Mandy
Hong

entrepreneur, Angel Investor, and
Growth marketing expert.

Hi there! I’m Mandy.

👩🏻‍💻About Me

I grew up in an underrepresented neighborhood, didn't go to an Ivy League school, and switched careers four times (not in investment banking or consulting) before breaking into the tech world.

Today, I'm a co-founder at a fintech startup (Ask Sebby), an angel investor, and living life on my own terms. I know first hand how diversity and not having a "cookie cutter" background is a competitive edge. My passion is helping startups grow.

As of August 2020, I’ve written 14 personal checks within the year, including 10 angel investments and 4 micro funds.

✨“Superpowers”

As a YouTube creator myself, my "value-add" is that I bring first-hand knowledge and feedback about the passion/creator economy. My superpower is that I have the ability to bring in a user-base outside of tech. For fintech or passion economy products, I'm the co-founder of a couple of YouTube channels focused on these topics.

Ask Sebby is one of the top 20 personal finance channels on YouTube. We have an unfair advantage when it comes to growing fintech products.

I also have deep expertise in e-commerce customer acquisition and product growth. I was on the founding team at a print on demand startup that went from $0 to $80 million in sales within the first 12 months.

People see me as:

Startup Advisor: As a previous Associate at Techstars, employee #1 at an e-commerce startup, and a founder myself, I’ve seen everything that goes into running a successful startup.
Growth Marketing Expert: I have deep expertise in growth marketing and help startups with organic and low-cost user acquisition strategies.

🎱 Investing Thesis

I take a generalist approach, with a focus on fintech, the passion economy, and diverse founders.

I believe that the future of work is the creator economy. Normal people will have the ability to make substantive income by sharing their expertise and experiences online.

I’m looking for startups that:

Enable creators to do more, faster
Can grow, quickly, organically through social (i.e., can easily be incorporated into vlogs)
Fintech products that support the creator economy or have a social component

Investing Criteria: