David Lin
Unicorn Ventures and Trousdale Ventures, General Partner and CIO
Career Highlights
Fund manager at three early-stage VC funds and adviser to two Fortune 500 companies. Unicorn Venture Partners Seed fund produced multiple unicorns and 100%+ IRR. Proud to have worked with more than 100 entrepreneurs on growing their businesses over 20+ boards and hundred-plus investments
Serial entrepreneur and operator with $100M+ raised and $2B in exits across 4 exits (and 9 attempts). Wore almost every hat from paralegal to sales to CFO/CEO. So many incredible insights were learned from each industry along the way. Primary industries were Tech, Media, Finance, and Consumer.
Tech investment banker at UBS and Montgomery (focused on M&A)
FailuresI have struggled with high-valuation multiple investments a few times in my investing career and missed a handful of current unicorns (Our Next Energy, others)
Being as good of a dad for my daughter as I think I am with my son. Definitely a lot harder to figure out the opposite gender!
Managing mixed-level teams. Balancing high performers alongside average or below-average performers is hard
Current FocusRaising a new investment fund. UVP Early Innovation Fund II is a seed VC fund focused on Tech, Media, Consumer, and Finance
Developing a more visible external brand as a shy introvert
Being a good dad to my son and daughter
Managing my extended family through a multi-generational transition. This includes keeping the family close as much as it does estate planning
Hobbies
Soccer, Food, Travel, Skiing, Finance, Cars
Talk to me about
Building, investing, and exiting an early-stage business (idea stage to exit; funding to staffing to business models)
M&A strategy. I’m an ex-banker, but still a M&A junkie! Love the art of the deal
New emerging business models. I love debating the new by leveraging what’s worked and not worked in the past. From applied AI to marketing tech to consumer hair color and everything in between
Family offices (from small to institutional class) and how they are managed and work
I want to talk to you about
Raising capital for a VC fund, including what LPs are looking for and what managers and LPs are seeing on the horizon
How are founders building their companies in the current economic climate? How is everyone balancing ideation, fundraising, scaling, and exiting?
Ideas for building a personal brand
