Eric Bahn on Pre-Seed Investing: Prioritizing Grit Over Pedigree

Hustle Fund's Core Philosophy

• 💡 Hustle Fund prioritizes hustle and execution over traditional pedigree, believing that great founders can emerge from any background.
• 🎯 The fund defines "hustle" as great execution, high velocity, and experimental teams focused on measurable progress.
• 🧠 Eric Bahn shares personal anecdotes, contrasting a Princeton-educated engineer who failed with a high school dropout who became a "100x operator," reinforcing their focus on grit.

Unique Investment Model

• 🚀 Hustle Fund begins with a $150,000 initial check for many teams, investing in about seven companies per month.
• 🛠️ Following the initial investment, teams engage in an 8-week growth project focused on sales or user acquisition, paired with mentors.
• ✅ Approximately 20% of these teams receive a second $200,000 investment after demonstrating strong hustle and progress, making the total investment $350,000.
• 📊 This model allows them to support a large portfolio of 620 companies across four funds while remaining valuation-conscious.

Founder Backgrounds & Mindset

• 🌍 The fund believes great founders "look like anyone and come from anywhere," noting the democratization of knowledge via the internet has reduced the gap between Silicon Valley and other markets.
• 💬 Experience in the service industry (e.g., bartending, waitstaff) is highly valued, as it cultivates resilience, emotional intelligence, and crucial sales skills.
• 💡 Silicon Valley's culture of embracing failure as a learning opportunity ("What did you learn, and when will you try again?") is seen as essential for innovation, a mindset increasingly adopted nationwide.

Media & Portfolio Management

• 📈 Hustle Fund leverages media strategies like newsletters, events, and the "Angel Squad" community to provide founders with value beyond capital, including awareness, mentorship, and early revenue.
• ⚙️ To manage a vast portfolio, they utilize sophisticated data systems, CRMs, and AI tools to track company updates and performance.
• 🤝 A network of mentors provides industry-specific knowledge and deeper insights into portfolio companies, complementing data-driven tracking.

Exciting Portfolio Innovation

• 🔬 Eric Bahn highlights Throne, a company developing a computer vision sensor for toilets that analyzes waste for health biomarkers.
• 💖 This innovation offers dramatic health upside by providing crucial data without requiring any change in daily behavior, particularly beneficial for elderly populations.