²

What Founders Say

“As one of my earliest investors, Hustle Fund has proven to be a hugely strategic partner for me and the team! They are the real deal — putting in actual sweat equity to help me with growth, strategy, fundraising, and more.” — Tara Viswanathan, Founder/CEO of Rupa Health ²³

“What attracted me to the team initially was their mindset to grow with me throughout the journey from an operator mindset. It’s wonderful to have a partner like Hustle Fund that hustles as hard as the Hemster team.” — Allison Lee, Founder/CEO of Hemster ²³

“Hustle Fund has been an awesome partner, being with us during some of the earliest days of Webflow — when it was just the three co-founders!” — Vlad Magdalin, Co-Founder/CEO of Webflow ²³

Hustle Fund reports a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 93 with its portfolio founders ²³.

Sources