🎙️ EP36: Investing in Deeptech Space Startups - The New Frontier with Jenna… | InvestHer Podcast

Welcome to this week's episode of InvestHer Podcast. This week, our special guest is Jenna Bryant, co-founder, CEO, and general partner at Embedded Ventures, which is a VC fund that invests in the next generation national security space deep tech startups.

So it's a fund that she co-founded with Jordan Noon, and in this episode, you're going to learn all about their investment thesis, How they struck up the very first of its kind partnership with the United States Space Force, the type of companies they invest in, how they like to be approached, lots of key tips, and some key trends in space and security investing. This is going to be a super interesting episode, everybody. Really, really hope you enjoy it because I certainly did. And boy, is Jenna an amazing, amazing person and character. Enjoy.

InvestHer Podcast is for you, the female founder who has a product, a service, or a message that you believe in and need to get funded. Or for you, the investor who wants to learn more about the huge untapped investment opportunity that gives you a higher return— women entrepreneurs. My name is Anne Ravanona. I'm an entrepreneur, TEDx speaker, and women's advocate, and I'm passionate about helping women entrepreneurs get funded. In each episode, we'll take a behind-the-scenes look into real-world funding tactics and strategies to help you get the funding you need faster. Let's put the fun into funding. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let's get started.

So welcome everybody to our latest, latest episode of Investor Podcast. And boy, boy, boy, if you are— you're ready. Are you ready for a ride? Are you ready to go on a ride here? Because I want to introduce you here to Jenna Bryant. Oh my gosh, co-founder and CEO of Embedded Ventures.

Jenna, she's in the room.

Hi Jenna, welcome.

Hello, thank you so much for having me.

Oh my gosh, I am so, so excited to have you. And okay, we are gonna start the ball rolling with my first question is like, you've got such a unique career. I want you to introduce yourself to our listeners, Jenna, and then tell us a bit about your unique career and what led you to become a VC.

Okay, great. Well, for— I always am like, how much time do we have? Because this, uh, I can do my long story long, long story short doesn't really exist. Um, but to be completely transparent with you, I really did land here by happenstance and probably a little bit of magic pixie dust or something very special. The odds were definitely stacked against me. Everlanding adventure. But recently, I've been reverse engineering my life. And if I really had to identify a few choices that stood out as the ones that helped point me in this direction, I'll kind of go through those.

Mm-hmm.

It's still, the odds were against me, but there were a few key decisions that I made that I'm very proud of and that kind of helped get me here. The first choice was my decision to move to LA. And I grew up in Alabama with very, I mean, no visibility into, you know, really anything outside of the Southeast in terms of industry. And I started dancing when I was really young. And in elementary school, our dance studio landed a huge choreographer named Kim Wolfe. She was a professional dancer in LA who trained under Marguerite Derricks, who now has 3 Emmys. And then Kim went on to dance with Ani DiFranco, Prince. And so as you can imagine, you know, being an elementary school kid at a dance studio and getting her as your as the, you know, new teacher at the studio in Alabama was a huge deal.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and then there was a, there was a high schooler at our studio, you know, in, in elementary school, we, we looked up to the high schooler dancers, you know?

Mm-hmm.

And so there was a high schooler named Nicole Shaka who was already like the star dancer at the studio. And she really became Kim's protégé when, uh, Kim started teaching there. And so I idolized both of them. Um, Kim, uh, Nicole became my teacher first while I was still in middle school, and then Nicole moved to LA to become a professional dancer following Kim's footsteps. And then I learned under Kim until I graduated. And, you know, I knew I was going to end up in LA because I absolutely idolized both of them and they both moved to LA.

Mm-hmm.

