Haley Bryant - Hustle Fund

What does it mean to invest when moats are disappearing and anyone can build an MVP by 1 a.m.? That question sits at the center of this conversation with Haley Bryant, Partner at Hustle Fund, one of the earliest voices to appear in the VC Uncovered newsletter.Hustle Fund invests at the earliest stages, writing first checks into companies 50% of the time across B2B, fintech, and health tech. Haley is based in the DMV and has spent the past year expanding her focus into cybersecurity, dual-use technology, and energy, backed by capital awarded from Washington, D.C.The conversation opens on a theme that runs through everything: execution speed. Haley describes a founder she nearly passed on because he had no defensible moat. His response was direct. His only moat was execution velocity. She wrote the check. The business has been moving ever since, starting in fintech and expanding into physical AI. That outcome shapes how she approaches sourcing now, spending more time with teams over weeks to measure pace rather than evaluating a pitch deck as a static snapshot.Drew and Haley also dig into what "AI-first" actually looks like when evaluating companies. Drew's threshold is simple: are founders running out of AI credits multiple days a week? If they are, the behavior is there. The tools are the same for everyone. What separates founders is how obsessively they use them.On the fintech side, Drew makes the case that embedded fintech is no longer a wave, it has already passed. The opportunity now sits in the unsexy, deeply technical infrastructure layers that most investors never think to look for. He describes this as invisible fintech, businesses that do not look like fintech from the outside but are powered entirely by financial rails underneath. Haley connects this to her conviction in vertical AI, particularly businesses that can get into the flow of payments at the industry level.The two also discuss the consortium model, a strategy where early-stage founders partner with companies in adjacent spaces to create distribution leverage and show up to enterprise customers as a more complete solution rather than a point product.Haley closes on two areas she is actively backing. One is Fortify Education, a lending-as-a-service platform for trade schools helping more people access skilled trades at a time when the workforce gap is widening. The other is a satellite communications company building Twilio-style infrastructure for laser-based data transmission between satellites, a space she believes is deeply underserved given how much data will need to move as AI infrastructure expands into orbit.Speed round topics include Haley's side gig teaching SoulCycle, the case for the nine-minute nap, OpenAI Whisper as a daily AI tool, and a recommendation for "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind," a book on curiosity that she says shaped how she approaches both investing and life.This season is supported by SVB. Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. Member FDIC. SVB is a trusted collaborator for the founders pushing boundaries and the investors who back them. We're proud to have them as our sponsor.Please note, this podcast is for informational purposes and is not investment, financial, or legal advice. The views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of SVB.