Lily Lyman

General Partner

2018 - Current

Underscore VC is an early-stage, Boston-based venture capital firm backing bold entrepreneurs with an aligned community designed to fit each startup's unique needs As a former operator in the mobile industry, I'm spending time in the digitization of industries like Insurance, Digital Health, Commerce, as well as the Future of Work, and backing founders coming out of the academic ecosystem.

Member Board of Directors

2024

Board Member, Vice Chair

2022

The NEVCA fosters a collaborative, inclusive, and prosperous innovation ecosystem on behalf of New England's VC industry. Operating across four pillars - Venture Community, Regional Brand, Workforce Development, and Public Policy - the association's initiatives impact the community at large: events connect founders, funders, and innovators; legislative advocacy promotes economic growth; programs bolster professional development across the venture landscape.

Funding Board member

2022

The Allston Venture Fund is an investment collaborative focused on providing both pre-seed funding and equity-free grants to ventures led by Harvard students. Formed in 2019, The Allston Venture Fund is an investment collaborative focused on providing funding to high-potential, high-impact ventures led by Harvard students.

Funding Board Member

2022

The MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund Program (MIT Sandbox, for short) provides meaningful seed funding (of up to $25,000) for student-initiated ideas, mentoring from within MIT and from a broad network of committed partners, and tailored educational experiences. The objective of MIT Sandbox is to help students to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to be successful innovators and entrepreneurs. It is about developing people, not ideas. However, the learning is in the context of advancing innovative ideas or projects of the students’ own creation — ones that serve important needs in the world. MIT Sandbox also bridges other existing campus programs, including StartMIT; Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation; Beaver Works; Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship, Venture Mentoring Service, and MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. MIT Sandbox, open to all MIT undergraduate and graduate students, provides: seed funding, tailored education through courses, workshops, events; advising/mentoring from entrepreneurs, industry experts, investors; and access to resources, including the hobby shop, maker spaces, materials, software. Contact sandbox@mit.edu

Boston Chapter, Leadership team

2020

All Raise arms female founders and funders with access, guidance, and support to exponentially accelerate their success and propel the entire industry forward. In this venture-backed ecosystem, access is not the end-game, it’s just the beginning.

Growth & Connectivity

2013 - 2018

• Responsible for product and go-to-market strategy and operations of global Growth Programs for Facebook's Family of Apps through partnerships with mobile operators. Product programs include international expansion of Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, internet.org, and other connectivity initiatives. • Drive product strategy for Partnerships team, working with Product Managers to set product roadmaps, A/B testing plans, and roll out strategy. • Direct cross-functional project management, including Product, Analytics, Marketing, Product Marketing, Policy, Legal, and Engineering teams • Drive business development negotiations and partnership management with mobile operators C-suites to launch new projects and improve KPIs of growth projects.

Investment Committee Member

2016 - 2018

The Yard Ventures is a for profit VC fund which raises money from Harvard alums and invests in Harvard alum-led businesses. We invest alongside top-tier Venture Capital and Private Equity firms. Our portfolio spans a range of industries, stages and geographies, and investments can be seed, Series A, B, or even later.

Co-Founder

2014 - 2015

Co-founder of NECT, a company that develops and delivers food and beverage products using unique ingredients sourced from emerging markets, with the aim of re-imagining how we use the resources we have to serve consumers’ need for health, energy, and impact.

Consultant

2010 - 2012

Experience in strategy, partnerships, development of business model and growth strategy, market landscape assessment, organizational structure and change management, impact measurement across a variety of industries, including mobile/ICT, entrepreneurship, health, agriculture, industrials, and gender empowerment. Clients have included multinational corporations, startups, development organizations, foundations, and non-profits. Worked across a variety of geographies, including LatAm, Africa, MENA, Central Asia.