I’m Michael Yaroshefsky, founder and CEO of Visor. Welcome to my personal website, where I will share some chapters on my crazy journey and some random musings on my blog.

Visor

Visor is the world’s most connected spreadsheet. I founded Visor (formerly RocketVisor) while studying at Harvard Business School in 2016. The company pivoted in mid-2019. Instead of trying to pull people out of their spreadsheets, we realized we should learn from what they loved about them. That led us to create this revolutionary new product.

Current data products work for experts, but today everyone needs to work with data. Everyone knows how to work in a spreadsheet, but no one knows how to integrate data across applications, let alone sync it both ways. Visor is a revolutionary new spreadsheet experience. It is built to bring people together with data, and it is built for everyone.

Visor is improving the way the world works. Stay tuned for more exciting updates to come…

Insight Venture Partners

Before HBS, I was a senior analyst at Insight Venture Partners in New York, where I first began in 2011 as a summer intern and continued full-time in 2012.   In my 3 years at the firm, I sourced and helped lead investments in growth-stage technology companies, generally making investments between $10 million and $100 million.  Some of my investments include Docker, Flipp, Xamarin (acq. Microsoft), DataSift (acq. Meltwater), Ensighten, Famo.us, Alteryx (NYSE: AYX), and iSpot.TV, and I worked post-investment with  Anaqua and Frontline Technologies.  In particular, I focused on enterprise software, mobile technology, data analytics, and infrastructure.

At Insight, I became an authority on analyzing recurring revenue businesses (part of this analysis is featured in this blog post) and built a proprietary customer analytics toolkit to enable rapid, accurate evaluation of SaaS businesses. At the same time, I continued programming in Python, JavaScript, and a mix of other languages to stay sharp and build cool tools to help my team and my portfolio companies.

One tool I built enhanced Salesforce, our internal CRM, by improving the interface for quicker readability, adding new features, and adding keyboard shortcuts.  This enabled my fellow teammates to accomplish their daily tasks much more efficiently — saving hours per week.  The realization behind how much more productive I could make the team — and how passionate they became about what I built — is part of the impetus for our vision with RocketVisor.

Princeton

I graduated Princeton University in 2012 with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering. The student body elected me twice to serve as president of the Undergraduate Student Government (USG).

I focused the first term on the organization’s structure and the second term on major student concerns, including academics.  Crime on campus, and alcohol-related incidents with students, reached a record low during this time.

The campus newspaper covered some of the highlights of my experience:

• December 2009: Yaroshefsky ’12 lists 24 goals for USG
• December 2009: Editorial: Yaroshefsky for USG president
• December 2009: Yaroshefsky ’12 elected USG president in runoff
• January 2010: Yaroshefsky ’12 looks ahead to presidency
• April 2010: New course scheduling tool launched
• October 2010: USG issues mid-year updates
• October 2010: USG considers online course initiative, Taste of Prospect
• November 2010: Yaroshefsky ’12: Incumbent eager to build on record
• November 2010: Editorial: Yaroshefsky for president; Ettman for vice president
• November 2010: Yaroshefsky ’12 overwhelmingly reelected as USG president
• November 2010: USG sponsors free classes for students at Dillon Gymnasium
• January 2011: Twenty-five years at the top: USG presidents
• January 2011: Yaroshefsky ’12: Still looking forward, 1 year later
• February 2011: USG considers organizing bus transport program
• February 2011: Yaroshefsky ’12 invited to visit Russia
• March 2011: Yaroshefsky meets with Biden in Russia
• April 2011: USG approves $6,300 to hire summer web development intern
• April 2011: USG releases 1st annual report
• January 2012: Yaro’s Legacy
• February 2012: Yaro ’12 Reflects on 2 years

One time I got invited to visit Russia, where I got to meet with Joe Biden:

The Academic Life Total Assessment (ALTA)

As the capstone to my student government service, I launched and led a year-long research project regarding academic life, the Academic Life Total Assessment, which achieved the highest voluntary response rate in campus history and ultimately contributed to a number of changes in academic life on campus, including giving students off the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the repeal of the unpopular “Grade Deflation” policy.  In addition, I emphasized how technology can improve students’ lives by rolling out popular apps including the Integrated Course Engine (ICE) and TigerCal for student events.

