“Disrupting the very disrupters that navigate the world of startups, York IE has taken the best of their inside experience in the world of startups and launched their startup services practice, the same way you’d want to launch a company. Their ethics and work culture is one of constant learning, changing and adapting newly acquired skills and knowledge to the field. This is an organization to watch. And if yoú’re a startup entrepreneur with a solid technical vision, it’s an organization to talk to.”
Hopefully you’ve heard that we’ve announced our
new services offering. Thanks to Keith Spiro for the quote above after we had a great interview with him.
The passion, enthusiasm and energy that I’ve experienced since joining York IE is unmatched. Being side by side with our portfolio companies showed us we not only wanted skin in the game for them but it inspired us to open
startup services to all startups, regardless of where they are in their lifecycle.
Building companies is in our DNA. And anyone who loves startups as much as we do knows that to succeed you need a big idea and then the willingness to do whatever it takes to execute that into reality. York IE startups services are centered around our vision that a one-size-fits-all engagement model doesn’t work because each startup has unique problems and needs.
Last week I had a chance to sit down with each of York IE’s managing partners and dig more into the why of last week’s news – the motivation behind launching York IE’s startup services practice. Here’s what they had to say:
Kyle York, CEO & Managing Partner
When we set out to build York IE, we always wanted to be a
disruptor. It’s in our nature and keeps us motivated. To be a disruptor, you need to define your market. The challenge for us is that we chose several markets from the beginning with our vision. From venture capital, to investment banks, to private equity, we thought we could launch a new and innovative model more aligned with entrepreneurs. We’ve been in their shoes before and we’re in them today, as we’re growing our own startup. We’ve launched a new model with the York IE investment business. Today, we’re doing the same for startups in additional markets by productizing and launching our services and advisory practice formally.
We saw something that was missing for early stage companies. We saw an opportunity to stop having partners be siloed and disconnected from the rest of the company. We understand the
market opportunity, business strategy, business model, and product capability of these companies. We are involved, act as an extension of our clients’ team and we’re always thinking end-to-end. And we’re just getting started.
Joe Raczka, Managing Partner
As with everything we do at York IE, our integrated strategy serves as a ‘rising tides’ approach. Our startup services customers will benefit from our
investment portfolio, our investment portfolio will benefit from our services customers. With a business/ corporate development minded approach, we will serve as a connector of dots, build strong relationships, and discover new ways of thinking about problems and solutions.
Adam Coughlin, Managing Partner
I’m easily excitable. When I talk with entrepreneurs and I see the passion on their faces, I get excited. Like Liam Neeson in
Taken, I have a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. I want to use those skills to help those entrepreneurs grow their businesses and realize their dreams.
I don’t think that is always the case with third party vendors. I remember the call like it was yesterday though it was several years ago. It was our annual renewal with a big named market analyst firm and our rep was telling us how the price increased by 10% from the previous year. I asked if we were getting anything additional. He replied no. I said then why is it increasing? He said because we’re [Big Named Market Analyst Firm] and we can.
That confirmed what I had long felt: third party services offerings were not aligned with startups and emerging companies looking to grow. A new approach was needed. We feel like we’re the right team to deliver it.
At York IE, we invest. Sometimes that is capital. Other times it is our time and talents. Whenever we invest it means we’re aligning behind your vision and are in it for the long-term. We don’t want to be a transactional vendor. We want to be a partner. Partnerships are important because they’re mutually beneficial. You win. We win.
