Profile - startup and fast-growth company expertise

Jonathan York is a recognized leader in helping technology and services companies. He has guided ventures in identifying and overcoming barriers to raising growth capital and in eliminating key impediments to growth through transition stages. He is also well-known for helping his client companies focus and energize their sales and marketing programs, whether they are very early stage start-ups or more mature fast-growth companies.

A seasoned corporate executive, consultant, and trusted advisor to corporate leaders, Dr. York has raised over $200 million in funding and participated in the financing of over a dozen technology and services companies. He estimates that, in his career in technology and business development, he has evaluated over 1,000 business plans. His experience in these realms makes him an ideal partner for ventures who are looking to move to their next stage of growth.

A graduate of Yale with a Ph.D. in psychology from Michigan State University, Dr. York brings to his clients over 30 years of entrepreneurial and leadership experience in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. He has been on both sides of the venture capital and angel financing equation—as a CEO and recipient of significant investment and as an active venture investor in an early-stage VC firm. As an operating CEO, Dr. York grew a software company, in just 30 months, from a standing start to over 120 employees and a run rate of over $12 million. He has served as an interim CEO and/or board chairman for multiple other fast-growth technology businesses and has sat on the boards of almost a dozen such companies.

In addition, he served as a CEO in the health care sector for over 10 years, was the president and CEO of one of the country’s largest and most dynamic chambers of commerce and economic development organizations, and worked as a general partner in an early-stage technology venture capital firm. He has also served on numerous civic boards in areas as diverse as low-income housing and the arts.

He also studied at the London School of Economics and has attended the Aspen Institute program on technology leadership. Dr. York currently sits on the boards of several private technology companies. In addition, he teaches the entrepreneurship course in The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business Executive MBA Program.

Jon really gets early-stage investing, both from the perspective of the entrepreneur and of the investor. He knows that sometimes the companies who are best on paper fail to get funding because of how they present themselves, what they inadvertently convey, or simply because they just don't know what they don't know. He has the maturity, patience and insight to help start-up companies successfully cross the initial chasm from concept to funded company.

—Josh Grotstein, Managing Partner, SAS Investors, New York, NY