The Daily Princetonian chronicled the development & effects of this project:

• February 2011: USG to assess academic experience
• March 2011: USG names academic life project members
• April 2011: First ALTA meeting focuses on setting goals, exploring issues
• February 2012: Half of students respond to ALTA
• March 2012: ALTA findings released at community meeting
• May 2012: ALTA recommends option to rescind pass/D/fail

Reputation for (Over)communication

One of the more hilarious things to come of my USG presidency was a reputation for sending many emails to the student body. This apparently even reached Steve Carell, who in his Class Day speech asked:

“Wouldn’t it be nice to not receive 17 emails a day from Michael Yaroshefsky?”

Steve Carell

Class of 1901 Medal

At graduation from Princeton, I was honored to receive from my classmates the Class of 1901 Medal, which is awarded by each graduating class to the senior who has done the most for Princeton.  This was in recognition of some of my efforts to improve campus for students, including:

• Conceiving and launching TigerApps
• Bringing Free Fitness Classes to students
• Chairing the Princeton Academic Life Total Assessment

Joseph Clifton Elgin Prize

The School of Engineering and Applied Science awarded me the Joseph Clifton Elgin Prize, which is given to the student who has done the most to advance the interests of the engineering school in the community at large.  

Kenneth H Condit Senior Thesis Prize

My thesis, designing a productivity app called TDLoo while studying the psychology of UX/UI, received the Kenneth H. Condit Senior Thesis Prize for excellence in senior thesis research within my department.

Future Business Leaders of America

In high school, I was elected as National President of the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), the largest student-run organization in the United States, with 215,000 members.  I concurrently served as the New Jersey Chapter State President.  Over four years in the organization, I attended dozens of conferences around the country as an ambassador of the national office, setting the agenda for the national leadership team and building an expanded global team to achieve these goals.  

During my term in office, we increased membership by 1,552 members, expanded our target contribution to the March of Dimes Foundation by 33% to $500,000, and produced tools, such as the FBLAction guide, to improve the learning experience of all members.

March of Dimes

For two years, from 2008 to 2009, the March of Dimes appointed me to serve as a National Youth Council member. In this position, I traveled as a spokesperson for the organization, sharing the mission and aiding in fund-raising efforts.

K-12

Entrepreneurship has always been in my blood.  I founded MikeYaroSoft, Inc. in 2008, to start sharing my passion for building beautiful websites and software applications, and helping clients succeed online.  In fourth grade, I sold candy to my classmates at lunch and ran a pencil lending operation for (modest) profit.  In first grade, I created a microeconomy in my classroom, with blue-colored staples as currency, which my classmates traded for snacks, supplies, and the coveted position of line leader… until I flooded the market and accidentally created a currency collapse. My parents swear I sold pacifiers in the nursery when I was born.

On a Personal Note

There are a handful of things I am deeply (weirdly) passionate about. They include:

• Corvettes
• Helicopters
• Blueberries
• Pancakes
• Maps
• Weather Radar
• Snow Leopards

Corvettes

Personal connection: lifelong goal setting.

At age 2, I began saving for a Corvette. At age 13, after socking away checks from every birthday and holiday, with the help of my parents and the proceeds from my web design business, I bought my first Corvette: a 2003 Corvette Z06. (Of course, my dad had to drive it for me until I got my license).

Helicopters

Personal connection: Fascinating aeronautical physics + a feeling of complete freedom + responsibility of taking your life in your own hands.

The feeling of flying a helicopter is completely liberating and all-consuming: you have one hand on the cyclic, one hand on the collective, and both feet on the pedals. You have authority to move in any direction, in any dimension, and even hover in the air. There is nothing like it.

I got inspired into aviation by watching planes takeoff and land at Newark Airport with my dad. But getting my hands on an RC helicopter and learning about the physics of their flight ignited a passion for flying rotorcraft.

Blueberries

Personal connection: Reminder of my summer birthdays at the Jersey Shore. (The blueberry is New Jersey’s state fruit, and they are at peak sweetness in season during my summer birthday)

Pancakes

Personal connection: I made pancakes for breakfast every day one summer in 2011 when I trained for my first cycling century.

Maps

Coming soon!

Weather Radar

Coming soon!

Snow Leopards

Coming soon!