And so I wanted to be just like them. So that meant I was going to move to LA when I grew up. The second choice was straight out of college. And actually, my bachelor's degree is in fashion design. I really had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. I thought I was going to be a backup dancer for Beyoncé. Had a great opportunity to go to college and wasn't going to miss that. And but I got a job just to pay my bills straight out of school as a tech recruiter for early-stage startups. I'm still surprised that I took that job. It was so out of left field for me and fully commission-based. So I had to absolutely hustle. But ultimately, I really loved the learning aspect of the job. It was very new to me. I learned about the emerging tech that was popping up in LA. I learned about the various people in it. as a recruiter. So it was almost like an anthropological study or something. I really did, though, like recruiting in my own way. So I started my own firm pretty quickly. And, and, you know, worked with some of the emerging startups in LA that were looking for hard-to-fill engineer— engineers to fill hard-to-fill roles. And this was, this was like early days Silicon Beach. So early Tinder, early, you know, all of those companies. And I I mean, I remember, I'm pretty sure I placed the first Android dev at Tinder, which is just crazy to me. I'm like, wow, I remember when, like, you know, mobile apps became a thing. But I really became fulfilled in a lot of ways with that job while I was still, you know, exploring my creative side and figuring out what I ultimately wanted to do. And then the third choice that was defining for me was joining a venture firm. And I never— I remember saying no at first, actually, because I honestly didn't find the investors that I'd met as people I'd want to work with or that I could relate to in any way. But I found my former partners were really interesting. They really valued me as a recruiter and building engineering teams with some of the most in-demand skills. And they were investing in deep tech, which I was so excited about, seeing the hard tech startups that were popping up in LA because of the aerospace industry here. And I thought they were really cool for leaning into it. So I learned a lot from them. And I learned that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. And, you know, I can save the story for, for later on what made us start Embedded. But those were kind of the 3 defining decisions that put me in the right location around the right people for this to have happened. But, you know, I was pretty dead set on being a backup dancer for Beyoncé or like a fashion designer as a kid. So here I am.

Fascinating. I love it, Jenna. I mean, we were just saying before, like, how many women in particular have such winding roads and different careers, and they go down one path and it turns into— and I'm just so glad. I mean, I'm sorry Beyoncé didn't have you as a backup dancer.

However, there's still time. There's still time.

You can have portfolio careers. There's still time. And in any case, like, wow, wow, wow. Like, you're making a big dent in VC, and already you have by recruiting and putting great talent into those tech startups.

So thank you.

That really leads us then to Let's talk about Embedded Ventures. So what made you decide to launch it with Jordan Noon? Tell us a bit more about you guys.

Yeah, well, Jordan and I became industry friends back in the day when I was trying to learn how commercially focused startups could learn how to work with the Department of Defense. So my brother, we're very close. He's only 2 years older than me age-wise and was only 1 year older than me school-wise. So growing up, you know, in Alabama, it was like Friday Night Lights. He played football. I was like the proud sis in the stands. You know, we were super close. He then became, um, now he's a V-22 Osprey pilot in the Marine Corps.

Wow.

Um, and so, you know, I'm still, you know, I'm still just his biggest fan, and I want to see, um, access to technologies that I see commercially available, um, accessible to him and, you know, anyone else who's, who's actively serving. And so, um, Jordan, as the co-founder and founding CTO of Relativity Space, was the best example of a venture-backed founder who learned how to work with the government that I could find. And so I actually reached out to him cold on LinkedIn, um, and just kind of told him what I was— I was trying to learn more about the dual-use tech space, um, and we became industry friends. And then over time, he became a great person for me to confide in and get advice from. He had a founder's perspective, which was extremely useful, and he really became someone I trusted and respected. And the venture— Venture ecosystem, especially if you're new and if you're female or part of a marginalized group, it can be very isolating. I was the only woman on my team, and I also was, was not about to go to the founders in our portfolio for, you know, advice or like, you know, asking a question on a decision that we're making. That would have been so weird and inappropriate. And so Jordan ended up being, you know, someone I could trust who was a neutral party, you know.

