Quick answer
Sydney Singh is the founder and founding general partner of A26 Ventures, an early-stage venture fund that grew out of UCLA Anderson School of Management. She raised $524,000 from 108 first-time check writers. The fund writes $25,000 checks into UCLA-connected startups, and its roughly 110 members vote by majority on every investment.
Most venture funds ask founders to win over one partner. Sydney Singh built one where founders have to win over a room.
Singh is the founder of A26 Ventures, a small early-stage fund in Los Angeles. “I raised $524,000 from 108 first-time check writers,” she writes on @sydneyjsingh on TikTok, where she has been documenting what it is like to run a debut fund. Those investors do not just wire money and wait. They meet on Wednesday nights, hear founders pitch, and vote on where the money goes.
Key takeaways
- Singh founded A26 Ventures while studying for her MBA at UCLA Anderson. The fund calls itself UCLA’s first student-backed and operated early-stage fund.
- A26 raised $524,000 from 108 first-time check writers and now has about 110 investing members.
- The fund writes $25,000 checks at the first round into startups with a connection to UCLA, decided by a majority vote of members.
- Singh skipped the usual carried-interest fee on this debut fund, because her investors are taking a first-time bet on her.
- Her advice to founders: form an opinion, show mastery of your problem, and start building distribution now.
Who is Sydney Singh?
Singh, who also appears on A26’s materials as Sydney Tiedt, is an emerging fund manager in Los Angeles. A26’s team page lists her as Founder and Head of A26 Ventures, and she describes herself on TikTok as the fund’s founding GP, or general partner.
She started A26 while in the full-time MBA program at UCLA Anderson. The fund’s launch announcement describes it as UCLA’s first student-backed and operated early-stage fund, created by Anderson MBA students to support startup founders in Los Angeles.
How does A26 Ventures work?
A26 is structured like a fund but, in its own words, behaves like a network. The money is raised up front, so there is no scramble to syndicate each deal. When a vote passes, the $25,000 check goes out.
What makes it unusual is who decides. “To get a check from us you don’t just need to convince one partner,” Singh writes, “you need to convince the majority of our members.” The upside for founders is that a single pitch puts them in front of more than 100 investors and operators who now have a reason to help.
The process, laid out on the fund’s For Founders page, runs about eight to ten weeks:
- The intro. One member picks up the deal and becomes the founder’s “deal champion.”
- The diligence. A deal team of members who know the space reviews the deck and data room, and talks to an advisor or investor and a customer.
- The pitch. The founder presents to the full membership on a Wednesday night at 8 p.m. Pacific.
- The vote. A majority of the members who put money in decides.
A26 Ventures is different from other early stage funds
Who can pitch A26 Ventures?
A26 invests in startups connected to UCLA: students, alumni, faculty, researchers, or people building with them. Singh describes the thesis as “UCLA-connected startups (1 degree of separation),” with checks that can reach $50,000.
Beyond that, the fund looks for three things: something already built, an early signal such as users, pilots, a waitlist or revenue, and what it calls a founder with mastery. Small checks, Singh explains, work best at small valuations, because the fund needs enough ownership to survive at least two more funding rounds of dilution. In one video she explains why she said no to an introduction to a startup with $8 million in run-rate revenue.
Why did she skip the carry on her first fund?
Most venture funds charge a 2% management fee and take 20% of the profits, known as carry. Singh writes that she skipped the carry on A26.
Her reasoning is simple. A26 is her debut fund, a roughly $500,000 proof point that she can source great founders, raise capital and build a network of experts and co-investors. Her investors, she writes, “are taking a first-time bet on me like I am taking a first time bet on you.”
The bigger goal is a much larger Fund 1. That is also why she started posting regularly on TikTok in September 2026, calling it awkward and uncomfortable but necessary: to raise a bigger fund, she needs distribution, and she wants to be able to platform the founders she backs.
What advice does Sydney Singh give founders?
Her videos are short, direct and aimed at people raising a first round. Three ideas come up most:
- Form an opinion. “You’re the expert on whatever it is you’re working on,” she writes. She wants founders to show her something no one else is seeing.
- Show mastery. In an era when anyone can build with AI, she is most excited about founders who know the problem and the customer intuitively. That, she argues, is what keeps them from being “gobbled up by the big guys.”
- Distribution is the new moat. As more products flood the market, the ones that capture and keep customer attention will win, and community takes time to build. Her advice: start now.
It is the same lesson she is applying to herself, building an audience in public before she raises the next fund.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Sydney Singh?
Sydney Singh (also known as Sydney Tiedt) is the founder and founding general partner of A26 Ventures, an early-stage venture fund in Los Angeles that started at UCLA Anderson School of Management.
What is A26 Ventures?
A26 Ventures is a community-backed early-stage fund. About 110 members invest together and vote by majority on each deal. It writes $25,000 checks at the first round into startups connected to UCLA.
How much did A26 Ventures raise?
Singh says she raised $524,000 from 108 first-time check writers for A26, her debut fund.
Does A26 Ventures only invest in UCLA startups?
Most of its founders are connected to UCLA as students, alumni, faculty, researchers or through the people they build with. Singh describes the thesis as UCLA-connected startups within one degree of separation.
How do I pitch A26 Ventures?
Founders raising their first round can reach out through a26.vc. The fund looks for an MVP, early traction and a connection to UCLA, and its process takes about eight to ten weeks from intro call to vote.
Raising your first round?
Learn how to pitch A26 Ventures at a26.vc, and follow Sydney Singh’s fund-building journey on @sydneyjsingh on TikTok.
This profile is based on Sydney Singh’s public posts and A26 Ventures’ published materials. Booked Impact did not interview her, and she did not review this article before publication.
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