Yonder is focused on investing in businesses at the intersection of technology and everyday life with a particular focus on marketplaces, SaaS, web3 and tech-enabled CPG. The typical investment target is startups in the Pre-Seed, Seed and Series A phases though some opportunistic investments are available.
Investment Thesis
As an operator VC we understand that founders and employees are investing their time in a company and we invest for the same reasons:
- Wicked smart and talented founders/employees
- An opportunity that exists in a blind spot
- Sneaky large addressable market
- Cultural tailwind
- People are willing to pay for it
About Colin Gardiner
Career
Colin Gardiner is a startup and tech entrepreneur that thinks about everything from an economics lens. He has worked as an early employee at Outdoorsy, Roamly, Tripping, Cryptohunt as well as at Ancestry and Justanswer. Within these startups he has played critical roles in raising over $200M and helping to grow industry leading businesses. He is an expert in digital marketplaces and platforms with a love for all things growth, monetization, insurance and unit economics.
All of his startup and tech experience is belied by an early career working at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco where he was a Research Associate doing microeconomic research on the labor market and inflation through econometrics and big data before they called it big data. He worked under Janet Yellen (Treasury Secretary and former Fed Chairman) and Mary Daly (President of FRBSF). He published multiple articles and chapters as well as widely used inflation dispersion index.
He currently runs a marketplace consulting and advisory business helping founders to grow and optimize their businesses.
Advising
Colin is a very active startup advisor which leads to a preponderance of the deal flow. He is an active advisor for Techstars but is also active in marketplace and web3 founder communities. He formally advises: CoPilot, HopSkip, Petriage and Smartlens Analytics. Past fundraising for startups has helped Colin to have a robust investor network to help startups find lead investors.
Investing
Colin is a diversified investor focusing on placing many asymmetric upside bets. He actively invests in startups but is also focused on real estate investing in burgeoning markets. In web3, Colin has been an active investor since 2013 and has been extremely active in DeFi.
Dealflow comes from existing network referrals, accelerator mentoring/network and advisory clients.