Joe Tsai
Investor
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
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....
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for Early Stage Companies
In our latest session from the Mucker Growth Series featuring Ethan Smith from Graphite, we explored AEO, a significant new approach for optimizing visibility in AI-driven search, particularly relevant as...
Startup Guide to AI Visibility: Be the Brand ChatGPT Recommends
Introduction Today, users aren’t just searching on Google. They’re asking ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI systems for advice. AI visibility is the new frontier of brand awareness....
Practical Uses of AI & Automation for Startup Operations
In a recent Mucker Growth Series session, we invited Rock Vitale, Founder & CEO of Easie, to share how he’s helped early-stage teams move from manual, fragmented workflows to streamlined,...
2025 New York Tech Week Recap Of Mucker Sessions
Last week during New York Tech Week 2025, we joined more than 1,000 events hosted by founders, investors, and VCs. This post is a full Mucker recap of the three...
How to Build a Customer Support Function for Startups Using AI Tools with Alex Velinov
Delivering high-quality customer support can be one of the most resource-draining parts of a startup. The good news: we’re at a turning point where founders can use AI tools to...