Embrace the Weird, with Amanda Heyman

In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Amanda Heyman. Amanda went from journalism to a career in law, driven by a mission to serve the public interest and champion social justice. Then, life took a surprising turn when she and her husband saw a golden opportunity in fantasy soccer. Moving to a venture-backed business focused on growth and profit was a major pivot. Together, they co-founded Starting 11, a fantasy sports app that combined her husband’s 30,000-hour passion for fantasy sports with Amanda’s network and startup savvy. But stepping into the world of capitalism brought new challenges, like pitching for venture capital, raising funds, and weighing their financial goals against their principles. Amanda shares how she navigated this shift in mindset, balanced personal values with business ambition and managed the unique pressures of being in business with her husband. Amanda is co-founder and Managing Partner of Tundra Ventures, a pre-seed venture fund investing in companies focused on health, wealth and resilience solutions with 1) exquisite founder-market fit and 2) unique insight into untapped markets and overlooked end users. Prior to founding Tundra, Amanda spent four years as a Founding Partner at Lunar Startups, a Twin Cities-based accelerator designed to supercharge high-potential startup companies founded by diverse CEOs. Amanda created her own proprietary system of business milestones linked to a curated digital platform that helped 75 Lunar cohort companies create a strong foundation for scale. Amanda has taken her proprietary system to Tundra Ventures, where it forms the backbone of Tundra’s founder support platform. In addition to her 10+ years of experience as an attorney for startups, Amanda is a seasoned entrepreneur. She co-founded and served as General Counsel for a venture-backed global sports technology company; prior to that she co-founded a boutique law firm focused on natural food startup companies. Amanda further developed expertise in the food and agriculture sphere as an international expert on organic agriculture for the United Nations in Mauritius, a Fellow in Practice at the Vermont Law School Center for Agriculture and Food Systems and a staff attorney at a national nonprofit law firm serving family farm businesses. Amanda has also handled FEMA appeals for Hurricane Katrina survivors, managed an online news network at a Boston digital media startup (acquired by MTV) and won awards for her newspaper reporting in Wisconsin and New Mexico. Amanda has served as an advisor and board member to various startup support organizations, including Forge North, The Nice Center at NDSU and Minnesota Cup. She was named a 2021 and 2020 Minnesota Rising Star by Super Lawyers/Thomson Reuters, a 2017 MN Cup High Tech Division Winner and a 2015 Women in Business award winner by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Amanda holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and earned a B.S. in Journalism and a Certificate in Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After many years living near the best lake in Minneapolis, she currently resides in the Bay Area with her husband and young daughter.