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Amy Yin

Venture Partner and Director of Product Management

Amy Yin is a Venture Partner at defy.vc, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Woodside, California. She assumed this role in October 2023, where she focuses on helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses through hands-on coaching, investment, and leveraging her extensive network of engineers and operators. Her expertise includes areas such as founder-led sales, hiring, and building high-performance cultures.12

Before joining defy.vc, Amy was the CEO and founder of OfficeTogether, a company that developed office reservation and scheduling software. OfficeTogether was acquired by Envoy in January 2023, where she continued her career as the Director of Product Management, leading the launch of a significant product line known as Envoy Workplace.12

Amy's background also includes engineering roles at notable companies like Coinbase and Facebook, where she contributed to product development and growth initiatives. Additionally, she has been involved in educational initiatives, volunteering as an instructor for Girls Who Code.12

Highlights

Jul 19 · linkedin

"How does it feel to be a minority in tech?"

One of the girls of the Athena Fellowship asked during a panel I did this evening with Sahar Mohammadzadeh, Nicole Zhang and Isabella Delbakhsh.

My response: YES, the world is biased. It's never been easy to be a woman in high tech, whether that's in engineering, as a founder or as an investor. Despite my computer science degree and years of working as an engineer and engineering manager at top tech companies, I have still been mistaken as a non-technical founder.

AND I don't let it get under my skin. I can't control the world around me. I can only control how I show up. How big of a smile I put on. How big of a risk I take. How much passion and energy I put into the task ahead of me.

I told the girls that only I can control how I talk to myself and that on some days, I'm the only person telling me that I'm awesome, and that today, I was on the panel to them that THEY are awesome. So if you are reading this message, today, I'm telling you that YOU are awesome, in case no one else has told you that today. ❤️

"How does it feel to be a minority in tech?"

One of the girls of the Athena Fellowship asked during
Jul 15 · linkedin

I contributed to the Forbes article, “How to become a VC”!

Step 1: Live, Eat, And Breathe Technology 🍽️

  • have a passion for game-changing technologies and finding the people who create them.

Step 2: Build 🛠️

  • Get out there and start something, whether that’s a startup (ideally), working at a startup, bringing like-minded folks together or hustling on a side project.

Step 3: Be Helpful 👩‍🔬

  • Figure out how to be helpful to other builders. Much of VC is about your reputation and how much you can help founders and operators with their ideas. Start building up your karma account.

Step 4: Start Investing 💸

  • If you can afford it, try angel investing to see if you like it and are good at it. That’s what I did, while I was an engineer at Coinbase, and found that my network and experience were directly applicable to early stage founders and was able to identify some breakout founders like Matt Schulman at Pave.

Step 5: Get Noticed 😎

  • Get noticed. Unfortunately, this can take a bit of luck. Many VC jobs are invite-only so getting your name out there and letting potential employers know that you are on the market is about networking with the right people so that you are top of mind when one of those rare opportunities comes up.

Link in comments 👇 thanks to the author Dasha Shunina for including me in this piece!

Related Questions

What are some of the key projects Amy Yin has worked on at defy.vc?
How did Amy Yin's experience as CEO of OfficeTogether influence her role at defy.vc?
What makes Amy Yin's approach to venture capital unique?
How does Amy Yin's background in software engineering benefit her work at defy.vc?
What are some of the companies in defy.vc's portfolio that Amy Yin has been involved with?
Amy Yin
Amy Yin, photo 1
Amy Yin, photo 2
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Experience

Venture Partner at defy.vc (October 2023 - Present)
Director of Product Management at Envoy (January 2023 - Present)

Education

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Secondary Field in Economics at Harvard University

Location

San Francisco, California, United States