Joe Tsai
Partner
Joe manages Mucker’s Early Fund, leading Seed and Series A investments with a particular focus on software, fintech and marketplaces. Previously, Joe was a Vice President on the software investment team at Stripes, where he invested in companies including On Running (NYSE: ONON), BacklotCars (acquired by KAR), Cypress.io, Emotive, Pleo, and Sift.
Prior to Stripes, Joe was a management consultant in McKinsey’s business technology practice, where he advised Fortune 500 clients on digital strategy and transformation topics including eCommerce enablement, online customer journeys, data analytics and cloud infrastructure.
Earlier, Joe was one of the first research analysts at CB Insights, where he delved into the industry of startups and venture capital while working within what was then a ~10 person startup itself.
A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology, Joe holds a BS in Economics from the Wharton School and a BAS in Computer Science from Penn Engineering.
Joe can be reached at joe at mucker dot com.
Articles by Joe Tsai
LA Tech Week 2025 Day 2 Recap: Startup Growth – Tuesday Oct 14
After a packed AI Building Day, we continued LA Tech Week with Startup Growth Day, a full schedule of sessions focused on go-to-market strategy, founder journeys, and scaling startups in...
LA Tech Week 2025 Day 1 Recap: AI Building – Monday Oct 13
We hosted three full days of events during LA Tech Week, each one focused on helping founders learn, connect, and build with the latest in AI and startup growth. Day...
Using Customer Feedback to Build a Product that Customers Will Love
Customer feedback is the lifeblood of successful product development, but many startups struggle with collecting, validating, and prioritizing the constant stream of input from users, advisors, and internal teams. In...
How Shaun Merritt Vibe-Coded Karrot.ai As A Solo Builder
I recently had the opportunity to chat with Shaun Merritt, cofounder and CTO of Karrot.ai, a LinkedIn ABM tool. Shaun was kind enough to share a comprehensive breakdown of how...
7 Steps to Build a Product That Sells Itself
The Founder’s Mental Health Playbook: What I Learned After Nearly Burning Out
A hard-won guide to staying mentally healthy while building a startup I founded Stitcher, the podcast platform, in 2007 and ran it for seven years until we sold in 2014....