Investor Highlight: Hustle Fund VC

Venture capitalism is all about risk. Invest early and get a bigger slice of the pie as success blossoms, or watch that money dry up in an instant on an unproven idea. Even still, early-stage investments are a hot market right now, given outsized returns for companies going public. We covered the competitive landscape in a September edition of the Daily Stack. Today we’re honing in on one V.C. investor specializing in investments on the seedlings of seed rounds: Hustle Fund VC.

Who They Are
They’re a raucous crew of former founders, marketers, and money-whisperers, signing the first checks for founders (apart from Mom and Dad). They focus on software generally, and B2B, fintech, and digital consumer health more specifically.  Their first fund was $11.5MM but are currently forking over from their $33.6MM Fund II across about 70 investments annually.  That puts their average first check size at about $25k. They’ve worked with founders in the U.S., Canada, and Southeast Asia but are expanding into LatAm and Africa. 

They also run community training for wannabe angel investors called Angel Squad. If interested, their next cohort starts in early 2022. 

Who do they invest in?
We often don’t even hear about check sizes under the millions of dollars mark, but the ground floor is an exciting place to see what founders are up to. For a small fund like theirs, they shy away from investments in capital-intensive companies like e-commerce, hardware, or ad-revenue-based models. 

They’ve invested in Rupa Health, a one-stop-shop for lab testing. They’ll ship test kits to patients, make it easy for practitioners to order and do the paperwork, and get multiple labs done & reported in one central portal. 

Hemster gets you connected with a virtual tailor to create customized clothing patterns and sizing. They’ve partnered with leading clothing brands from MM. Lafleur to Outdoor Voices to provide individualized sizes.

Gentem uses A.I. powered automation for medical practitioners to get paid. Hustle Fund participated in their Series A round alongside 500 Startups, Vulcan Capital, and others.