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Silicon Valley-based Magdalena Yesil is the founder of the investment group Broadway Angels and currently serves as a corporate board member for Smartsheet, Zuora, SoFi, and Informed. She began her professional career working as a semiconductor design engineer at Advanced Micro Devices before founding the electronic payment pioneers CyberCash and MarketPay. Transitioning to venture capital, Yesil was the first investor and founding board member of Salesforce, and she subsequently spent eight years operating as a general partner at US Venture Partners. She has invested in over 30 early-stage companies, including consumer platforms like The RealReal and PicsArt, and holds a bachelor's and a master's degree in engineering from Stanford University. Her current focus remains centered on early-stage technology investments, leveraging her three decades of experience to back startups across financial technology, e-commerce infrastructure, and financial transaction platforms.
Magdalena Yesil stands as a formidable figure in the technology and investment landscape, renowned for her pioneering contributions to Silicon Valley and her strategic insights as an angel investor. As a valued member of Broadway Angels, an esteemed group of accomplished female investors, Yesil brings a wealth of experience and a keen eye for disruptive innovation to her investment decisions.
Yesil's career journey is marked by a series of groundbreaking achievements. She is widely recognized as a founding board member of Salesforce.com, a role that placed her at the very inception of one of the world's most successful cloud computing companies. Her early involvement was instrumental in shaping Salesforce's trajectory and establishing its dominance in the CRM market. Prior to this, Yesil co-founded UUNET, one of the earliest and largest commercial internet service providers, playing a crucial role in making the internet accessible to businesses and individuals. This foundational work solidified her reputation as a visionary leader capable of identifying and scaling nascent technologies.
Her transition into venture capital saw her as a General Partner at US Venture Partners, where she continued to back promising technology companies. This experience honed her ability to evaluate market potential, assess management teams, and guide startups through critical growth phases. Today, as an angel investor, Yesil leverages this deep operational and investment expertise to support a new generation of entrepreneurs.
At Broadway Angels, Magdalena Yesil focuses her investments primarily on software, SaaS, and enterprise technology solutions. She is particularly interested in companies that offer innovative B2B platforms, artificial intelligence applications, and other transformative technologies designed to solve complex business challenges. Her investment philosophy emphasizes strong leadership teams, clear market differentiation, and scalable business models. Beyond capital, Yesil provides invaluable mentorship, drawing from her own entrepreneurial successes and failures to help founders navigate the often-turbulent startup environment. She is also the author of "Power Up: How Smart Women Win in the New Economy," a testament to her commitment to empowering women in business and technology. Her enduring influence continues to shape the future of technology and investment.
Magdalena Yesil primarily invests in innovative software, SaaS, and enterprise technology startups. Her focus includes B2B solutions, artificial intelligence, and other transformative tech companies.
Magdalena Yesil is an angel investor and a member of Broadway Angels, an investment group comprised of accomplished women.
