About Me

👋🏻 Hi, I’m Amanda Heyman. I invest in pre-seed companies making the 99% healthier, wealthier, and more resilient. 

I also help founders turn static into signal and build the base layer that makes companies investable.

I work 1:1 with founders raising their first round of institutional capital, helping them install the legal, strategic, and capital-readiness systems investors need to say yes.

Why I work this way

So many founders are brilliant and deeply experienced in their field.

What's missing isn't talent, it's translation. Nobody hands founders the gatekept knowledge that separates a yes from a no, or teaches them to speak investor.

So I try to be the kind of investor and advisor I wish I'd had when I was out there raising from angels and VCs myself: Honest reality checks early, the insider Silicon Valley knowledge that you can’t Google, and help understanding the topsy-turvy universe of venture capital.

A little more back story

After over 30 years in the Midwest — I’m a proud Minnesotan/ Badger/ Wolverine hybrid* — my family moved to the Bay Area in 2022.

Here’s what came before that:

  • I started my career as a newspaper reporter,

  • became a lawyer to champion underdogs,

  • founded a boutique law firm to work with food and ag entrepreneurs (while consulting for the United Nations),

  • co-founded a venture-backed fantasy soccer company,

  • and helped create Minnesota’s first inclusive startup accelerator (Lunar Startups)…

  • before co-founding Tundra Ventures.

I’m inspired by the hundreds of founders and investors I’ve been honored to work with over the years - especially those who are changing the face of innovation.

You can keep up with the latest and greatest over on LinkedIn.

*I also refuse to give up my em-dashes just because AI likes them so much…

Lunar Startups cohort 4, St. Paul MN

Team Tundra, standing on frozen Lake Harriet in Minneapolis

Want to work together?

Most founders I meet are building something real and valuable. They just haven’t learned to speak investor yet.

If that’s you, start with Warming House. I’ll fix your signals in one week.

Step into the warming house

Ready for deeper work inside your business? Explore Base Layer. You'll need this when investors start asking for your data room.

I want you to be able to send the right signals, inside and out.