Y Solve is an invention and innovation system grounded in humanistic capatalism.
Purpose
The Lab is a US public benefit company that has developed an innovation system to create a step-function of doing good: Scale (volume) and scale (efficiency), anchored in driving the highest RoII (Return on Impact Investment). Our system is comprised of Lab activities, Foundry services, and funding innovations.
In the Lab, New Venture Development originates and builds the early stages of our portfolio companies; Portfolio Management ensures our portfolio companies utilize our innovation system to change the underlying economics of their businesses; Innovation Services provides shared and 3rd party services to our portfolio companies; and Y Solve Capital oversees the funding innovation of the lab companies.
Process
We are a group of systems thinkers, business builders, and technologists with the belief that emerging technologies will have profound implications for society, with the potential to transform industries and improve quality of life. We endeavor to build solutions that solve real world problems in a responsible, secure and equitable way.
Areas of Impact.
Societal challenges are often deeply intertwined. Accordingly, we create businesses in 9 areas of impact: Education, Finance, Future of Work, Government Innovation, Green and Blue Economy, Healthcare, Inclusive Economies, Infrastructure, and Media.
Themes.
Themes are long term secular key drivers that capture economic, technological, and social changes. Our Themes are anchored in recognizing that we are at the very beginning of an “Emerging Technology” super cycle, a period of unprecedented growth and innovation in artificial intelligence, asset tokenization, blockchain, additive manufacturing, and opportunities at the intersection of hardware, software and data. This phenomenon is driven by several key factors, including the explosive growth of big data, the increasing power and sophistication of machine learning algorithms, and the rapid adoption of AI-based solutions across a wide range of industries. We deeply consider how emerging technologies can be used for positive social impact.
Since societal problems are non-static, themes provide broad guidance in creating forward looking solutions that provide value to impact customers. We regularly consider events and market activity to determine whether our theses are correct.
Reducing early stage risk. Recognizing that most new ventures fail early in their lifetime, we utilize a structured methodology to increase our rate of success. The process includes a number of internally developed tools: y-Validation, 5 fits, theory of change/risk scorecard. Our innovation runs much deeper than the businesses that we create. For example, within y-Validation is the notion of COM (Core Obtainable Market), which is more important than the standard market sizing elements of TAM (Total Addressable Market), SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market), and SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market).
Targets
We have an audacious agenda. We are at the beginning of our journey to create 185 companies. These are our US based year 8 targets.
185
# of companies
20x
Social Impact
12x
Financial Return
4x
Sector Capacity
(per dollar invested)
Year 1 Portfolio Companies
We are thematic business builders: we generate impact via our Areas of Impact and our financial return through our themes.
We currently develop 2 batches of portfolio companies per year; Y1/B1 is a company launched year 1, batch 1. We continually develop and refine our company pipeline. Currently, we are planning the following: Y1 (11)
Year 1: Batch 1 Companies
Number of Companies: 8 Areas of Impact: Future of Work (4), Infrastructure (2), Green and Blue Economies (1) Theme: AI impact on the organization Thesis: Increasing the velocity of value creation. Theme: Decarbonization
Carbon Y
Carbon Y creates a new digital asset class. It tokenizes voluntary carbon credits to address the fragmented bilateral agreement driven market; trades those credits, and increases participation in the green economy. Carbon Y is comprised of Carbon Y Markets and Carbon Y Services. Carbon Y Markets tokenizes and creates a trading market for voluntary carbon credits. Carbon Y Services provides comprehensive analysis of financial portfolios to help individuals, investment advisors, and others understand the risks that the portfolio has to climate change.
Edyson
Edyson and its complementary company Edyson Pioneering are at the heart of the Y Solve invention and innovation system. Edyson scales operational activity, allowing Y Solve Lab portfolio companies to focus on their products and customers, saving Lab company time and cost. Edyson delivers infrastructure, shared emerging technology capabilities, distribution capabilities (through cross-sales team), and IP assets to portfolio companies.
Edyson Pioneering
Edyson Pioneering complements Edyson by scaling go-to-market for many Lab companies. Many Lab companies in Future of Work, Government Innovation, Green and Blue Economies, Inclusive Economies, and Infrastructure areas of impact are B2B2C. Edyson Pioneering addresses the long sales cycle of selling innovative products to organizations: steep product application learning curve, an understanding - need gap as buyers are making important decisions about the services you offer without ever talking to a sales rep, and there are lots of people involved in the buying chain who you’ll need to persuade, but may never even encounter before a deal is signed. For example, procurement can side track conversations on service and application utility / impact on the organization. Edyson Pioneering works with chambers of e-commerce, economic councils, and associations to deliver “Value Creation Accelerator” to companies and “Impact Innovation Accelerator” to the non-profit sector as topic learning environments pipeline of potential customers for organization employees that creates a basis for Lab company product demand.
