What began as unfamiliar territory for Haley Bryant has become her mission — to democratize access to venture capital through her work at Hustle Fund.

The Boston native comes from a family of entrepreneurs. Her father worked at Bank of America in London and later launched an investment business and then a consultancy. She was inspired to bet on herself throughout her career by observing her father’s blueprint as well as that of other family members. Her mother owns a public policy consultancy, and her sister is a leader of Sick Sad Girlz Club, a community of more than 30,000 women with chronic illness.

Bryant initially planned to become a journalist and attended the University of Virginia, earning a degree in media studies and communications by 2010. However, she was always drawn to technology, she says, which led her to Apple and its retail stores after college. She onboarded as an associate and, within four years, rose to senior manager, leading stores that were earning millions in revenue.

“I was really drawn in by people, passion, and this idea that we wore on our credo cards every day in the stores at Apple, [‘our soul is our people’]. It was a very people-first and then customer-first environment, which I was really inspired by,” she told AFROTECH™. “I loved tech, but I realized, after a few years of getting to advance through the stores and run a $60 million store, $100 million store, there was so much to learn there.”

Bryant had already immersed herself in the startup world by launching Apple’s small business program in the DMV (District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia region), which supported companies including WeddingWire, Cava, and Sweetgreen, Bryant notes. Her curiosity guided her next career move, working at a productivity startup as a customer success manager, and then a virtual event startup, initially as a tech support implementation lead — both companies were eventually acquired. Later she joined an agency called Animalz, helping it scale from $2 million in revenue to $14 million and from a team of 20 to 150 over three years. She gained experience managing a profit-and-loss statement and leading distributed teams as she rose from director of customer operations to chief operating officer.

In summer 2020, while homeschooling her son as a single mother in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social reckoning around George Floyd’s murder, Bryant says she had a “come to Jesus moment,” which was informed by Animalz founder Walter Chen.

“He wrote an email, something to the effect of ‘the world is not a fair place, but in a startup, you can build the world that you wanna see.’ That really inspired me, and it actually helped me form my thesis for angel investing,” she said. “It was around the same time that a coworker, Jan-Erik Asplund, decided to leave Animalz to found a company called Sacra, a private market research company. And I had worked with him for years and just saw his potential and asked if I could give him some money to support his new venture.

“So that was my first accidental angel investment,” she added. “It’s almost like wanting to invest in AFROTECH™ and then getting to learn about so much in tech, business, [and] entrepreneurship. It was a very similar sort of investment, which gave me access to a community of investors and founders and helped me at least get started with my angel investing journey.”

Bryant’s investments were primarily focused on companies solving problems she experienced as a single mother, those from or serving underserved markets, or those overlooked by venture capital institutions. On her own, she has invested in 50 companies, including Scout (formerly known as Merit), Rain, AngelList, and Dopl, which she is particularly thrilled about.

“They’re democratizing access to health care by building for rural hospitals, specifically robotic ultrasound solutions,” she explained.

Hustle Fund

Today, she describes her investment thesis as investing in great founders from anywhere who look like anyone. Bryant has scaled her thesis through her involvement at Hustle Fund, a venture capital firm “investing in hilariously-early pre-seed founders,” primarily in B2B, fintech, and health tech. She became familiar with the fund after meeting with Elizabeth Yin, the general partner and co-founder of Hustle Fund. Bryant was also drawn to the mission of democratizing wealth creation via startups by providing capital, knowledge, and networks.

Angel Squad

That’s why she joined Hustle Fund’s Angel Squad community as a paying member in the summer of 2021, which formalized her angel investor education. In the fall, she became a venture partner to help build the community, which now comprises more than 2,500 members investing in Hustle Fund’s over 650 portfolio companies.

Hustle Fund’s Angel Squad has done $25 million in deal volume across 89 deals so far, Bryant confirms. Looking ahead, it aims to increase its impact by onboarding 10,000 angel investors.

“I did not go to school for finance. I did not know what venture capital was,” Bryant explained. “When I worked at a venture-backed startup, I just knew that these guys with gray hair and Patagonias with briefcases came into a glass boardroom once a quarter, and we all freaked out and spent a ton of time putting decks together and presenting to them and sweating, but not really understanding what is venture capital. It was totally just opaque to me.”

She continued, “And even getting the opportunity to break into venture, I realized it’s opaque to so many people. And that’s why this mission of bringing the next 10,000 angels into the startup ecosystem is so resonant with me. And that’s what we’re on our way to do at Angel Squad.”

Hustle Fund Venture Fellowship

Furthermore, there is a subset of the Angel Squad called the Hustle Fund Venture Fellowship, which Bryant ideated. It brings together 50 members from across the globe who participate in Hustle Fund through the entire deal lifecycle.

The fellowship is gearing up for its fifth cohort in January 2026.

“We see over a thousand companies a month. So they are reviewing those deals, they’re flagging the deals that could be most interesting for us to spend more time on with a very diverse and global perspective … Our fellows are just members of our Angel community who want more experience, exposure, and are willing to do work, both to share their expertise with us and with founders and to help founders be more successful. So that’s probably the work I’m the most excited about getting to do at Hustle Fund,” she mentioned.

Bryant was promoted to principal at Hustle Fund in 2022. She has invested in 48 companies during her time at the firm. As her lens has sharpened, she places greater emphasis on what truly differentiates an idea, the economics of acquiring customers, and a founder’s ability to put in sustained, long-term work within their market.

She has now stepped into the role of partner. She will be tasked with managing limited partner communications and will continue to drive the venture Fellowship forward as well as raise funding.

Bryant also recently joined BLCK VC as co-chair of its DMV Chapter.

“I’m really excited to see how I can take some of those learnings to now this role with BLCK VC as the co-chair of the DMV chapter around mentorship, learning, and this idea of apprenticeship to unlock the next generation of VCs,” she expressed.