Liz Wessel

Co-Founder

San Francisco, California, United States16 yrs 7 mos experience

Highly Stable

Key Highlights

Co-founded WayUp, raising over $40M in venture capital.
Invested in 45+ startups as an Angel Investor.
Visiting Partner at Y Combinator for two batches.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a SaaS entrepreneur and investor with extensive experience in startup growth and strategy.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

InvestmentEntrepreneurshipProduct Strategy

Other Skills

EconomicsEnglishEvent PlanningMarketingPhotoshopProduct MarketingPublic RelationsPublic SpeakingResearchSocial MediaSocial Media MarketingSocial NetworkingStrategic PlanningStrategy

Experience

First round capital

Partner

Sep 2023 – Present · 2 yrs 7 mos · San Francisco, California, United States

I'm a generalist investor, investing at the Seed and Pre-Seed stages across all industries and verticals. I take a founder-first approach to investing. When I was building WayUp, I lived and breathed my company for seven years. I now want to work with founders who bring that same level of intensity — the individuals who will run through walls to overcome challenges, and the ones who understand the problem they’re solving in a way that 99.9% of the population doesn’t.
To the founders who decide to partner with me: I will work harder than any other investor on your cap table. That’s a guarantee. Whether it’s reviewing every sales call recording together to fine-tune your customer pitch, interviewing candidates for your earliest hires, doing fundraising pitch practices on weekends for your Series A, or anything else — I’ll be there for every moment, big or small. Because I want every founder I work with to have the deeply fulfilling entrepreneurial experience that I was so fortunate to have.

EntrepreneurshipStrategic PlanningPublic RelationsInvestment

Y combinator

Visiting Group Partner

Apr 2022 – Aug 2023 · 1 yr 4 mos · San Francisco, California, United States

Visiting Partner for S22 and W23 batches. On maternity leave May - Aug 2023.

Investment

Wayup

2 roles

Advisor

Mar 2022 – Apr 2023 · 1 yr 1 mo

Co-Founder & CEO

Jul 2014 – Feb 2022 · 7 yrs 7 mos

WayUp is the go-to platform for companies to recruit and hire early career employees. I was Co-Founder and CEO of WayUp for over 7 years (from inception to exit), during which time we had thousands of customers and over 6M users. Over the course of the company, we raised over $40M in venture capital (from funds like General Catalyst, BoxGroup, Index Ventures, and more), and in 2021, we exited through a merger with Yello.
As CEO of WayUp, I spent most of my 7+ years (when not with my own employees) focused on the customer side of the business -- focused on sales and customer success, with >90% of our revenue coming from enterprises (ranging from Lockheed Martin to to Cisco, Unilever, EY, Apex, and so many more).
After our exit in 2021, I stayed at the merged company for 8 months to oversee a smooth transition for our employees, users and customers, then transitioned to an Advisory role when I left to join YC (one of our early investors) as a Visiting Partner.

EntrepreneurshipMarketingProduct MarketingProduct Strategy

Self-employed

Angel Investor

Jan 2016 – Sep 2023 · 7 yrs 8 mos

Invested in 45+ startups, incl: ScaleAI, Ramp, Ro, Artera (fka WELL Health), FreeWill, Snackpass, and more (larger list is at lizwessel.com)

Investment

Google

3 roles

Product Marketing Manager

Jul 2013 – Jul 2014 · 1 yr

Associate Product Marketing Manager (APMM)

Promoted

Jul 2012 – Jul 2013 · 1 yr

Marketing and Strategy Intern

Jun 2011 – Aug 2011 · 2 mos · Mountain View, California, United States

EntrepreneurshipMarketing

Blackstone

Private Equity Summer Analyst

Jun 2010 – Aug 2010 · 2 mos · Tokyo, Japan

Private Equity Summer Analyst in Tokyo

Penneats

Co-Founder and CEO (while in school)

Apr 2010 – May 2012 · 2 yrs 1 mo

This was the first business I ever started. We sold loyalty cards to students on college campuses (first at Penn) that would get them discounts around campus.
You can read more here: http://goo.gl/Up1ksk
PennEats was the UPenn branch, and then I franchised the business to other campuses around the country, changing the name to UniEats.