Yes VC

Yes VC Research Investment Thesis & Core Philosophy Yes VC is an early-stage venture capital fund founded in 2018 by Caterina Fake and Jyri Engeström, based in San Francisco. The fund focuses on investing in category-defining companies at the Pre-Seed and Seed stages. Caterina Fake's investment philosophy centers on identifying innovative companies that leverage technology to address real-world problems across diverse sectors. She emphasizes backing startups with authentic founder passion, particularly those automating work through AI, fostering new consumer brands, and solving climate/sustainability challenges. The fund's core belief is captured in Caterina's motto: "When the world says No No No No No, and you hear a Yes, go toward that Yes as hard as you can." This reflects their focus on contrarian, category-defining bets during early stages when most capital is scarce. Investment Stage & Check Size Yes VC focuses exclusively on Pre-Seed and Seed stage investments. Based on portfolio data analysis, their stage preferences are Pre-Seed and Seed exclusively with an estimated check size range of $250K-$2M, with flexibility based on founder quality and traction. The fund targets founders building category-defining companies with authentic founder passion, particularly those addressing problems in food, healthcare, climate, AI automation, and frontier technologies. They deploy approximately 10 companies per year with fast decision timelines and rapid capital deployment. Recent Activity & Fund Status Yes VC maintains active and continuous deployment with a remarkable track record. The portfolio size reaches 40+ companies with notable recent investment in Soxton (Legal Services/B2B) in December 2025. Fund status shows actively deploying capital with no announced fund closure. Recent exits include Adept AI acquired by Amazon (2024), Superhuman acquired by Grammarly (2025), and Core acquired by WakeCap (2025). Portfolio highlights include many unicorns and high-growth companies including Kickstarter, Boom Supersonic, and Heirloom Carbon. Recent activity demonstrates Caterina's continued focus on pre-seed and seed stage investments while maintaining strong follow-on capacity for portfolio winners. The fund shows exceptional founder support extending across multiple funding stages and providing operational guidance beyond capital. Team & Leadership Caterina Fake co-founded Flickr and Hunch, served as Chairman of Etsy, and was Founder Partner at Founder Collective investing early in Uber, PillPack, and BuzzFeed. She is recognized as a top female early-stage investor and was named to the Founders Forum Angels Hall of Fame in 2023. Jyri Engeström co-founded Jaiku and Ditto, and previously served at True Ventures as an investing team member. Together they lead Yes VC with deep networks in consumer tech and consumer internet. Beth Malin supports as Head of Operations, enabling operational execution across the fund. Investment Characteristics & Decision Making Yes VC operates as a partnership with Caterina Fake and Jyri Engeström as co-GPs with high personal involvement in investment decisions. They lead early rounds when introducing capital to founders and participate actively in rounds they support. Decision Process: Partnership structure with rapid, founder-centric decision making. Typical Involvement: Advisor level engagement with deep founder relationships maintained across company evolution. Warm Intro Required: No - the fund actively sources from pipeline but warm introductions are accelerated by Caterina's extensive network (50K+ Twitter followers, alumni networks from Flickr, Etsy, and Founder Collective). Value Add Beyond Capital includes strategic introductions across extensive networks, operational guidance and best practices, follow-on capital for company milestones, board engagement and advisory roles, and connections to strategic partners and acquirers. Decision timeline is 2-4 weeks typical for qualified founders with Caterina's personal involvement.