A Word to Entrepreneurs
As you will soon discover, YL Ventures is not just another venture capital fund.
We are entrepreneurs just like you, having exited our last startup immediately prior to launching this fund. We have a proven track record as entrepreneurs, having founded three successfully-exited technology startups. All of our exits have been relatively quick and medium size – just like the strategy of YL Ventures.
We are technologists like you who know your industry and can get to a deep understanding of your business within hours not weeks. We are young like you and we understand your needs and what motivates you, and our stated purpose is not just to generate significant returns for the fund, but also look after you and make sure that at the end of the day you get what you wanted. After all, we want you to come back and also refer your friends!
Professionally, we grew up together with the Internet through the boom-bust-boom cycle and we know what models work. We have worked in Silicon Valley, East Coast US, throughout Europe, Israel and parts of Asia. Over the years we have been exposed to hundreds of new technologies and business models.
Our medium-size exit strategy is consistent and proven. It has worked for us as entrepreneurs 3 out of 3 times, and we are all about doing for other entrepreneurs what we have previously done for ourselves. One of the most interesting parts of this strategy is that since the exit occurs early in the life of a company, entrepreneurs do not get diluted as much as they do when a company goes through many rounds of financing.
An early exit is also a great boost for your product or service because it will benefit from the expertise of the acquiring company’s sales and marketing forces, will be made available to a broader customer base, and will gain instant credibility as part of a market leader’s portfolio. It would therefore scale more rapidly than it would through organic growth, and even perhaps parlay these advantages into market dominance.
We invite you to read about us and about our differentiated strategy on our Web site, and would love to hear from you if you think we may be right for you.
About Our Due Diligence Process
As entrepreneurs we are well versed in dealing with venture capitalists. Our recollections involve months of ‘homework’ in which we had to prepare endless DCF models, other spreadsheets of this kind or the other, and detailed business plans that cover everything from stapler budgets to what we are going to do 5 years down the road.
Contrary to popular belief, YL Ventures employs a rapid and practical triple-win due diligence process. Simply put, as soon as we’re interested we introduce you to potential acquirers or customers right in your specialization, and carefully listen to the feedback. This is a triple-win process because:
We get real answers - YL Ventures gets a very accurate, insider’s perspective as to the viability of your products and the potential of your technology. Some initial conversations even turn into acquisition discussions later on.
Acquirers/customers learn of new technologies - corporations trust YL Ventures to introduce them to quality innovations that they would not typically be exposed to in the ordinary course of business.
You get customer introductions - we introduce you, the entrepreneurs, to some of the most important global players in your industry and you are free to continue your involvement with them even if we decide not to invest.
Some people ask us whether we are worried about being circumvented, whereby you and the potential acquirers would hook up on your own after the introduction. We are not worried about this because we typically introduce you to these corporations when you are not yet ready to be acquired, and you need financing to get you to the point whereby an acquisition can be discussed. Furthermore, the relationships we have with most participating corporations have been established long ago and are based on significant mutual trust – these relationships are valuable to acquirers who would not want to miss out on future deal-flow.
We Are Here For You
Please feel free to contact us – we are very accessible and answer most emails within 48 hours. Business plans and referrals to companies should be submitted here, and general inquiries should be sent here. Please don’t hesitate to ask us any question you may have!
The YL Ventures Team