Hmm.

not affiliated, and who could help me learn a lot about what I loved about venture and what I really didn't like and would want to see done differently if I ran my own firm. So I ultimately felt compelled to start my own thing, knowing that if it was what I was going to do for the rest of my life, I wanted to be able to craft the firm I wanted to see exist. Jordan was my very first advisor. And, you know, I knew I wanted a technical co-founder. So I was like low-key planting the seed for him, um, the whole time and being like, man, the venture industry really needs you. Um, so when he actually decided to step down from his day-to-day at Relativity to build something new from scratch again, I really kicked my recruiting chops into high gear, and the rest is history.

I don't think anybody can refuse you, Jenna. Oh my God. Oh, they can. I think they'd have a very hard time being able to like Say, no, no, no, I'm not interested. I'm sure you'd always manage.

I don't, I don't know. I used, I used to, I always tell people, I'm like, I feel like some people just say yes because they feel bad for me with my Southern accent or something. And I'm like, well, whatever the reason, it worked out.

You know, we don't argue with it when it works out. Like, we just go with the flow.

That's right.

Go with the flow. But it sounds like you and Jordan are just very, very compatible, like, just strategically We are energy-wise, and that is, and of course, tech, you know, different skill set, etc., etc. So, so tell us a bit more then about Embedded Ventures. What's your investment thesis?

Yeah. And there's just kind of touching a little more on, on us together as a partnership. We are very different people. Sometimes we'll spend, you know, a few days doing completely different things. I always say we're great at dividing and conquering. And I feel so lucky. Not only is he great at— like, I know what I'm great at and I know what I'm not great at. He is great at everything I'm not great at. And then we've kind of built our whole team around, you know, we know what we know, we know what we don't know. But then also it's so fun not doing it alone.

Oh, yeah.

I realized because I worked for myself for so long, And I had never had, you know, a full business partner. And so it was, you know, transitioning to venture. But then of course, with this, with Jordan, it was my first time experiencing that. I was like, man, I thought I had it made. I'm like, it's so much more fun with a partner. And then, and then, and also just so supportive. He's so supportive of me, our entire team. And he has the exact same values around diversity and inclusion that, that we all do. Um, and so in terms of our investment thesis, um, you know, with our national security and, and economic prosperity really being at an inflection point, making investments into the technologies that will transform static markets and introduce entirely new ones is really more critical than ever.

Mm-hmm.

And so we take a commercial-first approach to investing in early-stage startups that have applications that can serve the Department of Defense. Really integrating the space industry with the terrestrial economy. So also, as deep tech founders and operators ourselves, we're uniquely qualified to find, fund, and coach the founding teams that are pushing the frontiers of tech advancement for our country. We definitely focus on the areas we know. And those are digital engineering, advanced manufacturing, and space infrastructure. For digital engineering, that's the next generation software toolkit for hardware. So closing the gap between The tools that are currently available for hardware design and the state of art in— state of the art in software capabilities.

Mm-hmm.

For advanced manufacturing, that's the technologies that support and enable the manufacturing of the next generation of hardware, supply chain security and simplicity, the rapid iteration of complex products.

Mm-hmm.

And then for space infrastructure, it's really the emerging technology around all space activities. So that's resource— I mean, it could be anything ranging from resource extraction to communications infrastructure, lunar technology, Uh, power generation, pointing navigation, timing infrastructure, and manufacturing. Kind of, you know, the sky's not the limit.

You know what's super, super interesting, Jenna, and what you're saying is that often we hear it's kind of the other way around, where, you know, innovation from the space industry then goes into civilian life, you know, to change the world, like the Tempur-Pedic bed and all that, whatever. What you're saying is the complete opposite. It's like, no, no, there is stuff happening really fast. We need to get it into the space industry so much, even more. And, and, you know, thank goodness that things have changed and that the space programs have opened up and it's more commercial, etc., etc. Because yeah, it was pretty stuck for a while, wasn't it?

For quite a while.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

You know, and it's so interesting because I didn't get to tell you this before, but my son, he's, he's studying physics. He's in this—

Wow.

of science, he's in physics and astrophysics. He wants to be an astronaut. He loves— and he loves—

wow.

So he's mad into rocketry. And so he keeps us up to completely up to date. And I'm like, he's so lucky because now no matter what, he will have an entry because there are now more, you know, commercial companies in the field in space.

And so, you know, he should talk to Jordan, first of all. Um, but also I was very lucky for, for Relativity's launch last month. Of course, you know, like, I'm, I'm, I'm just so proud of Jordan. And it was a huge milestone when, when they had their successful launch down at the Cape, and I was not going to miss it. Okay, so for every— there were, there were, were there 2 or 3 attempts before they actually flew? But I was there for every attempt.

Yeah.

And, and then the night it actually flew, I was on the base. I took the friends and family bus. On the base. And it's still surreal. Like, I get chills thinking about it because it was, it was, it was, it was almost like too, the rocket was like, um, no, everyone, I do best in nighttime, at night, because I light up beautifully. Um, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna make sure a boat is in, in the way of, you know, uh, the launch perimeter on all the other attempts so that I can launch at night, for crying out loud. And I'm telling you, It was the first— it was methane fueled and it just lit up colors that, you know, you'd never seen before at a rocket launch. And it just was absolutely stunning. They reached Max Q, which was the goal. I mean, honestly, for it to make it off the pad for a very first, you know, launch for a startup, it was incredible. But it was— it was— I just felt like I was watching history and it reminded me of, you know, what we've seen in the movies from years ago. And— Wow. I don't know. It was just. I felt I even though I had absolutely nothing to do with you know relativity success, I felt like I was a part of it because I was there.

Oh my God!

So cool!

You're gonna make Ethan, my son, so jealous because like he was he's so passionate about it. Like he was watching it live and he recorded himself watching it live and it's I love it. He was like having fifty million heart attacks. He was so excited and I don't know he's telling us you know there's like I don't know how many engines in it like thirty something engines thirty two or something. I can't he knows exactly said da da da da da da da da. And he was like going crazy. And he was—

Fascinating.

This is amazing. But oh, we have to get off that topic because we will not cover the rest of what we want to share. But it's so, you know, it's just so passionate. And okay, so you've talked about in your thesis, the type of sectors, you said digital engineering, advanced manufacturing, and space infrastructure. What kind of stage company, like, you know, contracts companies are you looking at?

Because that's really early stage. And we've, we've publicly announced investments in Immersion Space, KittyCAD, Chromatic Skyrise, and Slingshot Aerospace. Every company really has a different origin story. But like even KittyCAD, we ended up incubating. It was us seeing a gap in the software for hardware design market. And after searching, we decided to form a company ourselves and recruit a founding team. And so, you know, even though we're not an incubator, you know, when you have people who have the experience that can really identify gaps that have been traditionally overlooked, you know, really, really interesting things can come about, like turning it into a company. So, but yeah, typically early stage.

And so, like, out of all the companies that you've invested in so far, Were there any that had any women co-founders? And I know that's a tricky one, because there's not so many women in STEM and not, not so many in space and in hardware, software, and all the things that you're talking about. So do any have a woman co-founder? I'm just out of interest.

Absolutely. Our portfolio is 66% minority-led and founded. Half of our portfolio has at least one female co-founder. Yeah. And our founders have a diversity have diversity in a multitude of ways in addition to that. So absolutely.

Yeah, here I am clapping loudly, clapping loudly, because that—

I know, it's something I'm so proud of as well.

Amazing. So tell us a teeny bit about those first companies and why you chose them, because as you know, it's super important, you know, when you are an emerging fund to choose the right ones to set the tone for Fund 1. So, so tell us real quick, you know, what it was that enticed you to go towards those first companies?

Yeah, well, actually, before we even started fundraising our fund, we had known about Skyrise, which when I say early stage, there's one outlier, and it's Skyrise, which we actually did it as an SPV. We met them through their, their chief of staff who had been, you know, longtime guest of mine on this underground webinar series that hosts connecting the Department of Defense with national security interested founders. And through that relationship, the Skyrise team saw the value in partnering with us and asked if we wanted to participate in a majority insider round prior to their Series B, which ended up being the largest Series B in aerospace history.

