Last week I caught up with Yoav Leitersdorf at the Red Herring Conference in Seattle and asked him about his fund and its unique exit strategy. We also talked about Yoav’s connection to Israel and the companies he’s currently looking for all across Europe. Yoav is an Israeli technologist and serial entrepreneur who founded, grew and profitably sold three software startups before founding YL Ventures. A few days ago, I announced on VC Cafe the first investment closed by YL Ventures – an undisclosed amount in Israel-based ClickTail. Following our interview I asked Yoav about the intended exit for Clicktail and he responded:
Any exit strategy that is based solely on Google is bound to fail. The Web Analytics space is extremely hot right now, and ClickTale’s niche is among the most desired. There are many potential exit partners, but it is still too soon to tell – for now the company will be focused on marketing, sales and product development.
Like most things in life, the interview is divided into three sections:
- How did you start YL Ventures?
- How involved do you plan to be with your portfolio companies?
- What is your connection to Israel? Where are you sourcing new deals?
To toggle between the questions, click on the orange ‘shows’ button in the player below. The interview was filmed with a Flip camera, so expect a slightly low audio quality.
I must give the props to Kyte for making this post possible. I had a great user experience, starting from creating my own channel on kyte to customizing the look and feel of the video. My friend Gabe Brosbe, Business Development Manager at Kyte, said:
“Kyte enables bloggers to produce multimedia content wherever news hits and whenever the mood strikes”
I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.
I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.
