Yoav Leitersdorf, President of YL Ventures: “Clients are the best source of information for new businesses”

22 Apr 2007 elPeriódico de Aragón (www.elperiodicodearagon.com )

English translation

Background: Businessman from Israel who now resides in Europe. Created his first business at age sixteen. Today, at thirty-one, he manages a venture capital fund. Education: Master’s degree from Columbia University.

How were your beginnings?

I grew up between Israel and the United States. I began when I was 7 years old; I had a teacher that introduced me to computers.  She put me in front of a computer and I was fascinated.  I quickly learned how to program, and wrote code in several languages.  It was at the age of 16 when I created my first enterprise. This was my first experience in the businesses world.

What do you consider to be your greatest success during the period that you were a programmer?

In that first company that I created, we basically sold advertisements that generated revenue for a magazine called PcEntertainer. The ability to sell advertising space in this medium was for me success at an early age.

Did your family support you?

My parents supported my involvement in the world of computers.  It was somewhat natural to me and they liked it, although they were not that supportive when I was 16 years old and created my own business, because it took a lot of time away from my studies.  My grades where so low, that if I’d try to get accepted into any decent college, I honestly don’t think that I would get in.  School didn’t interest me very much but I did graduate from high school and then I went to Colombia University and completed a Master’s.

What was your greater failure?

I’ve been very lucky and the things that I have done so far, albeit small, have been successful.

How do you know if an idea is feasible?
 
The answers don’t only come from inside; they also come form other people around you: your clients, your employees, your partners or investors… I believe that clients are the best source of information for new businesses.

Now you are a successful man?

Yes, but there are plenty of people far more successful than I am.  I believe that I’ve accomplished only 5% of what I want to accomplish in life.

Don’t you have the feeling that every time you sell a company you sell a piece of yourself?

I think that what has brought me to this pattern is the passion for creating things from scratch.  To make people sufficiently interested so that they want to buy the enterprise.  I get bored easily; I’ve lived in more than 12 cities around the world and I am only 31 years old.  I love the products that I’ve created in the past and I continue to follow and monitored them.

When you see something different, innovative – how do you imagine what it can grow into?

When I see a new product and I get interested in it and I like it, it is gut feeling – a process that is related to my know-how of the industry, knowing the big players and the way they are driven.

Can you describe the type of persons that would be ideal for these types of projects?

People that can be creative and have something revolutionary that eventually could be accepted by the mainstream.

Where do you look for enterprises to invest for the venture capital fund?

Currently, in Europe and Israel.

What do you think about China?

Everyone knows what is going to happen with China in terms of macro numbers and with such tremendous growth in technology