Investing early in marketplaces that build new economies. First-check/pre-seed in marketplace/nfx startups. GP: @colingardiner
Austin, TX
Joined February 2023
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Startups! We would love to see what you are building and how we can help! Please submit your deck and information here:
yonder.vc
Yonder retweeted
The AI trade repriced on credit this week, not demand. @CoreWeave fell 25% as its 2031–32 bonds traded above 15%. Our neocloud basket lost 23%, $QQQ 5.5%, $SMH 10.5%. Only 10 of 100 AI infrastructure names rose. 1/3
Yonder retweeted
Must-read for anyone focused on the compute market or interested in learning about it.
Launching the @Watt_Street Forward Compute Weekly Compute Dashboard. Every Sunday: GPU and token pricing, AI infrastructure stocks, secondary GPU values and the week’s key stories. First edition is live on Substack.
substack.com/home/post/p-221…
Yonder retweeted
Look mom, I made a VC list!
Solo capitalists are easiest to understand when you know exactly what they back.
the final part of investors writing pre seed cheques:
16. @baobab_ventures (@Carles_Reina) - pre-seed technical teams, Europe + US, backed F13's $5M pre seed
17. @PuzzleVentures (@Gloria_Bae) - €200K-€700K, European B2B software, backed Build.inc
18. @siliconrounduk (@francesco_srv) - first cheques, European deep tech, led Cellbricks' €7M seed
19. @UnderlineVC(@bogdaniordache) - about $500K, Eastern European founders, backed DesignVerse's $5.5M seed
20. @Robincapital_ (@RobinEricHaak) - European pre-seed, Fund II second close in jun, first cheque into N26
bonus: 4 investors asked to be added after the list went live
21. @breed_vc (@JedBreed) - day zero / pre seed / seed, $250K-$750K cheques
22. @captain_vc_ (@thogge)- early stage, founder first investing
23. @yonderventures (@ColinGardiner) - pre seed marketplaces + network effect startups
24. @ValiaVentures (@KhaledJalanbo) - $50M fund, early stage, software + fintech + AI
9 checked 80+ solo funds for the original list.
these 4 came directly from investors who saw it and asked to be included.
I put the spreadsheet together with fund details and contacts.
comment or DM me and i'll send it over.
Yonder retweeted
Founders, I am investing even earlier now!
Got an idea you can’t leave alone? Let’s get it off the ground and get you from 0 to 1.
I’m excited to launch Cold Start from @yonderventures: a $10k starter check to help launch your marketplace or network-effect business.
Work directly with me, tap into the Yonder mentor network, and get $15k+ in partner perks.
Solo or with cofounders. An idea is enough to apply. Tell me why this is the thing you want to build above all else.
Rolling applications. A response within two weeks.
Let’s build!
🤖 Made with AI
Yonder retweeted
I don’t usually invest in products for marketplaces, but I couldn’t pass on this one!
Helix is tackling one of the hardest problems on the internet: proving there’s actually a human behind an account.
Legacy verification wasn’t built for the AI era. Bots are winning.
Their approach is uniquely built around voice and can even detect voice spoofing from platforms like Eleven Labs.
If you want to learn more about what they are doing and you are in SF, @AlexOberg and the team are hosting Helix’s first TECH WEEK by @a16z event on Thursday morning, October 8th in San Francisco, with Persona on the panel.
Alex will sit down with Axios cybersecurity reporter Sam Sabin on where online identity is headed and what platforms need to do to stay ahead.
If you’re in SF, RSVP below. 👇
Yonder retweeted
Wrote out a list of who I’m looking for.
X, work your magic.
non negotiable:
- two-sided
- solid take rate
- positive contribution margin
- great net revenue retention
- supply density
- retention on both sides
- fill rate that doesn’t collapse at scale
- weird category
strongly preferred:
- low CAC
- mostly organic traffic
- GMV with net revenue quality behind it
- highly liquid
wrote out a list of who I’m looking for.
