Yasemin Denari
Stanford MBA, Creative, and Connector in San Mateo, CA, United States
Yasemin’s professional career has spanned multiple industries and countries, and includes work in venture capital, banking, tech startups, Google, NewSpace, documentary filmmaking, writing, music video production, and artist management.
Yasemin is a 2012 Stanford GSB graduate. She is the founder of YSD Consulting and consults for a variety of clients including tech and NewSpace startups, family offices, music artists, and authors in the areas of business development, strategy consulting, fundraising guidance, brand consulting, and market research. Over the last year she has created fundraising materials that have resulted in nearly $600M in funding. On the creative side, she is also a film producer, and produces film & branded content and oversees the production of music for clients.
In 2014-2016 Yasemin led the creation of Moon Shot, the 9-part Google Lunar XPRIZE documentary series directed by Oscar winner Orlando von Einsiedel and produced by J.J. Abrams, Bad Robot, and Epic Digital. The Google Lunar XPRIZE is the largest international incentive based prize of all time, and aims to open a new era of lunar travel by vastly decreasing the cost of access to the Moon and space. In 2014 Yasemin also pitched and produced the VICE documentary Sounds of Solidarity: Haiti's DJ Movement and has consulted for VICE on HBO.
Before Google, she was the BD Lead at the computer vision video search engine startup Baarzo (ACQ:GOOG), and from 2012-2013 she was an Associate at Tim Draper's Draper Associates.
At Stanford GSB, she was elected co-president of the Entrepreneur Club, and interned at AOL Ventures, culinary startup Kitchit, and digital rewards startup Hip Digital Media. Prior to the GSB, she was a Senior Analyst at venture capital firm Draper Richards LP, and co-authored (with William H. Draper III) the book The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs. Before this, she worked in international BD and marketing roles for Garanti Bank in Turkey & Romania, and also worked at NBC's Investigative Unit, EXTRA, and Celebrity Justice in Los Angeles.
She graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude from UCLA in 2005 and has also attended Spain's University of Salamanca and Turkey's Bosphorus University. She speaks English, Italian, French, Spanish, and Turkish.