This is the first of two installments exploring the development and ongoing evolution of a family office.
Kyle York took an unconventional path to the family office world.
“When I think about a family office, I tend to think of the multigenerational, already wildly wealthy and liquid billionaires or families with hundreds of millions to invest,” says York, the co-founder, CEO and managing partner of York IE, a Manchester, New Hampshire-based advisory and investment firm for technology startups. Previously, York was chief revenue officer for Dyn, which was acquired by Oracle.
Instead, York has been stewarding the family legacy — and serving on the board of his family business — as a member of Gen 3, while also building wealth and starting his own family office.
“I think we’re in the early innings of the game,” York says. “I didn’t wake up and find myself in a family that had hundreds of millions of dollars to preserve. That’s not my upbringing. I’m a new school, new money type of person, but with all the integrity, principles and heritage of my family business foundation.”
Modest beginnings
The York family enterprise began modestly. Gen 1 was York’s maternal grandfather, who grew up on a small farm. The first business was in footwear: Indian Head Shoe Manufacturing. There wasn’t any multigenerational wealth in Gen 1 and Gen 2 (whose business was a sporting goods retailer, Indian Head Athletics): “It was more like an organized evolution of the family and commercial experience, an education in entrepreneurship and small business,” York says.
Today the family has a performance shoe brand, York Athletics Manufacturing, as the most closely connected Generation 3 company — “It’s in our blood,” York says. They also have a broader family business enterprise focused on heritage, legacy and future impact. They have opened a bar with another family in York’s parents’ old sports store building, Shoppers Pub + Eatery. The core offices for York IE, and York’s brother Travis’s advertising agency GYK, are also in the old shoe factory building, The R.G. Sullivan Cigar building, which the family owns.
“The burgeoning portfolio approach to business that my partners and I learned from our parents has led us to launch York IE for the technology startup ecosystem,” York says.
The creation of multigenerational wealth took place in Gen 3: “I made multigenerational money on the exit of my last company, Dyn, that we sold to Oracle for a life-changing outcome,” York says. “That amazing liquidity event has enabled me to think about my family enterprise and my overall family office with a very long-game view.”
A thriving family enterprise
Today, York organizes the family enterprise around what he calls “three legs of my stool”:
- York IE, York’s core business, is an investment and advisory business focused on building a one-stop resource and capital partner for the startup ecosystem.
- York Real Estate is a collection of holdings and funds tied to real estate that York created to diversify out of tech. “How do you continue to build wealth and legacy and heritage? Real estate is a very tangible set of assets, which is different from internet and software and AI,” York says.
- The York Family Foundation supports the next generation in arts and athletics and is where York and his wife Katie focus their philanthropic and charitable efforts.
“Those are the three legs of how I think about my family enterprise that our children, Henry, Teddy and Evie, get to watch, learn and hopefully be inspired and connected to,” York says.
The assets of York IE, York Real Estate and the family foundation — along with the family wealth, including brokerage and retirement accounts and the kids’ college funds — are all managed by the multifamily office York works with, Trevian Wealth Management in Boston.
“I was their fifth client. Phil Swisher at Trevian Wealth has been a partner to me pre- and post-wealth creation: I worked with him in pre-planning for the liquidity event that I had when we sold my company to Oracle,” York says.
York’s family office, which he says is “almost being built in real time,” is a virtual one, with different fractional advisors. These include entrepreneur-focused partners such as law firm Sheehan Phinney and accounting and tax firm Altair Group, both out of New Hampshire.
Who coordinates all these advisors? York does a lot of this work himself.
“I’m the CEO, and I coordinate a lot of it,” York says. “I view the multifamily office almost like the CFO for my family, and they manage a lot of vendors. But I also have staff within York IE. It’s a little like a hub-and-spoke model. I’ve put a lot of my family wealth back into York IE to hopefully continue to grow and scale and evolve the capacity of the family. I have an incredible 10-plus year partnership with my executive assistant, Ashley Oberg, who keeps the trains on the tracks. She’s indispensable, and I’m fortunate to have her.”
While York’s family office primarily serves his immediate household, there are intersections with his extended family. York Real Estate includes real estate holdings that York has partnered on with members of his extended family, and some of his brothers invest in technology startups with him. One of York’s brothers works at York IE as vice president. Swisher at Trevian Wealth and his staff are available to help members of York’s extended family or employees.
Part 2 will look at how York IE partners with other family offices to invest, as well as what the future holds for the family office.