Hustle Fund co-founder Elizabeth Yin announced that the organization’s Founder Friends series will take place in Seoul on September 29, 2026, with registrations nearing full capacity and moving to a waitlist.

The event is free and will feature pizza, live networking, and a fireside chat with Hustle Fund venture partner Ian Park. The public schedule includes dinner in the evening, a half-hour discussion between Ian Park and general partner Eric Bahn, followed by a Q&A session, and then open networking, concluding around 8 PM. The venue is only open to registered attendees.

Ian Park also runs the Weekly Silicon Valley column aimed at a Korean audience. He previously worked in venture capital at a sovereign wealth fund and later invested directly in early-stage companies as a partner, joining the Hustle Fund investment team in March 2026. The Seoul event is part of the fund's city tour, which includes Toronto on September 22, San Francisco on October 5, and Singapore on October 8, along with Batter Up roadshows in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Hustle Fund is positioned as an early-stage software fund, typically writing checks between $25,000 and $150,000, emphasizing decision-making and execution speed within 48 hours, and operates a paid angel community called Angel Squad. The first fund closed in 2018 with approximately $11.5 million, while the second fund has disclosed a higher target, with subsequent sizes around $30 million; early limited partners include Shanda, LINE, and Naver. This is not the first event in Seoul, as the first Founder Friends Seoul was held in January 2026.

Elizabeth Yin's background includes an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford and an MBA from MIT Sloan. She founded the ad tech company LaunchBit, which was sold in 2014, and then served as a partner at 500 Startups’ Mountain View accelerator before co-founding Hustle Fund with Eric Bahn and Shiyan Koh. She distinguishes between Founder Friends, which focuses on casual conversations and founder stories, and Batter Up, which is a live pitch event with immediate feedback from investors.

From a market mechanism perspective, this is an offline customer acquisition driven by fundraising and project funnels, not a transaction announcement. Buyers are early-stage funds and Angel Squad members seeking project flow from Seoul and East Asia, while sellers are local founders looking to connect with Silicon Valley checks and co-investment networks. The beneficiaries are Hustle Fund's brand density and deal flow, while the pressured parties are projects relying solely on local closed circles without connecting to cross-border small check networks. The funds themselves will not change hands that evening; transactions will occur in subsequent pre-seed communications.

Source: Public Information