Shiyan Koh

Background

Shiyan Koh is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Hustle Fund, a pre-seed venture capital fund investing in software startups across the United States, Canada, and Southeast Asia ¹. She is based in Singapore, where she returned in 2018 to lead Hustle Fund’s Southeast Asian investing practice ².

Koh grew up in Singapore and attended Stanford University, where she earned a BS in Biomechanical Engineering and a BA in Economics ³. She later completed an MBA at Harvard Business School ³. She began her career as an Investment Banking Analyst at JPMorgan, serving technology and healthcare clients ³. She subsequently joined Bridgewater Associates, the global macro hedge fund, as an investment professional ³, followed by a role as Senior Investment Associate at Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), a growth-stage venture capital fund with $7 billion of committed capital ³.

After her investing career, Koh joined NerdWallet as employee #10, serving as VP of Business Operations and Corporate Development ³. Over approximately six years at NerdWallet, she led product teams, ran business operations and corporate development, and helped grow the company from $1 million to over $150 million in annual revenue ². She left NerdWallet in March 2018 to return to Singapore ⁴.

Koh co-founded Hustle Fund alongside Elizabeth Yin and Eric Bahn, both former 500 Startups partners, whom she had known since their time together at Stanford University over 20 years ago ⁵. She also co-hosts the BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast, where she provides weekly commentary on tech news and startups in the region ⁶, and is involved with Flow Club, a virtual coworking platform ⁴.

Stated Thesis

Koh and Hustle Fund describe their approach as investing in “the learning founder” — founders who run lots of fast, low-cost experiments with tight feedback loops ⁷. The firm positions itself as “hilariously early,” making small initial checks at the pre-seed stage and measuring success by tracking week-over-week execution velocity rather than market size or founder pedigree ⁵.

On the Hustle Fund FAQ page, the firm states it invests first checks of $150,000 at the pre-seed stage exclusively, describing themselves as “software generalists” who do not favor particular verticals, though their portfolio skews toward B2B, fintech, digital health, and Web3 ⁸. They explicitly exclude deep tech, most hardware, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, art/film, real estate, restaurants, traditional retail, and brick-and-mortar businesses ⁸. Hustle Fund promises founders a response “between 24 and 48 hours after having a call” ⁸.

Regarding Southeast Asia specifically, Koh has stated that “SEA startups don’t need to be cutting edge, only great at execution” ⁹. She has noted that “70% of Southeast Asia is still unbanked or underbanked, and fintech infrastructure continues to require addressing” ¹⁰. On AI opportunities, she has said there is “huge potential to use large language models (LLM) to build tailored software for local industries” ¹⁰.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 8 verified investments attributable to Koh or Hustle Fund’s Southeast Asia practice, the following patterns emerge. Note: Hustle Fund has made 369 total investments across all partners ¹¹; the investments below represent a small subset that could be independently verified as Koh-associated or Southeast Asia-focused. The sample is too small for reliable percentages.

Geographic concentration: All 8 verified investments are in Asia — Singapore (Moovaz, BlockPunk, Stendard, HeyMax), Malaysia (Oyen), Sri Lanka (oDoc), Vietnam (Vietcetera Media), and India (EquityList) ^{12 13 14 15 16 17 18}. This aligns with Koh’s role as the Singapore-based partner responsible for Southeast Asia and broader Asia investing.

Sector patterns: The verified portfolio spans fintech/insurtech (Oyen, HeyMax, EquityList), digital health (oDoc), media (Vietcetera Media), logistics (Moovaz), B2B software (Stendard), and blockchain/entertainment (BlockPunk). No single sector dominates, consistent with the firm’s stated “software generalist” approach ⁸.

Stage distribution: All verified investments are at the pre-seed or seed stage, consistent with the firm’s stated focus ⁸.

Check size: The firm’s stated first check is $150,000 ⁸, with Koh’s individual sweet spot reported at approximately $75,000 ⁷. Verified rounds range from $420,000 (Oyen seed) to $2.6 million (HeyMax seed), with Hustle Fund participating as one of multiple investors in each ^{15 18}.

Co-investor patterns: Unpopular Ventures appears alongside Hustle Fund in at least 2 verified deals (oDoc and EquityList) ^{16 17}. January Capital led the HeyMax round where Hustle Fund participated ¹⁸.

Notable gaps: Despite the firm’s stated interest in Web3, only one verified Koh-associated investment (BlockPunk, 2019) falls in that category ¹⁴. The majority of verified investments align with the firm’s stated fintech and B2B focus.

Portfolio

This table represents a small fraction of Hustle Fund’s 369 total investments ¹¹. Only investments with verified Koh involvement or confirmed Hustle Fund participation in Southeast Asia/Asia are included.

In Their Own Words

“VCs have to be optimists, otherwise they cannot be VCs. If you’re a pessimist, you should be a distressed debt investor.” — Shiyan Koh, BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast, Episode 608, January 2026 ⁶.

“It’s less about what the investor needs to see and more about what you need to believe for this to be a business you want to spend your time on. Investor validation is one part of it, but at the end of the day, it’s customer validation that really makes a business work.” — Shiyan Koh, BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast, Episode 608, January 2026 ⁶.

“As a founder, you need to go find a problem that people want to pay you to solve. You can only control yourself; you can’t count on other people to validate you.” — Shiyan Koh, BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast, Episode 608, January 2026 ⁶.

“The internet is the best distribution system ever invented, so imagine all the businesses today that wouldn’t have been possible without it. Think about that same kind of sea change now — there’s going to be a bunch of businesses that were not possible without AI. That’s a really exciting thing to be in, an exciting period to be alive.” — Shiyan Koh, BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast, Episode 608, January 2026 ⁶.

“I always ask people: ‘What is your theory of the world? Why is it different from what other people believe?’” — Shiyan Koh, Agile for All interview ¹⁹.

“The big takeaway from startups is that only 2 of the 100 things to do on your list are existential; you just need to let 98 things burn until they [reach that level]. You just have to focus on existing topics.” — Shiyan Koh, Startup Hustle podcast with Barry O’Reilly ²⁰.

“When I first started investing 10 years ago, my boss at the time said to me, ‘Just pay attention to how people spend time and spend money.’” — Shiyan Koh, Agile for All interview ¹⁹.

“The thing about doing a start-up is, it’s really hard, it’s a lot of hard work, self-doubt, and dealing with doubt from other people… we act like a therapist almost — somebody to be a sounding board, but also to be an emotional support.” — Shiyan Koh, quoted in search results ⁷.

What Founders Say

Peter Saddington, a multi-time founder and portfolio company founder, stated: “I love Shiyan Koh. Not just because she invested in my previous startup, but because she’s just down to earth. When I talk with her, I feel like I just need to bust open a bottle of wine and just chat about the world.” — Peter Saddington, Agile for All ¹⁹.

No additional independently sourced founder testimonials found. Hustle Fund’s website features portfolio company testimonials, but independently verified founder quotes specific to Koh’s involvement are limited in publicly available sources.

Connections

• Co-Founder, Hustle Fund — alongside Elizabeth Yin (Co-Founder & General Partner) and Eric Bahn (Co-Founder & General Partner); all three met at Stanford University ⁵
• Co-host, BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast — regular weekly appearances discussing SEA tech news ⁶
• Former VP, NerdWallet (employee #10, ~2012-2018) ³
• Former Senior Investment Associate, Institutional Venture Partners ³
• Frequent co-investor with Unpopular Ventures — appeared together in oDoc and EquityList rounds ^{16 17}
• Stanford University alumna — BS Biomechanical Engineering, BA Economics ³
• Harvard Business School alumna — MBA ³

Sources