YL Ventures Team Focus: Kate Burkhardt

Kate has quite a full plate. A VP at YL Ventures, she currently lives and operates out of New York to advance the firm’s U.S. footprint. She is vital to both the investment process and one of our secret weapons to helping founders gain their GTM edge. Kate splits her time evaluating new investment opportunities and offering business development and customer engagement support to our portfolio companies. Below, she sheds some light on the work she does and what it takes to help early-stage cybersecurity companies succeed.

How are you involved in helping our companies build out their pipelines?

We roll up our sleeves, especially at the beginning, to support our founders in whatever aspect of company-building they’re working on. It comes down to a matter of each founder’s personal preference, which naturally varies, but most founders sign with us to access the full range of the support we offer. It can shave off years of time and allows founders to spend more time on what they’re best at. The investment team’s range of support includes both strategic support–especially in sales and fundraising–and tactical support like research, analysis and customer introductions. It goes a bit like this…

The first step is to build out an ideal customer profile–a highly iterative process that we carry out alongside our founders. Together, we work to understand both the company (size, industry, geography, tech stack, etc.) and individual (role, responsibilities, seniority, team reporting structure, etc.) that can gain the most from their new solution. This profile is key to building out highly effective sales strategies. To keep them up to date, we’ll also spend a good deal of time carrying out additional research to adjust those strategies when needed.

After this, our focus lasers in on connecting our companies with YL Venture’s network of security leaders, specifically practitioners who we know are interested in their space. These practitioners are often curious to learn about the new security solutions early-stage companies are building. In turn, they offer early-stage founders invaluable critiques, as well as critical customer perspectives and data to feed into their product roadmap. We work especially hard on this during a company’s first ~9-12 months, which is usually before they bring on their own Sales and Marketing hires. We help feed the funnel and identify the best partnerships for moving forward to deployment.

I should mention that I joined YL Ventures specifically because of the firm’s high level of involvement. The earliest stages of company-building are invigorating, and I get to experience them first-hand, year-round across multiple companies. It’s a highly rewarding part of my job. 

What drives your passion to work with early-stage cybersecurity startups?

The best part of working with early-stage cybersecurity startups is the sense that you’re witnessing the very cutting edge of cyber tech. In today’s market, the only solutions with true potential to carry a company are the ones offering the freshest and most potent degree of innovation. It’s a privilege to be at this forefront. Even better, my role enables me to work directly with the visionary people dreaming up these solutions. Not only are they all brilliant, they are also truly well-meaning and wonderful people.

How does your value-add work change over the course of a company’s lifecycle?

We adjust our support according to founders’ needs over time, which naturally evolve as their companies mature. I can sketch out a rough timeline based on some of our companies’ past growth trajectories. 

For instance, in the first ~90 days, our founders may still be validating their precise technological approach and attempting to demonstrate the quickest time-to-value for users. To help, we connect our founders with our Venture Advisors for critical feedback and “customer input”. 

Once this information crystallizes, we shift our focus onto helping our founders build out a data-driven GTM strategy, as well as providing the tactical support required to carry out the strategy.

As our companies mature, our focus shifts again, this time towards helping hire an executive team (including key Sales & Marketing leaders) and helping our founders raise their next round!

What advice do you have for people interested in pursuing a similar career? What about people looking to work for a VC?

I’d advise them to consider the following steps:  figure out what kind of VC you’d like to work for, build out your network and come prepared.

Consider that each VC has its own approach to fundraising, investing and interacting with its portfolio companies. You may end up finding that a particular investment stage, industry or geography is more appealing to you. Once you’ve identified your preferences in each of these, you can create a target list of firms to apply to.

The next step is to appreciate the power of building meaningful and positive relationships as the best way to grow your own career. Networking is key for discovering useful information and learning about new opportunities. Try to bring value to your conversations and remember that most people, even in professional settings, prefer organic conversation. 

Finally, when interviewing, offer hiring firms a tangible experience of what you can bring to the table. For example, conduct your own primary research and build an investment thesis, or meet with founders and share deal flow with industry peers prior to your interview. This type of initiative will set you apart and demonstrate that you are doing the work of a VC well before day 1.