The founders that get backed are overwhelmingly men who graduated from elite schools, worked at FANNG companies, are currently living in Silicon Valley, and may be wearing Patagonia vests.

By no means are we saying that those who do not fit these stereotypes or pedigrees are incapable of creating amazing businesses. In fact, we have a million examples at Hustle Fund that show people who don’t fit this criteria and are doing fantastic.

So how do founders break this cycle?

If you’re a newer founder just starting a company, we recommend leaning more towards angel investors. Angels tend to be less biased about these kinds of markers and are faster at putting money in.

This initial group of angels could be people who have directly worked with you before and know how much of a hustler you are. There are many other ways to build your investor network too.

VCs on the other hand tend to fall back into pattern matching because it’s convenient or they want to go with what their friends are doing.  

Angels are where we recommend you look for your first few hundred thousand. Maybe even your first $1 million in capital.

Hopefully you can use that money to get enough traction to the point where VC firms can’t help but pay attention and participate. Money talks. And if you’re on your way to building something great, that’ll ultimately supersede any kind of biases.

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