Seattle VC Profile: Elizabeth Scallon, Find Ventures

When I started Ascend in 2019, I realized even though I was o-l-d OLD, I had more in common with the folks in town who were earlier in their professional investing journeys than the venerable VC’s I’d pitched as a founder. I admire and respect the new wave of Seattle/Pacific Northwest venture capitalists, and thought it would be fun to profile some of our region’s up and coming VC talents in these pages. —KW

Elizabeth Scallon, Cofounder and Board Chair of Find Ventures, has been a catalyst for change and a friend to founders for years. From HP to Amazon to WeWork, she’s run incubators, seeded talent, and created hundreds of opportunities for startup to find their wings. Now, she’s created Find Ventures: a first-stage non-dilutive funder that envisions a world where all entrepreneurs have an equitable opportunity in building companies and a confident shot at solving our world’s greatest challenges.

What made you decide to be a professional investor?

A few things:

I want to live in a better world tomorrow than I live in today.
I love how imagination and wondering "what if" can lead to new business ideas, and through team building, customer discovery and product creation can turn into a thriving business (with a bunch of steps in between of course).
I want to support entrepreneurship for everyone. I am tired of the perpetual funding bias for BIPOC, LGBTQIA, Women, Non-binary, disabled, immigrant, and other founders.
I believe when people are business creators, they can increase economic wellbeing and quality of life not only for themselves, and family, but also for their community. And it's important to create businesses that have a sense of responsibility to their communities from the start.

What did you do before becoming an investor and how does that benefit your founders?

I have led many startup/new venture creation programs. Some of them are: CoMotion Labs at University of Washington, WeWork Labs for West Coast and Latin America, the inaugural Softbank Emerge Accelerator program, the inaugural Maritime Blue Innovation Accelerator, and now the inaugural Equity Innovation Accelerator.

I have worked at Amazon in their corporate venture arms, Alexa Fund and Smbhav Fund, as well as their innovation arm, Grand Challenge. My day job is currently the Lead of Incubation Enablement at HP.

I teach entrepreneurship at the UW Foster Business School, part of the undergraduate and MBA programs and Masters in Science of Entrepreneurship program.

How this helps founders is that I have deep networks, some insights, and lots of learning lessons to share.

What are your most successful investments so far?

For Find Ventures, we have just started to allocate funding and time will tell. Our portfolio is: Bio Fiber, Circled In, ClearBrief, Coltrain, GoldenSHERPA, Intentionalist, Lightsprite, NiftMint, Spritz, & WhyLabs.

I would love to shout out the following startups that have been part of my earlier programs/ones that I have supported in some small way (but may not have received funding directly from the program): GameJolt, Rebellyous Foods, CloudPaper, Pure Watercraft , Discovery Health , Koniku and so many more!

Why should founders want you on their cap table?

Find Ventures is a non-dilute investment. I won't be on your cap table, but you will have to sign a pledge to pay it forward if you make it big to seed the next generation of founders.

How many new pitches (actual calls/zooms) do you take per month?

It's summer, so for this month 8 (and some fall/winter months can easily go to 50+), and currently my calls revolve around if I can provide help/guidance/connections for the teams. This is not for an investment from Find Ventures, as Find Ventures is not actively seeking founders/startups right now.

How many new investments do you make per year?

We have just started this year, and our first portfolio is 10. Our goal is to raise enough capital each year to deploy to 10+ startups.

What's your sweet spot(s) in terms of check size, valuation, and vertical?

Up to $100K, early stage, and high tech. I personally love deep tech that has the convergence of multiple scientific disciplines.

What one portfolio company do you want to hype for us here?

ALL OF THEM!

Bio Fiber, Circled In, ClearBrief, Coltrain, GoldenSHERPA, Intentionalist, Lightsprite, NiftMint, Spritz, & WhyLabs.

What do you think the next ten years looks like for Seattle/Pacific Northwest startups?

We have the best minds in the world here, I want to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to solve our biggest challenges and I think with Find Ventures and other great programs around our city, we will be leading the way to having Seattle break into the top 5 startup ecosystems in the world (currently we are number 9).