On November 9 – 13th, the 2015-2016 class of Ynext™ Incubator companies gathered in Silicon Valley for a week-long bootcamp focused on connections and foundation-building. It started with three days of team building, speaker presentations, and networking activities at SF Greenspace – followed by two days of technical presentations and hack sessions at Yodlee® headquarters. Below are some of the topics and experts that presented:
- Seed vs. Series A investors: Ben Narasin, Partner, Canvas Venture Fund
- Product-market fit: Vishal Kapoor, Partner, three legged stool
- Yodlee and Ynext: Joe Polverari, GM Ynext
- Business model canvas: Dorrian Porter, President, Northern Imagination
- Founder stories: Schwark Satyavolu, EVP LifeLock, Founder Yodlee
- Define your value proposition: Vincent Turner, CEO Planwise
- How to get the most out of the incubator: Rajesh Bhat, Roostify
- Defining your market, getting press: Vijay Chattha, VSC PR
- User acquisition: Brendan O’Connor, AGS Interactive
- Branding: Peggy Burke, Founder, 1185 Design
- Security: Dheeraj Bhat, Director, Application Security, Yodlee
Ynext Incubator also hosted an epic reception at The Battery in San Francisco, which included an amazing group of mentors, experts, customers, partners, media, and investors across our fintech community. Click here to view the Facebook albums with photos. We were thrilled to hear the extremely positive feedback from entrepreneurs regarding their experience at bootcamp, such as: Don Kalkofen, CEO and Co-Founder, Simplifier
- Rich Content. The 1st week of Ynext Incubator bootcamp was amazing. I really found the content provided in days 1-3 so rich and on-point. We heard from VCs, sales and marketing experts, learned about best practices in PR, and go-to-market strategies. We also got to hear from some pretty impressive folks speaking about their journeys from startup days to very successful companies and exits.
- Experts and Mentors. As a startup company founder, this depth of rich content and access to such a strong set of speakers and mentors were so amazing. I am already deeply immersed in reading materials they suggested, connecting with new sources, and much farther along in planning our product marketing and launch strategies. Thanks Ynext team for your outstanding ability to connect us to so many wonderful experts.
Daniel A. Chen, Co-Founder and CEO, Levanto Financial
- Community. I really enjoyed meeting other fintech entrepreneurs who travelled from across the country to be part of Ynext. It was amazing to see how a competitive class of startups ran the gamut in terms of markets they were pursuing: from personal finance at Levanto, wealth management at Hedgeable, to simplified tax compliance at Track. My biggest takeaway from Ynext will be the relationships I build with other entrepreneurs, mentors, and members of the Ynext team. We've already started to help each other by sharing our experiences, connections, and insights from product building to customer acquisition to fundraising from the right investors.
- Technical Support. The tech days at Yodlee HQ were incredibly helpful. We had direct access to Yodlee Interactive product managers and the engineering support team, in person. It was incredible to see rows of startup teams, laptops open, with Yodlee team members side-by-side helping us integrate API features directly into our product. The level of support, enthusiasm, and access is unmatched. Yodlee is investing in innovation, and that doesn't just mean technology; Yodlee is also creating a new way to think about fintech innovation.
Ken Kruszka, Founder & CEO, SnapCheck
- Security. Our team at SnapCheck thought the interaction with Yodlee experts was terrific. I really enjoyed the session about Security at Tech Day. It was very illuminating and reassuring to see that Yodlee takes such pride in being a leader in data security in the fintech world.
- Early Adopter Program. We also thought it was amazing to get early access to the upcoming Yodlee API release. Getting that level of visibility and technical support will really help us plan for the future and build our apps with that roadmap in mind.
Are you interested in getting involved with Ynext Incubator as a mentor, speaker, or investor? Feel free to contact Jeff Cain at JCain@yodlee.com with any questions. Join the world-class executives that help our companies bring products to market faster and position themselves for the next stage of growth.
