Kelly Nyland
Open to advisory
Menu
WorkThoughtsInvestmentsPress
Investments

Where I put my
time, money, and
conviction.

Here are some of the companies I advise, back, and participate as a board member. I really enjoy early stage when the path isn’t clear. And I’ve had the most fun surprising the world with mass consumer adoption campaigns.

Consultant
Executive co-pilot
Freespoke AI search without bias CEO Advisor → Particula A magical tech twist on classic games CEO Advisor ↗ PopSockets The global phone accessories brand CEO Advisor ↗
Angel Investor
Currently 13× MOIC
Apptronik Apollo, the 'iPhone' of humanoid robots, just under $1B raised Angel Investor ↗ Loops Orchestration layer for commerce, backed by a16z speedrun Angel Investor ↗ In-seam Luxury retail platform built for personal stylists Angel Investor ↗

Invest alongside Capital Factory & Umami Capital.

Board Member
12 years · exec, observer & advisor seats
Skop (acq. Peloton) Connected pilates reformer Board of Directors → Revolar Personal safety wearable for teens Board of Advisors ↗ Maslo Friendly computers Early Advisor ↗ Shine Elevate your bathroom Board Observer ↗ Whole Insight Consumer health platform Advisory Board ↗ Soundwall Art meets audio Board of Advisors →
EIR · 2024–2025

Following my windup at Whym, I spent time with Bright Ventures, M13 + Alpaca VC exploring agentic solutions in the consumer market and serving as a GTM advisor for their portfolio companies.

Deal Flow

I meet new founders through my personal network, Techstars affiliation and Snap alumni. This list doesn’t include the founders I meet via several AngelList syndicates or monthly updates I receive from friendly funds.

Investments From

As the founder and CEO at Whym, I received strong support from venture capitalists and institutional angels in prominent tech hubs including Silicon Valley, New York, London and Los Angeles.

Company / Firm
For Founders

How to Fundraise

A six-part series on running your own pre-seed or seed process — qualifying investors, assembling materials, keeping momentum, and turning rejection into insight. Recorded because most fundraising advice is written by the people on the other side of the table.

  1. 00 Intro: What to Expect From This Series Why Kelly built a fundraising series: the gap between VC-written advice and what founders actually need to run a pre-seed or seed process themselves. →
  2. 01 Step 1: How to Qualify Your Investors Qualifying investors before you pitch them — check size, stage fit, lead vs. follow, and why the difference decides your whole process. →
  3. 02 Step 2: How to Set Up Your Fundraising Process Building the pipeline, the tooling and the cadence that turn a raise from a series of one-off conversations into a process you control. →
  4. 03 Step 3: How to Prepare the Documents You'll Need The document set a seed round actually requires — deck, data room, model, updates — and how each one gets used in the room. →
  5. 04 Step 4: How to Keep Up Momentum in Your Raise Momentum is the raise. How to sequence conversations, run parallel tracks and avoid the stalls that kill otherwise fundable rounds. →
  6. 05 Step 5: How to Turn Rejection Into Insight Kelly talked to roughly 700-800 investors. What the no’s tell you, how to ask for the real reason, and how to feed it back into the process. →