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Elizabeth Yin

@dunkhippo33

Sep 3

Saturday thoughts on this market and unit economics.

I've spoken with a ton of startups in the last couple of weeks - both in and out of my portfolio - who are facing some tough decisions.

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1) The summer was tough to raise. No one could get investors mtgs or capital. A number of companies have already cut burn by laying off employees, reducing salaries, and reducing expenditures.

But now the cuts may have to be deeper & more difficult for many companies.

2) Specifically, if your customers are not yet unit profitable, then that means you are deciding to either support them or cut them as customers.

In a market where there was plenty of capital, you could keep those customers and keep growing. In this mkt, that decision isn't easy

Read 14 tweets

Elizabeth Yin

@dunkhippo33

Aug 31

These days, I get a lot of cold emails from aspiring VC fund mgrs who want advice.

But ppl often conflate investing in startups to running a VC fund.

They are not the same, and there are many ways to scratch the itch of investing in startups besides starting a fund.

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1) Starting a VC fund is fairly akin to starting a company. Specifically you

-Raise money (and have to LOVE fundraising)
-Have no brand in the beginning & need to do marketing
-Have limited budget & won't get paid much / at all
-Spent a lot of time company building vs investing

@HustleFundVC

2) @HustleFundVC is almost 5 yrs old. And my role has changed a lot.

In the beginning, I was much more of an IC. @ericbahn and I did all of the investing (and everything else)

I would often look at almost all the pitch decks & do 2-5 deals per month myself.

Read 17 tweets

Elizabeth Yin

@dunkhippo33

Aug 30

When I was a founder, I was intrigued that some founder friends who hadn't yet had an exit were angel investing.

They were writing $1k angel checks. Then, I began doing that too. And later started teaching 100s of ppl.

But what does angel investing actually entail?

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1) The funny thing about angel investing is often the people who want to angel invest are already deep into the startup world.

They already *know* they want to angel invest.

But what if you don't know? What if you don't know what it entails?

2) Today, I'm excited to announce our first Angel Squad Summit on Tues Sept 20th 12-2pm PT.

This is a *free* 2-hour bootcamp, where you’ll learn what it means to be an angel investor and how we make angel investing decisions. And it's all online and open to all.

Read 5 tweets

Elizabeth Yin

@dunkhippo33

Aug 29

Today’s thread is on “VC backchanneling” — how you can use it to your advantage as a founder.

When I was a founder I knew that VCs all talked w/ each other. But boy, they really talk.

Here’s how it works >>

1) If you’re mtg an investor, you should assume that whatever you show or tell that investor is going to become public knowledge.

Investors do their homework and call up references. This is also to say that if you’re not truthful in what you present, that will kill a deal.

2) A common example that comes to mind is when founders put on their fundraising slides a customer or an investor who has not yet signed.

Or a “mentor” who is not actually an advisor.

You can bet that an investor will call up any and all those ppl on your deck.

Read 15 tweets

Elizabeth Yin

@dunkhippo33

Aug 17

I turned 40 and had some time to think about learnings over the years.

Some career lessons & stories...

A thread >>

1) Serendipity & luck trump everything.

My parents were not in tech nor were entrepreneurs. I ended up in this field, because of just a couple of events that happened.

The major one was when I was a freshman in HS in 1996. It was the start of the dot com boom in Silicon Valley.

1b) My best friend Jennifer asked me if I wanted to help out her cousin Tony w his startup over winter break. I had nothing to do, so I said yes!

We went up to SF and honestly wasn't any help. But, I learned what a startup was. Here were a bunch of friends all working together.

Read 25 tweets

Elizabeth Yin

@dunkhippo33

Aug 12

Today’s tweet storm is on raising money from corporates.

When I first started my investing career (and certainly when I was a founder), I would’ve said raising from corporates was a terrible idea and had low probability of success. But these days, it’s a bit different.

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1) First, how do corporates differ from VCs?

When companies invest, they typically invest off their balance sheet. (Companies who have been investing in startups for a while may have their own dedicated separate fund tho)

In contrast, VCs raise $$ strictly for investing.

2) As such, the goals are often different. Corporates do want to make money — just like VCs.

But often more importantly, corporates want to invest in strategic areas so they can incorporate technology into their businesses, form helpful partnerships, and learn about new trends.

Read 17 tweets

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