Brian Yormak - Venture Investing in Data - Ep.186

Think Like an Owner

Ep.186: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Brian Yormak (@brian-yormak).

My guest is Brian Yormak, co-founder of Story Ventures alongside his brother Jake, a venture capital firm with a strong focus in data and data software. I connected with Brian as they are an investor in past guest Craig Fuller’s media and data company FreightWaves and are one of the few VCs with a strong focus in data.

I’ve talked to data CEOs on the podcast before, but was curious to add the venture perspective to the conversation through this episode with Brian. Brian and I talk about how he classifies data companies today, API business models, what the most interesting data companies and founders are doing today, and so much more.

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Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/

Links:

Story Ventures

Brian on LinkedIn

Topics:

(00:04:05) Brian’s passion for data

(00:05:55) Data is the new oil

(00:08:39) Categorizing data companies

(00:13:42) The importance of proprietary data to investment decisions

(00:16:49) Attractive API businesses

(00:22:19) Data Legislation

(00:30:05) Finding the right founders & companies to back

(00:38:10) What non-venture CEOs can learn

(00:41:06) People data

(00:46:45) What strongly held belief have you changed your mind on?

(00:48:17) What’s the best business you’ve ever seen?