Dave Yen was tinkering with the latest AI models and vibe-coding his way through investment memos when he realized the entire VC tech stack was broken.
Yen had been a YC founder, launched an open-source developer platform while working for Shopify, and launched a quantum computing cloud.
Then, three years ago, he'd helped start a venture firm, Orange Collective, focused on YC companies.
"It's ironic how shitty the software is for VCs," Yen says. "We're supposed to be evaluating the future of technology, but we're stuck using tools from 2010."
Many VCs use legacy CRMs which cost thousands per month with zero AI features. Investment memos get buried in Dropbox folders behind DocSend links. Most VCs outsource the actual analysis to junior associates who've never met the founders.
So instead of complaining, Yen vibe-coded his own solution with Cursor.
Six months later, he's built an entire CRM that generates AI-powered investment memos, analyses his portfolio, and lets LPs chat with company data in plain English.
Orange Collective's AI generated dashboard for its portfolio company, Mastra
The memos are so good, Yen says, that the portfolio founders often ask for access in order to share with their other investors.
The kicker? Yen built his conviction in Mastra by using it to power his system.
Building with Mastra
Yen's architecture combines Next.js with TypeScript, shadcn UI components, and Supabase for storage. Firecrawl handles automated web scraping of YC profiles and company data.
Mastra handles the agentic layer:
- Multi-step workflows for memo generation
- Agent routing for different query types (company-specific vs. portfolio-wide)
- Hot-swappable LLMs across providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini
"I started with basic OpenAI API calls," Yen explains. "But once I needed to ingest documents, run multiple agents, and pass context between steps, I needed proper workflow orchestration."
The system generates investment analyses that combine competitive research, market dynamics, and founder backgrounds—work that traditionally takes days. It's a great foundation for Yen to quickly add his own notes. The system allows Yen to spend the majority of his time building relationships with founders instead of writing reports.
Orange Collective's daily scout report for interesting YC companies to keep an eye on.
Looking Forward
While keeping the system internal for now, Yen has essentially built a blueprint for modern VC operations. He imagines that a single partner could run a $100 million fund with AI handling the analysis and operational overhead.
"Mastra makes it possible for someone like me—a VC who moonlights as a coder—to actually build production-grade AI applications," he notes.
The irony isn't lost on him. While evaluating companies building the future of AI, he's building that future for his own industry—one vibe-coded feature at a time.