# Sam Yam

> Sam Yam is a seed investor at Patreon (San Francisco) backing FinTech and Finance. See 12 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Patreon](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/patreon)
- Location: San Francisco, United States
- Total investments: 12
- Last investment: Jan 2023
- Lead investor: 0%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/samyam
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/samyamiam
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/samuelyam

Sam Yam is a seed investor at Patreon in San Francisco focused on FinTech and Finance. Sam Yam is the Co-Founder, President and CTO of Patreon. He attended Stanford University.

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $1.1M–$7.2M |
| Series A | $11M–$20M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| FinTech | 3 | 25% |
| Finance | 3 | 25% |
| Financial Services | 3 | 25% |
| EdTech | 2 | 17% |
| Internet | 2 | 17% |

23 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 7 | 58% |
| Series A | 2 | 17% |
| Funding Round | 2 | 17% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 9 | 75% |
| Australia | 1 | 8% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Beaubble | beauty + bubble = beaubble [byoo-buhl] |  | Seed | Jan 31, 2023 |  |
| Jubilee Media | Media company for positive, purpose-driven millennials. | $1.1M | Seed | Sep 28, 2022 |  |
| Navier | Navier is America's next-generation maritime company. Our mission is to build the most compelling zero-emission marine vessels, which drastically reduce operational costs and enable a new kind of clean, scalable waterborne transportation for people and goods worldwide. | $7.2M | Seed | Feb 07, 2022 |  |
| Collective | Collective operates as an online back-office platform designed for self-employed people. Its technology and a team of trusted advisors give its members the freedom to focus on what matters by taking care of everything from business incorporation to accounting, bookkeeping, tax services, and access to a community all in one platform. | $20M | Series A | May 12, 2021 |  |
| Collective | Collective operates as an online back-office platform designed for self-employed people. Its technology and a team of trusted advisors give its members the freedom to focus on what matters by taking care of everything from business incorporation to accounting, bookkeeping, tax services, and access to a community all in one platform. | $20M | Series A | May 12, 2021 |  |
| Backer | Backer is a social savings platform that enables users to set up a tax-free 529 account where family and friends can contribute. It is backed by leading edtech and fintech venture firms, Princeton University, Dartmouth University, USC’s Marshall School of Business, and founders of SoFi, Facebook, Quizlet, CircleUp, AltSchool, Patreon, andLendingHome.Backer was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. | $8.4M |  | Apr 28, 2021 |  |
| Backer | Backer is a social savings platform that makes it easy for parents to invest tax-free for education with a 529 Savings Plan, and do so with robust financial support from family and friends. Backer has helped its families avoid over $75M in student debt so far, with 40% of the savings coming from grandparents, uncles/aunts, and more distantfriends/relatives.Backer recently announced a $8.4 million round of funding led by Crosslink Capital's Jim Feuille (board director at Chime) and Rally Ventures with participation from Corellation Ventures, Princeton, Dartmouth, USC, and prominent angels including founders of SoFi, Patreon, Quizlet, and CircleUp. | $9M |  | Apr 28, 2021 |  |
| Backer | Backer is a social savings platform that makes it easy for parents to invest tax-free for education with a 529 Savings Plan, and do so with robust financial support from family and friends. Backer has helped its families avoid over $75M in student debt so far, with 40% of the savings coming from grandparents, uncles/aunts, and more distantfriends/relatives.Backer recently announced a $8.4 million round of funding led by Crosslink Capital's Jim Feuille (board director at Chime) and Rally Ventures with participation from Corellation Ventures, Princeton, Dartmouth, USC, and prominent angels including founders of SoFi, Patreon, Quizlet, and CircleUp. | $5.3M | Seed | Apr 28, 2021 |  |
| Linktree | Linktree is a social media startup company that offers a platform to enhance the internet presence of influencers and e-commerce stores. They help brands, artists, publishers, agencies and influencers better control their presence online. They are a team of developers, designers, marketers, and biz ops, committed to equipping content creators withthe best tools for getting their work seen. | $10.7M | Series A | Oct 26, 2020 |  |
| Run The World | Run The World is a digital platform that enables people to collaborate with and learn from others. Run The World will help people build their event through simple plug and play templates, enabling them to create an engaging online event for their attendees. Run the World enables professional organizations to organize more frequent meetings andengage more members, with little financial cost and time needed. They offer exciting formats and proprietary technology that enable your attendees to interact with speakers and socialize with each other in a fun and engaging way. | $4M | Seed | Feb 27, 2020 |  |

10 of 12 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Great Oaks Venture Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/great-oaks-venture-capital) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Princeton University](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/princeton-university) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Rally Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/rally-ventures) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Reach Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/reach-capital) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Ulu Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ulu-ventures) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [University of Southern California](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/university-of-southern-california) — VC Fund, 3 deals together

## About Patreon

VC Fund · San Francisco, United States

Patreon is a membership platform that makes it easy for artists and creators to get paid. It operates a platform that enables content creators, as well as artists, to be able to fund their work. It's Patreon.com, a communications platform, enables connection between users and makes various accessible content, including videos, photographs,images, artwork, graphics, audio clips, comments, data, text, software, scripts, projects, other material and information, and associated trademarks and copyrightable works.Patrons pledge to support artists and creators on a recurring basis for each work created, empowering a new generation of creators the ability to make a living off of their passions.

5 contacts available at Patreon.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| John Wu | Chief of Staff to the CEO | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/john-wu-f0dd |
| Betsy McCormick | VP of Creator Success | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/betsy-mccormick-4fb0 |
| Danny Wen | Investor | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/danny-wen-2 |
| Domagoj Katavic | Senior Software Engineer | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/domagoj-katavic |
| George Bonner | Product Manager | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/george-bonner |

## Similar investors

### Similar industry
- [Robert DeMaio](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/robert-charles-demaio) — Angel Investor
- [SV Angel](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sv-angel) — VC Fund
- [Lightspeed Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/lightspeed-venture-partners) — VC Fund

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund

### Similar country
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Artesian VC](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/artesian-capital-management) — VC Fund
- [Blackbird Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/blackbird-ventures-australia) — VC Fund

## Featured in investor lists
- [Finance Angel Investors in United States](https://shizune.co/investors/finance-angel-investors-united-states)
- [Marketplace Angel Investors in Australia](https://shizune.co/investors/marketplace-angel-investors-australia)
- [Social Media Investors in Australia](https://shizune.co/investors/social-media-investors-australia)
- [Social Media Angel Investors in Australia](https://shizune.co/investors/social-media-angel-investors-australia)
- [Social Media Angel Investors in Oceania](https://shizune.co/investors/social-media-angel-investors-oceania)
- [Internet Angel Investors in Australia](https://shizune.co/investors/internet-angel-investors-australia)

## FAQ

### What does Sam Yam invest in?

Sam Yam invests primarily in FinTech, Finance and Financial Services startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 12 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Sam Yam's check size?

Sam Yam typically joins rounds of $1.1M–$7.2M at Seed and $11M–$20M at Series A. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Sam Yam participates in.

### When did Sam Yam last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Sam Yam closed in Jan 2023. Shizune tracks 12 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

# About Shizune
Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features:
- 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others)
- Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data
- Updated daily from public funding news
- CSV and Excel export

The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co