| Yale Entrepreneurial Society (YES) | |
| Abbreviation: | YES |
| Formation: | 1999 |
| Type: | Nonprofit, Yale Student Organization |
| Status: | non-profit 501(c)(3) |
| Purpose: | supporting student innovation and entrepreneurship at yale |
| Headquarters: | New Haven, Connecticut |
| Location: | 254 Elm Street New Haven, CT 06511 |
| Membership: | 300 |
| Leader Title: | President |
| Leader Name: | Amelie Liu |
| Affiliations: | Yale Entrepreneurial InstituteTsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale |
| Newsletter: | Yale Entrepreneurial Society Newsletter |
The Yale Entrepreneurial Society (YES) is a student-run nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to encouraging entrepreneurship and business development in the New Haven, Connecticut area. YES was founded in 1999 by Yale undergraduates Sean Glass and Miles Lasater. Its social entrepreneurship program—focused on not-for-profit and socially responsible organizations—was founded the same year, with efforts led by fellow student David Pozen. Today, YES members include Yale undergraduate, graduate, professional students, and faculty, as well as several hundred Yale alumni around the world.
The Yale Entrepreneurial Society's mission is the following:
In 2023 YES Accelerate was created as an exclusive accelerator portal for YES members including a rolling common application exclusive to YES Fellows and VC partners. Members can apply to Techstars, Z Fellows, Contrary, Sequoia Arc, Pear VC, MiraclePlus, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, Insight Partners, O'Shaughnessy Ventures, Lair East Labs, XFund, and Connecticut Innovations, all through one form. They can also access a resource hub, legal counsel, and more. YES Accelerate can be found linked on the YES official website.
In 2022, following Yale's shift to mandatory pre-orientation programs for first-year students, YES began designing LAUNCH – a Camp Yale First-Year Pre-orientation Program focused on impact and entrepreneurship[1] . Students at LAUNCH hear from founders, meet alums and students who've built Yale's entrepreneurship community, and engage in collaborative workshops at Yale's Tsai CITY and entrepreneurial hubs around New Haven. They also participate in fun activities including day hikes, beach trips, movie nights, and late-night scavenger hunts. No prior entrepreneurial experience is required.[2]
LAUNCH was officially approved as a Yale College Dean's Office program and ran its inaugural program in fall 2023 for ~130 students. Students heard from Sara Du, Michael Seibel, Anne Wojcicki, Max Mullen, Gary Stewart, Mariam Naficy, and Michael Redd, met with campus leaders at Yale Ventures, Tsai CITY, and the CEID, and went on a day trip to New York City to Techstars headquarters[3] . The YDN reported that LAUNCH had a successful first year[4], and a recap video can be found on the official website.
The YES Internship Program gives undergraduates from across the nation the opportunity to intern with one of YES's 150+ affiliated start-ups, who range from pre-seed companies to those currently financing a Series C. Through the program, students can help build a start-up from scratch while working with experienced entrepreneurs who are experts in their space. As they live and breathe the startup experience, YES internship participants learn the ins-and-outs of building a product to scale while collaborating with a small, innovative, and close-knit team.
YES brings notable entrepreneurs and successful businesspeople to speak at Yale's campus, particularly Yale alumni founders.
In fall 2023, the Yale INSPIRE speaker series was created, bringing alumni founders back to campus for a fireside chat and dinner (typically at Mory's). These events were hosted in partnership with the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale and recorded and published on YouTube.
Past speakers include:
The Yale Venture Challenge was previously known as Y50K. It was held annually in April, and awarded up to $25,000 in grants to student entrepreneurs. The competition involved a 10-minute pitch and a 5-minute Q&A in front of a panel of judges.
The Y50K was YES's annual business plan competition. The competition ran annually after its inception in 2000. Each year, a total of $50,000 in grants were given away to new businesses in the Yale community. In 2004, a biotechnology category was added to the usual two categories of competition, social entrepreneurship and for-profit. The Y50K also had a strategic alliance with StudentBusinesses.com that allows the competition to be conducted completely online. In the early 2010s Y50K was changed to YVC, open only to students at Yale University.
The Elevator Pitch Competition promoted idea generation and presentation from any student in the Yale community. Pitches were no longer than three minutes, and a fully hashed-out business plan was not required. Barry Nalebuff was traditionally the judge for this competition. Past winners include Ovote, Prepd, and Junzi Kitchen.[10]
The Yale Entrepreneurial Magazine, published and supported by the Yale Entrepreneurial Society, is Yale's only magazine of entrepreneurship. First published in 2001, the YE went out of publication in 2003 until being relaunched in the fall of 2013 by Nicole Clark and Aaron Lewis. The Yale Entrepreneurial Magazine has since gone out of print and is now succeeded by the Yale Entrepreneurial Society newsletter and alumni newsletter.
YES hosts a variety of events throughout the year to highlight entrepreneurship at Yale and in the greater New Haven and Connecticut regions. While venues vary from year to year, common events usually include YES New York, YES Boston, and the Innovation Summit (hosted in New Haven). Students annually visit tech companies and startups in New England including Google, Etsy, Dropbox, Spotify, Rent the Runway, and Venture for America. The organization has also held events in Silicon Valley.