Yatish Mishra

My journey started at the age of 6 when our family immigrated to the United States from India settling in Minnesota where my father started his career in the semiconductor industry after finishing his graduate studies. We then moved to Silicon Valley at the start of the technology revolution in semiconductors, computers and Internet. The intense exposure to startup technology companies formed my deep passion for Engineering, entrepreneurship and business at a very early stage in my life which I would ultimately pursue as a lifelong career.

I pursued a degree in Applied Physics with a concentration in Physical Electronics at UC Davis only to return to Silicon Valley to start my Engineering career in the semiconductor and IT industry. While developing my technical skills, I also focused on developing my business and people management skills as I knew they were critical in running any successful startup business. I ultimately became Vice President of IT in a public company managing a large team located in 17 cities globally. It was at this point in my career that I felt confident I had amassed the broad skills needed in successfully starting my first major venture.

My first venture was with two partners in the data center and managed services market during an economic boom period. We learned critical lessons and new business skills when a sudden economic downturn occurred causing us to change strategies to be successful. Ultimately the business saw tremendous success with a great exit outcome. Being relatively young, I made the decision to start a new business in similar fields of data center and SaaS industry backed by a large PE firm. Utilizing the experiences from my first venture, I was able to accelerate the rapid growth of the new business resulting in a successful exit for the investors. Now I am focused on venture investments applying my experiences and learned skills to help other startup entrepreneurs be successful.

The process of venture investments has become my new passion in the current stage of my career. Although I have been involved in both early and late-stage investments, I believe the real opportunity in greater returns will come from seed and early series investments. It is possible to mitigate risk in these early-stage portfolio companies by applying financial discipline and operational skills learned over the years as a technology and business advisor. It all starts with a great team, a great product in a great market combined with a deep focus to engage customers and generate financial results early.