YAN SIM

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I’m a startup operator, advisor and investor. Most of all, I enjoy working with great people.

I also love the outdoors 🦀, listening to Rach II on rides 🌄, urbanism, traveling to new places, salt water ⛵, finding new ways of seeing the city 🚴, and meeting new people so please say hello 👋🏻.

Here’s a bit of my story, a repository of projects I admire, notes to self, and snippets of my travels and projects. I hope some of this inspires you too.

the journey🎢

It’s been a roller coaster journey, launching startups from scratch as employee #1, to scaling companies 15X to almost $1B in revenues within 2 years. I’ve been fortunate to have been in the trenches with amazing people who have shaped how I think and work.

I’m also taking time off to explore new opportunities so if you know of a company that could use a strategy and operations leader, let me know!

It was amazing being a part of the trailblazing startup that essentially launched the direct-to-consumer movement back in the day, and set the bar high for giving customers a magical experience. In the time I was there, we grew from $250M to $400M in revenues, and 125 stores across the country.

I had the opportunity to lead teams that managed and automated our Home Try-On program operations, launch 60+ new stores for retail expansion, and develop strategy for many other supply chain initiatives.

Series E / $750M ARR online grocery company

As Head of Strategy & Operations, I helped to scale Weee!, an online grocery startup, from $50M to $800M+ ARR in 2 years: owning P&L, building teams and being in the trenches scaling operations 15X through the pandemic, eventually shipping over 30K orders per day across 10+ fulfillment sites.

My teams launched strategic initiatives such as restaurant delivery, alcohol and e-commerce verticals to expand our service area to 75% of all ethnic customers in the US. We also built critical operations infrastructure, and developed a sales and operating planning process to balance supply and demand.

Venture studio / $400M+ venture fund

Launched a healthcare startup as a part of Atomic Ventures and advised portfolio companies on startup operations and supply chain.

Raised $7M seed-round to build operations, customer experience, finance teams to launch a direct to consumer startup focused on sleep within 6 months. Navigated complex FDA-regulated supplements manufacturing, developed double-blind, placebo-controlled sleep studies with a Harvard Medical School professor to test for efficacy. The vision was to meet people where they were with their sleep challenges, whether it be stress, nutrition or their sleep routine.

advising / investing

I’ve been grateful to work alongside some amazing founders and their companies, as well as funds, as an advisor and/or angel investor. I invest on my own and through Hustle Fund’s Angel Squad.

Please reach out if you think I might be able to help your startup/venture as an advisor/consultant or fractional-COO. I’m also always open to learning about companies making waves in their space.

projects I admire / things that inspire