Ethan Austin
Fintech Investor | Pretty Decent Human | Not on Forbes 30 Under 30
Denver, Colorado
Overview
Work Experience
Founding Partner
2022 - Current
Outside VC is a pre-seed venture firm investing into outsider founders building a more equitable and just financial system. We write $100K-$250K first checks into companies with the aim of lifting up 100M people to the middle class over the next decade.
Outside VC is an investment firm.
Lecturer
2023 - 2023
Co-teach an entrepreneurship class to undergrads.
Chief Strategy Officer
2020 - 2022
Managing Director
2019 - 2020
Director
2017 - 2020
Techstars is an accelerator that provides pre-seed investment and mentoring for various early stage startups.
Raised $108,919,999.00 from SVB Financial Group and Foundry Group.
Advisor
2014 - 2017
Arcadia is a clean energy startup backed by Tiger Global that gives consumers the opportunity to choose clean energy alternatives through their monthly electric bill.
Arcadia is a climate software and data company that specializes in decarbonizing the electric grid.
Raised $575,500,000.00 from BoxGroup, Triangle Peak Partners, G2 Venture Partners, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Camber Creek, Energy Impact Partners, Broadscale and Macquarie Asset Management.
Board Director
2014 - 2016
Climate Cycle is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, founded out of a concern that today’s youth lack the tools necessary to respond to global warming or benefit from the emerging green economy.
Co-founder and President
2008 - 2015
- GiveForward was acquired in 2017 and is now a part of Gofundme - Built team from 0 to 37 employees and millions of dollars in annual revenue - Raised $7M in capital (Founder Collective, First Round Capital, Techstars, Naval Ravikant, etc) - Generated $5M/month in GMV + 3M unique monthly visitors - Featured in thousands of articles including NYT, WSJ, TIME, INC, ATLANTIC, WAPO, FORBES - Built product with NPS of 80+ OUR STORY We built the world's first medical crowdfunding platform in 2008. Over the course of eight years we helped people raise $200M for their loved ones' medical expenses and saved an estimated 10,000+ lives. GiveForward's early success helped spawn a new global category (medical crowdfunding) and the creation of platforms like Youcaring, Gofundme and Facebook's personal cause fundraising platform. By normalizing vulnerability and providing a platform for compassion, we helped create a new way for friends and family to offer love and for recipients to receive love during life's most difficult moments. OUR IMPACT - Honored at White House; Named Best New Social Innovation in the United States in 2012; - Saved an estimated 10,000+ lives directly through the platform - Reduced total medical bankruptcies in America by more than 4% (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c4c7/148df6f372a853ac6f9f7f56701ce165188c.pdf) MY ROLE Operationally, I was responsible for marketing/growth, customer experience, team culture / people ops and talent acquisition, fundraising and investor relations.
Co-founder
2009 - 2012
E-commerce site where proceeds benefitted local non-profits and schools.
Class of 2010
2010 - 2010
Techstars is an accelerator that provides pre-seed investment and mentoring for various early stage startups.
Raised $108,919,999.00 from SVB Financial Group and Foundry Group.
Writer
2008 - 2009
I wrote a humor column about goofy, pop-culture stuff on the Interwebz. Miraculously, I somehow managed to attract over 1 million unique visitors to my column and had the highest fan rating of all authors on the site.
Education
BA
2000 - 2004
Product Management Certificate
2016 - 2016
J.D.
2004 - 2007