X, work your magic.
non negotiable
- 35 to 42 y/o
- healthy masculine
- smart, funny, lighthearted
- provider/protector mentality
- post economic (still hardworking)
- must be kind, generous, thoughtful
- no kids yet, decidedly wants kids
- on the healing path (history of serious commitment ex therapists, books, retreats)
- can meet anywhere but will not date unless live in the same city
- fit and sober because you care about your health
strongly preferred
- no prev marriages or engagements
- works in tech (comfortable with risk and career is blended into personal life)
Yonder retweeted
Every marketplace will eventually have to choose:
Make users search through supply.
Or make the match for them.
AI is pushing every marketplace toward the second model.
The winners won’t have the most listings. They’ll make the best decisions.
Yonder retweeted
If you are doing UGC and not on @sideshift_app, what are you doing?
This goes for brands and creators.
Yonder retweeted
Keep coming back to this.
When something is supposedly dead, it is exactly the moment it becomes relevant again.
Yonder retweeted
So awesome to see @sideshift_app along with some major names here!
Team is on an absolute tear right now and so much more to come.
You’ve come up with the idea. You’ve built the product, faster than ever, with Agent.
Replit’s Growth Skills gets your product into the hands of those who need it. Our expert partners make growth more accessible, even if you don’t know where to start.
Start today in Replit with:
@ZoomInfo
@useapolloio
@Clay_GTM
@Sideshift_app
@RevenueCat
@Stripe
@PostHog
Turn that idea into a real business overnight at replit.com/growth-kit.
Yonder retweeted
I think marketplaces are quietly becoming the next app-level category to take off in the AI age.
And there are new surface areas where they will pop-up. Here are emerging in areas that did not look like obvious marketplace categories five years ago:
- Space: launch capacity, satellite data, ground infrastructure, and in-orbit services.
- Hardware and robotics: equipment utilization, autonomous fleets, robot labor, maintenance, and shared capacity.
- Pharma and healthcare: clinical-trial recruitment, specialty care, diagnostics, lab capacity, and health data.
- Energy and grid infrastructure: distributed generation, storage, grid capacity, materials, and project development.
- Industrial and defense procurement:specialized manufacturing capacity, components, logistics, and compliance-heavy supply chains.
- Regulated professional services: legal, insurance, accounting, and compliance workflows where software handles intake and routes work to experts.
What areas am I missing/should I be watching?
Yonder retweeted
If you are a robotics founder, this is worth checking out!
The peppy robotics framework is now open source and has been released with a Quickstart guide: docs.peppy.bot/quickstart/
Yonder retweeted
Robotics founders stop. Read.
One of my portco founders is looking to meet early-stage robotics companies and has built something cool to help them develop and deploy faster.
If that’s you, reply here or send me a DM.
Yonder retweeted
Marketplace pre-seed funding is down 80% from its 2021 peak according to @cartainc data from @PeterJ_Walker.
From 2021 H1 to 2025 H2:
$ Volume: $269M → $54M
Funding Instruments (SAFEs and Notes): 2,358 → 464
At the same time, SaaS just hit a record $2B (likely includes AI).
The VC consensus has abandoned marketplaces for AI.
This is either the end of the category or the best contrarian opportunity in years.
I am betting on the latter. 😉
Yonder retweeted
Pre-seed valuations are going up.
Here is Pre-seed valuation caps from 2020 to 2025 from @Hamza_ and @PeterJ_Walker at @cartainc:
SaaS: +67% ($9M → $15M)
Fintech: +125% ($8M → $18M)
Marketplaces: +108% ($6M → $12.5M)
Meanwhile, the number of rounds has plateaued.
There are likely lots of reasons, but the simple marketplace read is:
more capital chasing fewer deals
Yonder retweeted
Today, we’re unveiling the @UseStringAI Web Access API - providing AI agents unfettered access to the web.
We initially built Web Access for leading hedge funds with a combined $1T+ in AUM to give them the most accurate and precise web datasets. And now we’re opening it up to everyone.
On our open-source Web Data Frontier Benchmark, String requests succeeded on 96% of the hardest sites we could find (Grade: A+). The industry average was 60% (Grade: D-). No other provider could crack 85% (Grade: B).
With String, everything on the public web is now yours. You can analyze markets, enrich contacts, get live price updates, or build your own custom web workflows!
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