General Partners: Adam Coughlin, Joe Raczka, Kyle York
Head of Partnerships: Tommy Vailas
Founding: 2019
Mission: Build your company, your way
Team: 200+ & 30% Local
Workplace: Hybrid
LPs: Investment Partner Syndicate
Stage: Seed
Focus Area(s): B2B SaaS
Highlighted Portfolio Companies (Locally): BlueTrace, Givzey, Stockpress, Metadata, Naya Studio, Stavvy, Vendpark
Fund Size: $100M Rolling Fund
York IE an early stage B2B SaaS seed stage investment & advisory firm located in Manchester, NH with deep roots in Boston. They invest in leading vertical SaaS startups nationwide and are building toward an eight figure advisory business to help productize SaaS company building. Alongside JP Morgan’s startup banking team, we co-hosted an event this past Tuesday, March 26th on a misty night at Joe’s on the Waterfront to bring together early stage founders from the York & JP Morgan networks with the MGMT Boston Operators Club
Kyle York, York’s Founder & CEO, opened the conversation with the message that “it’s all relative”. Whether you’re in the early days of producing revenue, finding product market fit and scaling to single digit millions of ARR, or even leading 2,000 person orgs at multi-billion ARR run rates at Oracle’s cloud unit it’s. all. relative. There are challenges at every stage!
Yes, we’ve taken a big step down in fundraising activity from 2021. Building has gotten harder. But the trendline continues to rise in the venture ecosystem if you zoom out a bit back to 2019. York continues to see opportunity in this tough climate. That doesn’t make it easy, but hey who doesn’t appreciate a bit of perspective?
On our panel we had Adam Martel, Founder & CEO of Givzey (our feature) & Jess Meher, Founder & CEO of Wonderment (our feature). I’ve been lucky to highlight both companies and, as CEOs & operators, these Vertical SaaS leaders have deep experience operating in climates both good & bad. They shared some awesome lessons from their entrepreneurial journeys:
Founder Market Fit: Adam outlined the early stumbles he had at Givzey building a GNPL giving platform. He wasn’t a FinTech founder, didn’t have the patience for navigating the regulatory landscape, and the problem he was trying to solve was bigger than a FinTech solution. He and his team quickly pivoted. Once they simplified things and just built really great software for their customers, everything went faster.
Build Something People Want (Not Ask for): Jess detailed how Wonderment has grown up as a “motherly” startup that leads with great service and builds things customers ask for in an effort to delight them. Motherly startups listen and then lead. On the other hand “mechanic” companies, like when you take your car into the shop, tell customers what they need to get back on the road before they have to ask. Wonderment is evolving to lead with the conviction to *know* what they need to build for their customers (incorporating feedback of course) as a mechanic startup on their road up the mountain.
Company Building Evolution: Adam outlined how in the early stages of any venture, there’s a tight feedback loop since the Founder is pitching the business. As you grow you’ll transition to a VP of Sales and inevitably there is more distance between you and the customer. Sales feedback might be slightly mistranslated. If you can make it through, you’ll evolve to the Customer Success stage where existing customers inform the product roadmap. That’s where Givzey finds itself, with existing customers helping to show them the way. The fourth evolution is a holistic approach between Finance / CS / Sales / R&D and the Founder(s) in an ongoing revenue and R&D meeting to consistently collaborate on building solutions. Givzey is racing to the 4th stage!
Frugality, Fairness & Stacking Wins: Jess detailed how her upbringing guided her intuition to make their 2021 seed fundraise last as long as possible (24+ months). Adam offered how when he went to investors he didn’t optimize for the highest valuation but instead something he thought would be fair so that he could complete the fundraise quickly, keep his exit options open later, and get back to building. Jess found a peer group to talk through company building challenges. Both talked about the importance of selling wins. Among their employee base, Givzey has 20 kids. If they achieve their quarterly goals, they get to take all the kids to the toy store. Now that’s a serious incentive & lesson in stakeholder management.
Thank you to Adam, Jess & Kyle for sharing their wisdom. And much appreciation to JP Morgan’s Startup Banking team for being excellent co-hosts – Vick Nabar, Eduardo Canet, Jesse Bardo & team and the members of their network that were able to make it too.
It was a really fun night. Thank you to all that came out! Shout out to Greg Raiz, an emerging TikTok influencer, for this soundbite from the event. Thank you Greg! I need to evolve to incorporate video!!