About
Meet the people behind the table.
Person first. Business second. YEC has been a council since 2012. Get to know the people behind it.
Who we are
The people behind YEC.
Jessica and Drew met here as members, years before they ran it, and became each other’s counsel without setting out to. They built this version of YEC from two states apart, across a screen. The table was never a place. It is the people at it.
In our words
Somewhere in the years of building, we both started to lose ourselves in it. You learn to perform the role. You put on the face that says everything is handled, and you keep it on so long you forget it is a face.
When we took on YEC, we assumed we were bringing back the one we remembered. It took us a while to see that what we actually missed was something else. Not a better business network. A place to be a person again, and not only an operator.
We had each spent the last few years learning that on our own: separating who we are from what we build, growing ourselves alongside the company instead of disappearing into it. We grew up. YEC needed to grow up with us.
So that is what this is now. Person first, business second. A table of founders carrying the weight you carry, who become your counsel and not your contacts. The mask comes off because no one here needs it explained. The work stays the work. You just stop doing the hard part alone.
If you know the quiet that comes with the altitude you have reached, you know why this exists. This chapter was built for it, and for you. Come as the person, not the performance. That is the whole point.
The people behind it
You join people, not brands.
Jessica
Head of Community and Vision
Her work has always come back to one idea: belonging. She has spent years building services for the deaf and hard of hearing community and serving on the boards of communities she believes in. She was part of YEC long before she led it, and she shaped this version around a simple conviction. The best things are not built alone.
Drew
Head of Strategy and Technology
An attorney by training, he has built and run companies across automotive parts, business liquidation, and tech, with nonprofit work alongside. He is the person who turns an idea into the thing that actually runs. He likes building, and of everything he has made, he says this one is a favorite.
Since 2012
A council with history, built for who founders are now.
YEC has existed since 2012, and it has grown a great deal in the years since. Today it is built for the founder who is climbing faster than they can process and who needs a council more than a network.
Driven by Ambition.
Empowered by Community.
The tagline is not decoration but a description of the exchange: you bring the ambition, and the community shows up for you in return.