EP 57: THE PATH TO VENTURE WITH HALEY ZOLLO
In this week’s episode Haley Zollo of Starting Line Ventures and I talk about this first truly digitally native generation of consumers, her path to venture from working in start-ups to now investing in and advising start-ups, and her fund and investment thesis. In her free time, Haley loves to play and teach poker, and how it develops skills used in business.
Haley Kwait Zollo is a Partner at Starting Line and was the first full-time addition to the team in July, 2019. Starting Line is an early stage venture capital fund that invests in consumer technology companies. Haley assists with everything from deal sourcing and diligence to portfolio and fund operational support.
Prior to joining Starting Line, Haley spent over half a decade leading venture-backed consumer retail startups. Most recently she was VP of Business Operations and Strategy at Mac & Mia, a personalized clothing service for children. Haley came on as one of the first 10 employees, scaled their remote sales team from 3 to 300 and helped lead their Series A of $5M. Mac & Mia was acquired by Stitch Fix Kids in the summer of 2019. Before joining Mac & Mia, Haley was an early hire at Trunk Club where she built the Strategy & Data Analytics team and was a key player in launching their Women’s line. Trunk Club was acquired by Nordstrom in 2014 for $350M.\
Haley started her career at KPMG in the Transaction Services practice, where she worked on financial due diligence deals for private equity mergers and acquisitions. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Accounting from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and also earned a CPA upon graduation. In her free time, Haley enjoys playing pickleball and teaching poker!
Starting Line invests in founders who are willing to take on substantial personal risks, out of fear of living a life of regret. Founders who are fundamentally unwilling to lose.
We invest in founders who are hellbent on reshaping the world, delivering a vision of what the world should look like with their product, and methodically working backwards to build each small step along the way.
We demand these principles because they’re the values that enable this fund to exist. Greatness attracts greatness and winners win. If this speaks to you, come partner with us.
