What a Former-Founder-Turned-VC Looks For

​Liz Wessel has seen both sides of the table.

​Before becoming a Partner at First Round Capital, she co-founded WayUp at 23, scaled it to 6M+ users, raised $40M, and exited via merger in 2021 — after nearly 8 years as CEO. Before that, she was part of the Product & Brand Marketing team at Google.

​Since joining First Round, Liz has also been named to the Forbes Midas Brink List 2025 — and brings a founder-first lens to seed investing.

​Join us for a conversation with Liz on what she and First Round looks for at the seed stage:

• ​Founder-Investor Edge — How building and exiting a company shapes the way Liz evaluates founders;

• ​What First Round Looks For — The signals, traits, and patterns that stand out at the earliest stages — before significant traction and a clear product-market fit;

• ​The Seed Playbook — What a generalist, stage-focused approach to investing actually looks like in practice, and what it means for founders across industries.

​There will be time for Q&A at the end. Most useful for early-stage founders, pre-seed and seed stage builders, and anyone preparing to raise their first round.

​Speakers:

• ​Liz Wessel: Liz is a Partner at First Round Capital, investing at the Seed and Pre-Seed stages. She was previously Co-Founder & CEO of WayUp — which grew to 6M users, raised $40M, and exited via merger in 2021 — and a Visiting Group Partner at Y Combinator. She has angel invested in 45+ companies including ScaleAI, Ramp, and Ro.

​About Us: Backed by a16z and Y Combinator, Metal is an AI-native operating system for founders raising venture rounds.