YL Ventures Promotes Sharon Seemann to CMO

Our marketing generates a lot of interest in the VC world. It was a rather revolutionary concept to bring on a full-time marketer four years ago, and our firm has never been the same since. Initially conceived to generate awareness of YL Ventures, our marketing arm has infused itself deeply into our DNA, re-imagining how we interact with the global cybersecurity ecosystem and the value that we can bring to entrepreneurs and the industry as a whole.

To that, we owe an enormous amount of gratitude to Sharon Seemann, who I am thrilled to announce has been promoted to Chief Marketing Officer at YL Ventures. To understand our marketing success is to understand Sharon’s vision and execution of marketing innovation and creativity.

In just under four years, when it was rather unique for a VC to host an internal marketing program, Sharon developed our firm into a veritable marketing powerhouse with a full team of strategists, PR, content and digital specialists. Under her guidance, YL Ventures has become a fixture in the community, hosting events, joining panels, generating excellent thought leadership and championing a recognizable brand for our firm.

From overseeing our CISO Current, to outstanding content consumed by leaders across the industry to our Cybermap, YLV Academy and events that reach thousands, Sharon has been instrumental to our growth and success every step of the way. Sharon transformed the question of “Wow, do you guys really need a whole marketing department?” to “we had no idea how much a VC-based marketing could do!”

But it would appear that this is only the starting point, as the expansion of our marketing arm echoed our transformation into a value-add focused VC. Today, our marketing team has expanded the breadth of their focus to include YL Ventures’ portfolio companies. Essentially integrating themselves into our early-stage startups’ teams, our marketing department plays a fundamental role in company launches, building out marketing strategies and providing hands-on support for content, digital marketing, events and PR.

This approach uniquely complements the incredible skillsets of the brilliant cybersecurity entrepreneurs we partner with, allowing them to focus on building the best products possible while ensuring their technology achieves the visibility they need and deserve. With Sharon at the helm, our growing marketing department continues to support our portfolio companies even after they gain their own respective marketing executives through consulting, media networking and strategy optimization.

This new title also marks the next stage of YL Ventures’ development. Sharon’s ambitions for YL Ventures are about to generate a whole new spin for the term “value-add investor”. We’re well on our way to become fully-fledged service providers for the founders that join us, both in our marketing advisory capacity and hands-on support from our expert team. A firm-wide mission, this extends to our portfolio companies’ business development, Go-To-Market, HR and many other business initiatives towards growth.

Sharon took YL Ventures global by enhancing our reach and entrenching us as a top-tier cybersecurity investor in the minds of the wider community. Her ability to spot talent has led to the growth of a powerhouse marketing team ready to take our service-providing value-add advantage to the next level. Given the inspiring growth we’ve seen in the last four years, we can’t wait to see where she takes her position as CMO. If her trajectory has been any indication, wherever it is is sure to be amazing.