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JL
Julie Liao
Partner at Yes Investor (ex Sidewalk Labs
San Francisco Bay Area
Overview
Julie Liao is a Partner at Yes VC, with a background that includes roles at Sidewalk Labs, True Ventures, and E&Y. She specializes in strategic initiatives, relationship development, and venture capital, focusing on sectors such as Smart Cities/UrbanTech and Digital Health.
Highlights of Julie's career include her experience as COO at Sidewalk Labs (Part of Google) and her role as a Partner at Yes VC, where she invests in diverse sectors and stages, including Seed and Pre-seed startups.
Work Experience
Partner
2023 - Current
We're a team of founders/ operators who create and invest in early stage tech (pre-seed /seed). We're currently focused on Energy, Dual purpose technologies, AI, Health & Longevity, and Climate solutions. Some amazing companies we support include: Steady Energy, Tau Motors, AssemblyOSM, Oura, HelixNano, Flexnode, Rewind, Lovevery, Hipcamp and Public Goods. At Yes, I lead new investment opportunities in clean tech, deep tech, and enterprise B2B, and work closely with our portfolio company founders in capital raising, strategic partnerships, and talent needs. I also lead firm wide finance and operations. Portfolio companies which I worked closely with and/or led the investment of: - Public Goods (pre-seed, Board member) Membership-based sustainable, well designed home goods - Primary Diagnostics (incubation/exit) Modern public health infrastructure - AssemblyOSM (seed) Fabricating more sustainable, well designed high rises - Flexnode (pre-seed) All-in-one lifecycle solution for data compute, storage and networking - Clinikally (seed) India's digital clinic for skin and hair care - Tau Motors (seed) Software-enabled electric motor and powertrain - Heirloom Carbon (seed) World's most cost effective direct air capture solution - Gradual (pre-seed) An all in one community platform - Treeswift (seed) Next generation forest monitoring systems
Principal
2021
Board Member
2023
Public Goods is a direct-to-consumer brand that sells eco-friendly essentials in the grocery, household, and personal care categories.
Raised $21,800,000.00 from 500 Global and Knockout Capital.
Angel Investor & Advisor
2022
Operator LP
2022
FOG Ventures was created to invest and support innovative founders that are helping create toolbox 2.0 for the modern day Office of the Operator (CEO, CFO, COO, People/Talent, Biz Ops, Strategy, RevOps). Unlike most VCs, we’re not just investing in what we believe in — as active operators, we’re investing in products we actually use.
Founding Member
2021
A grassroots community for operators to build their networks and learn from each other. I built out our systems and processes and helped recruit our first 100 paying members.
Journey CxO is a private membership community provides Finance, Accounting and People Operations.
Founder
2021
Providing operational support on a recurring fee basis to early stage founders and execs on initiatives across community & marketing, finance, customer success and business operations. Clients included Lunchbox.io (Coatue, 645 Ventures, Primary), Cube Software (Mayfield, Bonfire), Journey CxO and Column.us (Lux Capital)
Director, FP&A and Business Operations
2020 - 2021
Impact Tech is a B2B SaaS + Marketplace partnership management platform transforming the way enterprises manage and optimize all types of partnerships. I led business planning, new pricing initiatives, M&A and managed a global team of 5 across business intelligence and finance.
COO, Coord
2018 - 2020
Coord is a digital curb management software platform. I led the spin-out from Sidewalk Labs/ Alphabet, built out our business infrastructure, raised Series A financing as well as manage the launch of our product into 15 new cities/markets (i.e. partnerships, hiring and field operations). I learned what it's like to go through product market fit cycles, raise early stage money and have fun with engineers.
Head of Finance & Business Operations, Coord
2017 - 2018
Sr. Manager, FP&A and Business Operations
2016 - 2017
One of the leading HR, Payroll and Benefits providers to SMBs (backed by Sequoia, Matrix Partners and True). Supported $50M Series D fundraise (led by Altimeter and Scale VP) and saw over 2x annual growth in sales and 4x gross margin improvement during tenure. Led robust reporting cadence for company-wide KPIs and operational metrics. Hired and grew the FP&A, Order management, Sales finance, Bizops, and collections teams. Reported to CFO and then CEO/Founder after 8 months.
Namely is an all-in-one platform that manages all HR data in one place, with personalized service to help companies get better and faster.
Raised $217,800,000.00 from Scale Venture Partners, Tenaya Capital, Matrix, Sequoia Capital, True Ventures and Notable Capital.
Assistant Controller | Finance & Operations
2015 - 2016
Business partner and direct report to the CFO/ COO. I also worked alongside our many portfolio companies and supported the investment team on special projects.
Sr. Finance and Business Operations Analyst
2014 - 2015
True Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology startups.