Wow.

We did that. It ended up just in terms of, you know, people starting funds, I'd say, especially in order for LPs to see the types of opportunities you get access to and your investor relations and everything, even though SPVs can be an absolute pain because you're raising on a deal-by-deal basis. It ended up being really great. And it also being not super early stage benefited us because people knew about them and knew it was a big deal that we were getting in on this. And so we were able to really engage with certain LPs that we already knew, of course, but that were trying to— So I'm sure so many people listening have heard before, oh, well, we're more appropriate for your fund too. But doing an impactful SPV in a company that people know to just show the type of access you get really went a long way for us. And then Chromatic, we actually met through one of my portfolio company founders from my previous life. We saw a capability in them that the rest of the market wasn't leaning into, and given our ability to understand their technology and market better than anyone else, They're basically 3D printing with chemical reactions. And then kind of the rest have, they've all had kind of their own paths, but they've really organically happened. And we do diligence a fair amount of companies, of course, but we also are always mindful of making sure that we are partitioning things into the various sectors, diversifying the fund that way. And then also with KittyCAD, finding gaps in the market and finding opportunities to fill it. Of course, we're still— we still have a young portfolio that's growing. But so we'll see a lot more of that in the future. But so far, that's how it's gone.

And what about the size of your fund?

How big is Embedded Ventures?

Yeah, so we've done the first close of our core fund, which is a $100 million fund. And then again, we did a series of SPVs. We did almost $10 million worth of SPVs before the core fund.

Amazing. Amazing. Okay, so for all those founders who are in any of the industries who could be, who'd be very interested in reaching out to you, tell us a little bit more about how you like to be approached by a founder. And A, I forgot to ask as well, I'm presuming that you invest mainly in the US? Just for obvious reasons or not?

Yes, mainly in the US.

Okay. So yeah, so tell us then some key tips if there are founders, male or female, diverse and everything multiplied and beautiful within that, if they want to reach out to you, tell us a bit more about how you like to be approached.

Yes. Oh, and when I say mainly US, we do actually have a KittyKat office in Australia. So there are definitely some other areas that we are open to, but primarily US-based. But honestly, we love when founders reach out to us cold. It really shows ambition. And, you know, for me, you know, Jordan and I became co-founders because I reached out to him cold on LinkedIn.

Yeah, I kind of guessed you were gonna say that. That's why I was like, I was hoping you'd say, well, come on, just do it.

Yeah, absolutely. I'd say like the biggest opportunities of my life have come through cold outreach. And, and it shows that you're not afraid To do it. I mean, founders, I mean, you have to be able to show that level of ambition and bravery and all of the things. And, you know, there's a trend in our industry for warm intros only. And we find it very limiting. It really echoes the old boys club style networks, and it really doesn't show the initiative of founders at all. And so if you want to talk to us, talk to us, you don't need permission.

I love that. Oh, I've got to quote you on that. I love that. And so tell us a little bit more about— okay, I'm a founder. I've reached out to you cold on LinkedIn. You've said, okay, let's have a meeting. What do you look for in that first meeting, Jenna?

Yeah, after our first meeting, we should clearly understand the company's current traction, even if they're too early to have any, but their roadmap, their differentiation. I'm actually currently reading the book, The Bezos Blueprint.

Mm-hmm.

And it talks a lot about Jeff Bezos's communication style and making sure that it's simple enough for people, you know, to not have to spin their wheels to understand it. And often for me as the non-engineer on the team, I have to ask so many questions sometimes to even really identify what a company is actually doing in deep tech. And even the technical people on our team are going, yeah, I actually thought they did something completely different until you drill down on the questioning to narrow it down. And so I'd say, and that also goes back to simple communication style and storytelling. And so just making sure that we can, especially in deep tech, it is complex. So making sure that we can really clearly understand, you know, what you're doing, what you plan on doing now and in the future, differentiation. And then also, we really like to see what value add they're eager to get from an investor, and that they're really strategically thinking about that as well.

