Stephen Hays

Stephen Hays is the Founder and Managing Partner of What If Ventures, a VC firm investing in early stage mental health and addiction recovery related startups. What If Ventures was formed in the spring of 2019 and closed its first investment in January 2020. Since then, What If Ventures has invested in more than 80 startups and has deployed $100mm of capital. Stephen also founded and managed Deep Space Ventures from 2015 until 2018. During that time he invested in 25 seed and series-A stage startups in the B2B SaaS, esports and FinTech spaces. Personal struggles with addiction and mental health led Stephen to step away from Deep Space Ventures in late 2018 and begin to focus on addiction recovery and mental health both personally and professionally. The Deep Space portfolio has achieved outsized returns with approximately 3x TVPI just 4 years since inception with 5 exits and nearly a dozen series-A and later rounds within its portfolio companies. Prior to founding Deep Space Ventures, Stephen worked as an investment banker for 6+ years in both New York and Dallas. During this time, he executed a numerous capital markets and M&A transactions for Fortune 500 companies. Stephen is a a graduate of West Point and obtained his MBA from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt.