The VC Fund I Wish Existed: Yonder Fund I
Yonder is an early-stage fund led by Colin Gardiner that invests in marketplaces that build new economies
Marketplaces are one of the greatest business models ever for VCs to back. But one of the hardest businesses to get early-stage funding for. I had to solve this problem.
After I helped scale Outdoorsy to $3B+ in gross revenue, helped raise $200M in funding across companies, worked with 50+ marketplaces, and created the largest marketplace newsletter with 4K subscribers, I kept running into the same problem: exceptional marketplace founders struggle to find investors who understand their business model and will back them early.
When we were fundraising for Outdoorsy — a low-frequency, high-value RV rental marketplace — we were fundamentally misunderstood. Investors kept comparing us to Airbnb and Uber or asking about our ARR.
"There will be crickets when you launch" - VCs
They were wrong. We scaled to $3B+ in RV rentals by writing our playbook and building one of the first SaaS-enabled marketplaces. That planted the seed for what would become Yonder's Marketplace+ thesis.
The experience opened my eyes to a massive gap in the market: there is no first-check/pre-seed fund built by marketplace operators, for marketplace operators.
So I started investing deal-by-deal (SPVs). But I quickly realized that to do this right, I needed to build something bigger.
Yonder Fund I was born to invest early in marketplaces that build new economies.
The Next Airbnb is Being Built Right Now
Since 2010, 50% of the top VC IPOs and 80% of the top 5 exits have been marketplaces. Airbnb, Uber, DoorDash, Instacart; these aren't outliers. They're the focus.
Leo Polvets at Susa Ventures summed it up perfectly in a tweet:
“There were about 2,000 seed rounds in 2008-2010. If you invested the same amount into every single seed round during that period, Airbnb by itself would give you a 3.5x fund (because it was a 7,000x outcome).”
Turns out Uber was also that year.
That's the power law in action for marketplaces. When they hit, they create generational companies.
Proving the Thesis
In the past three years, I've put together $4.5M in AUM across 36 investments (Angel, SPV, and Fund), including early checks into exciting companies like Autopilot ($13M ARR, $800M AUM, Craft), Packsmith (Bessemer, Interplay, Trust Fund), Throne (Moxxie, Long Journey, Lance Armstrong), and Howie AI.
“Our experience with Colin as an investor has been exceptional. His strategic introductions have significantly broadened our investor network, and his valuable feedback has been essential in enhancing our product.” Brian Schardt - Co-Founder/CEO of Autopilot
For now, I'm keeping the fund portfolio quiet, but I look forward to sharing more soon!
The fund has been very active while operating under the radar, and the early results are promising:
14 investments completed before or alongside Founders Fund, Norwest Venture Partners, Lerer Hippeau, Seven Seven Six, Mucker, Precursor, Hustle Fund, Night Capital, Motivate, Slauson & Co., m]x[v, Boost VC, Flex Capital, Unusal Ventures, m]x[v, SNAK, ANIMO, Ritual Capital, Coughdrop Capital, Superangel.VC, Mu Ventures, and more!
2/3 of companies graduated to their next round (2024 cohort)
World-class LPs, including founders from Grubhub/Seamless, ACV Auctions, Mercari, OLX/FJ Labs, Avail, Rematter, and operators from Airbnb, Uber, Amazon, DoorDash, eBay, Thumbtack, StubHub, OpenTable, Trulia, Zillow, Stripe, Pinterest, RetailMeNot, Whatnot, Turo, Outdoorsy, Peerspace, and many other marketplaces.
“I’m an LP in 70 funds, Colin is in the top 5. Operators hearts with an investor's mind.” - Jack Greco Co-Founder of ACV Auctions
Building generational companies is a long game, but according to Carta, the fund has an early top decile trajectory based on the current markups.
The thesis is proving out. The flywheel is spinning.
Why This Matters
Being a first-check investor means that you have to add way more value than just your check. I'm the operator who's been in the trenches building and fundraising, writing the largest marketplace newsletter, advising 50+ companies, and seeing the early patterns of what makes a marketplace successful.
When founders pitch me, I don't just understand their unit economics; I've lived through the same liquidity challenges, the same chicken-and-egg problems, the same scaling nightmares they're facing.
That's the difference between operator-led investing and traditional VC: I've built what they're building. It gives me the opportunity to be the first call and check for exceptional founders. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
“Colin was one of our first checks. At the time, we were building a healthcare staffing marketplace. Just weeks after the round closed, we made the tough call to pivot—radically—to smart toilets. Colin didn’t hesitate. He was steady, supportive, and asked the right questions. In a sea of investors who claim to be founder-friendly, Colin proves it when it counts.” - Scott Hickle Founder/CEO of Throne
Why Now?
The time is now, and the future belongs to AI-native marketplaces, and they are being built as we speak.
Marketplaces are uniquely positioned to benefit from AI, as it is the key to a new marketplace model in which the heavy lifting of aggregation, matching, and decision-making is no longer human-driven but agent-led.
AI is completely changing the game. Just look at Mercor, the AI recruiting marketplace that went from a $250M Series A valuation to a $2B Series B valuation in less than a year while growing 6,400% year-over-year. These AI-native marketplaces aren't just growing fast; they're redefining what's possible.
The Cambrian explosion is happening, and there are so many great founders to invest in right now, and I am going to need a bigger fund!
To invest in more of these companies, I am reopening and increasing my initial, fully subscribed proof-of-concept fund.
If you are interested in being an LP, please reach out to me at colin@yonder.vc or submit your interest here. It will be open for a limited time to increase the size of the fund and invest in 50+ companies.
If you're building a marketplace, I want to meet you: I'm writing $50-200K checks at first-check and pre-seed. Let's create the next generation of marketplaces together!
The Best for Last
I am deeply grateful for the 4,000+ Take Rate readers who've built this community, to the LPs who believed in the vision before I even had a website, to the founders who trusted me with their first institutional check. I would be nothing without you! 🙏
Special thank you to my wife and family for all of their support.
To Jack Greco for convincing me to do this and for being my first check.
To Sydecar for being a steady partner in the background, which makes running a fund so much easier for emerging managers.
To help spread the word, I would be forever grateful if you could like, comment, or re-post my announcement!
About Me:
Colin is a marketplace geek and the General Partner of Yonder, a pre-seed marketplace fund that invests in marketplaces that create new economies. He has also been a longtime advisor to marketplaces, helping them with product growth, monetization, liquidity optimization, and strategy. Previously, he served as the CPO/CRO at Outdoorsy and has worked at Tripping.com, Ancestry.com, JustAnswer, and the Federal Reserve.