Very good. Yeah, and I like that it's the strategic thinking because especially when you're in that very, very deep, deep tech and deep, deep ultra, ultra complex, they may have a tendency to kind of just be— you get sucked in by the science and you're not thinking maybe as strategically. Yes, you might be thinking of patenting stuff and so on and so forth, but you get sucked in with the science and maybe less so like, oh, do I really need to build relationships here left, right, center?

Right. And sometimes it sounds to me like an R&D project, and I'm going, well, that's not— I'm, you know, we, we, we, we do like that now we live in a world where, you know, R&D projects can become venture-backable. But we also have to see that you're either aware enough to understand how to take that route and, and, and work, work at venture pace.

Mm-hmm.

Or also have the— or also Be transparent with us on saying, hey, I know I need a co-founder or whatever, you know, like really know, know what you know, know what you don't know. Mm-hmm.

I like it. You're so full of great truisms and—

Oh, thank you. So I find that I say those over and over. I think I've already said it twice on this.

It just comes out naturally. It comes out naturally. So now take us behind the scenes in space and security investing. What's more key trends that you're seeing in the industry that you'd like to share with us? Because I want to take advantage— not often that we get like a space VC. So I wanted to share with us, what are the key trends? What are you seeing in this space?

Well, luckily, like you said earlier, uh, commercial rocket launch is here to stay, and it highlights 20 years of development success starting with SpaceX and resulting in an entire generation of successful companies. And now the industry is moving past that to applications built on top of the dramatic decrease in launch costs, you know, allowing new industries in space that weren't weren't economically viable until now and completely revamping incumbent sectors. So there's also a resurgence in tech companies developing national security solutions. So this was how Silicon Valley started decades ago. However, national security became a taboo area for the first part of the century there for a bit.

Mm-hmm.

So times have changed. So now a growing set of founders and investors are developing national security-related solutions. I mean, really, when I say the sky's not the limit, I mean it. There's, there's just too much to even narrow down, um, into very specific areas. But we, we see things at times that I'm going, gosh, if people, people would probably think about this and go, that's probably not going to happen in my lifetime. And I'm going, oh yes, it is.

I love it.

I love it.

And so What would be your, your key tips to women founders in general, um, looking for funding? Because you've, you've funded them yourself. Um, so yeah, and you've been one yourself. So yeah, tell us a little bit more, like if you had to give some key tips to women founders on the fundraise, what would they be?

Let's see. Um, on the fundraising side, I'll tell you, um, I, I point founders all the time to Y Combinator's materials. They're, they're available and free online. And so especially if they've not been part of an accelerator or something like that, it's a great way to get your feet wet and really start to understand some of the nuances to fundraising and understanding term sheets. And it being publicly available is, is really big. There's so much information that, you know, is, is one warm intro away. But these are, these are materials that are right at your fingertips. And then also they're, they're The blog of their founder, Paul Graham, is great as well. A common trend that I do see in female founders is them holding back on pitching a full vision, maybe feeling like they need permission to pitch a future they want to see or a hypothetical product. And we pitch hypotheticals all day. So many, so many women will pitch what they've currently developed and not the future product that is really what's going to give it legs and longevity. And so, um, you know, dream big and, and highlight the hypothetical, then tell us where you're starting. Um, but I want to hear the big vision first because sometimes it can appear to be, you know, not venture-backable at first, and you really have to dig in to, to find out that the bigger vision absolutely is.

I think that's such great, great advice. I mean, I know we hear— sometimes hear similar things, but I think it's— you've just said it in a very succinct and very clear and compelling way, and I say, yeah, come on, ladies, get out of the— I have a card on my desk right in front of me that my father sent to me many years ago, the little girl with curly hair, and she's got a trumpet in her hand. And he said, you know, it's time to blow your own trumpet. And that's why I love it. To the other women founders listening in, it's, you know, just do not be afraid. Yes, do the cold outreach. Be bold in your vision, be bold in your asks. And you absolutely don't know what's going to come your way when you're open to that serendipity as well.

