In Startup Building and Backing: Our Fates are Intertwined

“Our fates are intertwined.”

I’ve been thinking about that phrase a lot lately at York IE. Not just as a concept, but as a lived experience.

Recently, my cofounder and fellow Managing Partner Joe Raczka exclaimed this while deep in conversations with the founder/CEO of an early growth investment we recently made (more to come soon!). During those discussions, he kept coming back to a theme that has always been one of York IE’s core values: rising tides lift all ships.

But in this case, it went deeper than that.

When you truly partner together in startups, venture capital, growth equity, and company building, your fates become intertwined. You are betting on each other. You are locking arms together through the highs, the uncertainty, the pivots, the pressure, and the opportunities. Ultimately, destiny becomes something you create together. It’s truly a marriage.

I’ve lived this many times long before York IE existed. When it works, it really works.

At Dyn, we learned what it meant to build something as one team through chaos, growth, scale, setbacks, and ultimately an incredible outcome. The same was true at WhippleHill and across so many startup journeys and partnerships over the years with companies like Fastly, Assent, and Catchpoint.

The common thread is never just capital. It’s alignment. Philosophy and culture are critical components. It’s always the people.

The best companies and ecosystems are built when founders, operators, investors, executives, employees, customers, and shareholders all understand that they win together.

That’s what we continue building at York IE today.

Alongside my cofounders Adam Coughlin, Joe Raczka and Mike Veilleux, our leadership team including Janelle Gorman, Marshall Everson, Gregg Nelson, Tommy Vailas, Kalrav Parsana, Tom Holahan, Evan York, Cassandra Cattabriga and hundreds more across the firm today and into the future.

And beyond our team, dozens and dozens of founders, operators, and LPs who have trusted us to build something meaningful together.

That’s the startup journey at its best.

Our fates are intertwined. That alignment is exactly what gives us conviction about the future we’re building together.