Story Ventures

Story Ventures

Story Ventures operates from New York, investing at the earliest stages of the data-automation lifecycle. The firm structures its thesis around three vertically integrated layers: sensory systems that digitize real-world data, middleware that aggregates and structures that data, and machine intelligence applications that leverage it for decision-making. Confirmed portfolio companies span each of these layers, including contract electronics manufacturer Bright Machines, vehicle-data aggregator Connected Vehicle Systems, and clinical-data platform Ovation.io. Deal flow comes from a top-down thematic sourcing model. The firm maps out the modern data stack and then seeds startups that capture proprietary data, build the pipes to organize it, or apply AI on top of it. The approach covers mobility and logistics (connected vehicles, freight intelligence), healthcare (electronic medical records, biosignal processing), and financial services (alternative data for credit scoring, transaction-data analytics). The firm’s stated preference is to lead or co-lead pre-seed and seed rounds, often as the institutional first check. Website claims include positions in fintech platform Public and clinical-data company Mendel, though specific fund-level deployment totals remain undisclosed. The General Partners are Jake Yormak, a former lawyer focused on data usability and design, and Brian Yormak, who concentrates on hardware-software integration and mobility. The team also includes CFO Gagan Chawla and a small operations staff. The firm maintains a single New York office. No adjacent philanthropic vehicles, operating companies, or peer clubs are disclosed in publicly accessible materials. No recent institutional fund close has been reported, leaving the capital base undisclosed. Story’s structural differentiator rests in the explicit layering of its thesis — it is not simply an AI or data fund, but a portfolio architecture that mirrors a technical data stack from hardware sensor capture through middleware to applied intelligence. This shape imposes a filtering logic: a company must fit the stack, not just the sector. The firm refers to its founders as “authors” of tomorrow’s data-driven systems, and the Yormaks’ co-leadership keeps governance within a single family partnership.