3VC Venture Partners: Introducing Yair Goldfinger
Yair is a serial entrepreneur and active angel investor. At 26, he co-founded ICQ, the world's first Internet-wide instant messaging service, which was acquired by AOL. In 2001, he co-founded Dotomi, an online advertising technology company that was acquired by ValueClick. In 2011, he co-founded AppCard, a customer loyalty platform provider where he serves as CEO.
Yair supports our founders as a coach and founder-to-founder sparring partner through and the good and the bad with vast entrepreneurial experience.
Why 3VC?
I am a serial entrepreneur and an active angel.
I started a few companies, invested in many, did exits, and also failed in some of the investments and needed to shut down the startup.
Being involved in the full life-cycle of tens of startups I came to the conclusion that although we all want an "exit" and this is the number one priority for most founders and investors, a huge key of the journey is the partners. The priority is the co-founders but right after are the investors.
I have seen investors who are "builders" and those who are "destroyers" and too many who are just "clerks".
A good way to check a potential VC is to ask the VC to share their calendar with you. If you see that most of their time is spent on looking for the next investment (or worse "going to cocktails") and not "working" for their companies, chances are that the VC is not the perfect one.
I have known Roman for many years, being an investor in two of the companies he started, as well as Peter & the team from my co-investments with 3VC. They are the "builders" type, they do not just bring in "money", they become a co-founder. They work with the founders, open their network and spend time. So, although success can never be guaranteed, an amazing, friendly journey with 3VC as an investor is.
What’s the journey that led you to where you are today?
From the day I got my first computer (and that was when I was a kid) I fell in love with it. I started coding and realized that it is a form of art - I can create something from scratch. It was only natural that I continued to do a C&S degree and after finishing serving in the Israeli Army, I started to work right away in a startup, leaving it a couple of months later to start my own startup with 3 of my friends. This was the beginning of a great journey of starting companies, going through acquisitions, closing companies, investing in many others, and creating a lot of art. And yes, I still code almost every night!
What did you discover on this journey, what are you curious about?
I discovered that a startup is a living “creature”. It has a heart and a soul, it feeds off the energy created by the team members, it grows and gets “old” and eventually dies. Sometimes it gets to the after-life (“exit”) but many times only its name remains.
What drives you? What's your outlook?
Creating, creating, and creating - just like an artist that lives to create, I live to innovate, bring ideas to life and help entrepreneurs to do it. 3VC partners share the same love and hopefully will be able to get involved in many such artistic creations.
Follow Yair on LinkedIn.
About the 3VC Venture Partner Program
We work closely with a selected team of Venture Partners who share our belief in entrepreneurs with big ideas and the determination to drive humanity forward. Venture Partners are renowned entrepreneurs and leaders, complementing our team and supporting our founders on their journey with knowledge, experience, and a valuable network.
