Get the market moving
Supply, demand, liquidity, trust, incentives, and which side to unlock first.
First-check marketplace venture capital
First Check for founders building new economies
I built Yonder for marketplace founders who are early enough to look weird and ambitious enough to create a market. I invest $50K to $100K at first-check and pre-seed, then help founders get the market and the next round moving.
No warm intro required.
$3B+marketplace rentals built at Outdoorsy
50+marketplace investments
$250M+venture capital raised as an operator
5,000+marketplace founders, operators, and investors reading Take Rate
Why Yonder exists
I built the marketplace fund I wish had existed.
When I was helping build Outdoorsy, too many investors evaluated a marketplace like SaaS or compared every network to Airbnb and Uber. They missed what actually mattered.
We went on to build more than $3 billion in rentals. That experience taught me how much good marketplace founders need an investor who understands liquidity, supply, trust, take rate, and sequencing before the numbers look obvious.
Yonder is my answer: early capital, honest judgment, and practical help from someone who has lived the same problems.
Why I started YonderMarketplace experience across
Outdoorsy Ancestry.com Tripping.com Roamly Karta Labs Take Rate
Where I get useful
The check matters. The judgment after it matters more.
Marketplace problems are rarely solved with generic advice. I work directly with founders on the decisions that determine whether a market gets liquid or gets stuck.
What it is like to work togetherBuild the business model
Take rate, pricing, unit economics, workflow depth, and what should sit around the transaction.
Tell the right fundraising story
A deck and narrative that help generalist investors understand why this market can be enormous.
Find the next believer
Thoughtful introductions to marketplace founders, operators, customers, and the next investors.
The Yonder lens
The hard part is not building the app. It is getting the market to move.
The best marketplaces solve the ugly operational work around a transaction. That work is often where the product, the data, and the moat begin.
Constrained supply
Credentialed, local, fragmented, regulated, or simply hard to reach.
Better workflow
A product that makes the transaction easier, faster, and more trusted.
Real liquidity
Better matches pull more supply and demand into the network.
Compounding data
Transactions improve pricing, trust, matching, and defensibility.