Grayl AI
Provides certification in sales, in collaboration with higher education. Only 15 universities in the US have a sales major yet 25% of all jobs are in sales. Grayl focuses on students, people getting back into the workforce, and solves one of the biggest issues of startups: a lack of sales expertise. Grayl offerings include: 1. general core program with practicum; 2. industry specific program; and 3. complement an organization’s sales process and provide sales training. and act as sales training for the company.
Hoppyr AI
Hoppyr AI will help organizations develop, deploy, and optimize the use of small language models. While most of the attention surrounding AI has been on large language models, we believe that small language model provide unique comparative advantages: lower costs, faster response times, reduced resource consumption, and improved deployability on resource-constrained devices. Because small language model are used to make discrete tasks more efficient, the company will collaborate with Lab companies also in the theme: AI impact on the organization; sub-thesis: “increasing the velocity of value creation” (Dyalogue, Grayl AI, Greatyr AI, Optivity AI, Possibyl, and Theya AI.
Optivity AI
Optivity AI is a Coherence MeasurementSM and Impact Science platform. Coherence MeasurementSM provides frameworks at the intersection of targets, KPIs, and metrics with operational causal loops. Impact Science delivers value to social impact organizations (nonprofits, NGO’s, public benefit companies, and social entrepreneurs) at the intersection of machine learning, social impact measurement, and predictive scoring.
Possibyl
Possibyl helps organizations and employees navigate rapidly changing environments. The company delivers Pulse Teams, Adaptive Strategy, Responsive Implementation, and Possibyl Institute for Human Capital 3.0. Pulse teams expand the capacity of traditional internal working groups by creating fast-moving, cross-functional squads to tackle urgent challenges and activate adaptive strategy. Adaptive Strategy creates organizational agility. Responsive Implementation increases productivity. Possibyl Institute for Human Capital 3.0 delivers program online, on premises, and at local hubs.
Theya AI
Theya AI helps all organizations optimize at the intersection of budget envelopes, provided services, and human capital capacity. When thinking about optimization of services for a given budget envelope, most organizations use / implement the following: automation reduces manual tasks and streamlines workflows and enhances overall productivity; cloud technologies are scalable, flexible solutions that lower IT infrastructure costs while improving operational agility; and advanced analytics derive more meaningful insights informing better, faster decision-making. What is missing is the efficacy of the services delivered and how team capabilities impact optimization. Theya AI helps organizations complement “doing more with less” with “doing better with less”.
Year 1: Batch 2 Companies
Number of Companies: 5 Areas of Impact: Future of Work (4) Theme: AI impact on the organization
Acumyn
Creates a new category: net supporter score to improve upon the myriad problems with net promoter score. It allows organizations to generate greater return from marketing and customer retention efforts with the benefit of creating a new work category for services. Acumyn uses inputs from multiple sources to create net supporter score metrics. * Core target impact customer: All impact organizations; all small and medium size businesses; benefits individuals (new work category of assessment).
Dyalogue
The company is in the portfolio theme: AI impact on the Organization; sub-thesis: Increasing the Velocity of Value Creation. Working seamlessly with Lab portfolio companies, Possibyl, Optivity AI, and Theya AI, Dyalogue delivers AI-native human capital software stack. Human Capital Management (HCM) is a strategic approach to managing an organization’s workforce. While traditional human resources focuses on the transaction activity of managing a workforce such as payroll processing, benefits management, and recruitment, Dyalogue optimizes performance management of employees (and supports and understanding of employee performance contribution) aligning their skills and talents with the organization’s overall business goals.
Salyence
There is growing gap between the percentage number of chief academic officers at higher-education institutions who say they are effectively preparing students for work, and percentage of number of business leaders who strongly agree. As a result, in the face of rapid technological change and persistent skill gaps, organizations increasingly need to develop their own curriculum to ensure a well-equipped, agile, and engaged workforce. Salyence allows combines the expertise of a chief academic officer, needs of the business, and requirements of human capital offices to foster continual learning that is relevant and effective.
Sygma
Sygma, through its y-Sygma product, allows NIL (name, image, and likeliness) student athletes to generate guaranteed return on a social impact investment pool. In addition y-Sigma combines an endowment-like model with structured finance for NIL collectives, independent organizations that fundraise money for universities and give it to attending college athletes in the form of NIL agreement payouts.
Trybe 360
There is a fundamental shift in how organizations approach cybersecurity. No longer is it enough to simply react to attacks; proactive defense is the new imperative. Trybe360 uses AI to conduct vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, social engineering, web application testing, network traffic analysis, wireless security testing, and password cracking. Trybe360 collaborates with Lab company Optivity AI expertise in organizational causal loops to utilize reverse engineering to analyze software, hardware, or firmware to understand its functionality and identify potential vulnerabilities.