Will McClelland photo
Investor profile

Will McClelland

Co-Founder & General Partner, Elizabeth Street Ventures

About

Will McClelland brings an unusual background for a consumer VC, combining his experience as co-founder of Bambike (a bamboo bicycle social enterprise in the Philippines that even produced a bike given as a state gift to President Obama) with eight years interviewing hedge fund managers at a fund-of-funds that grew from $250M to $3.5B, giving him distinctive skills in evaluating founders as "people businesses." He applies a hedge-fund-style, thematic approach to early consumer investing while maintaining his operator identity through Bambike and positioning himself as part cultural anthropologist, part financial analyst—with more than half of his ~30 investments having female founders and a track record including category-defining brands like ThirdLove, Harry's, and Rothy's. Will McClelland brings an unusual background for a consumer VC, combining his experience as co-founder of Bambike (a bamboo bicycle social enterprise in the Philippines that even produced a bike given as a state gift to President Obama) with eight years interviewing hedge fund managers at a fund-of-funds that grew from $250M to $3.5B, giving him distinctive skills in evaluating founders as "people businesses." He applies a hedge-fund-style, thematic approach to early consumer investing while maintaining his operator identity through Bambike and positioning himself as part cultural anthropologist, part financial analyst—with more than half of his ~30 investments having female founders and a track record inc

Works at

Investment focus

Stages
Pre-Seed
Seed
Series A
Sectors
Consumer
CPG / D2C
Retail Tech
FinTech
Food
Ag

Investment details

Avg check size$500K
Can lead rounds
Yes
Geographies
USA