So I always say you don't need permission.

I love it.

You don't need permission.

Oh my God, that's another— you're gonna laugh. I have all these things that I have. I have a coaster on my desk. It says, well-behaved women rarely make history.

Ain't that the truth? Louder for the people in the back.

Totally true. And so what would be any key tips to those women founders looking for funding? Any key dos and don'ts? So you've said, okay, don't hide behind a bushel, do speak up. Um, what else?

There's so many, but I'd say learn as much as you can from others that have gone down the same or a similar path. We've been building Embedded for 2 and a half years and we are still learning. Um, it can, it can be a very closed ecosystem when it comes to learning tips and tricks. Um, and, and so many view it as a zero-sum game where a new entrant means competition, which is unbelievable to me, but How— for those that have broken in from novel backgrounds, we've, we've seen them to be the most open to sharing, and they, they see— want to see others go down a similar path to them.

Mm-hmm.

And so I'd say, you know, be tracking people, reach out to them, and, and study them, and also have them, you know, be, be supporters of you and, and mentor you.

Mm-hmm.

A lot of the advice that we've gotten, especially when it comes to fund management, we have had to, in the early days especially, so much of our information came from our legal team, which is— our legal team is incredible, but you know what? They are also expensive. And that's an area that I'm really hoping changes is that there is a lot more access to founders out there, especially through resources that are publicly available, like through Y Combinator. But I am definitely hoping to see more resources for fund managers become more available. Now with AngelList having rolling funds and things like that, there's more, but the nuances to launching a fund and creating novel ways to do that, can, you know, currently be very expensive and only come through a legal team.

So, I hear you, I hear you. Good, good advice. And so what about those other women who are listening in and they're kind of saying, I like what Jenna's saying, I have a diverse background, what if I went into VC? What would you say to them to encourage them to, to explore a career in venture?

Well, first of all, if they're qualified and ready to do it now, go for it. And because of the rolling funds on AngelList, like, you know, especially for those who do need the financial security of having a job at the same time, I recommend, you know, exploring AngelList as a starting point. And it's a great way to gain trust, to establish your methods of fundraising, of communicating with investors, everything. And then I'd say, To be honest, I really think that we need to capture students while they're in middle school.

Yeah.

Middle school girls opt out of STEM in middle school. And so it's also, you know, in kind of all of these realms, and I'd say the venture ecosystem, a lot of women find it through the startup side. And so I'd say, you know, we definitely can do a better job. And that's why, I mean, to be completely transparent with you, which you People don't believe it when I tell them this. I have like terrible stage fright. I get like, I literally have so many butterflies in my stomach. I've done, I've done so much media training. And I still like cancel all the time because I'm too nervous. But, and I choose to do things like this because being visible and being available is so important. And it's for not just the people in our industry, but it's for, you know, marginalized groups in middle school.

Yeah.

And being visible, accessible, and available. And so I'd say, you know, also anyone who's, who's thinking about it, even, even at a very young age, be looking for someone that you can follow, you can follow even, even on social media as, as you're growing up. And then, you know, reaching out and asking for an opportunity to come by someone's office, shadow them for a day. You know, it doesn't always have to be like starting with a big internship opportunity.

Mm-hmm.

It could just be shadowing someone for a day. And because sometimes you might get there and be like, never mind, don't want to do this. Because you do have to see the day-to-day of it all to really understand what all is going on.

Yeah.

But any opportunity to get involved and then, you know, go from there. But I'd also really know, really know what you're getting into first, because there are, you know, for understandable reasons, there are a lot of— you do have to be accredited, you do Obviously have to be qualified, but you also have to really love it. And so any opportunities to collaborate with someone just to gain more visibility into what the job is day to day is really important.

I think that's such great advice, particularly for any emerging fund managers as well who are thinking, not just women who want to join a fund, but it's also for those of you who are thinking of it. Reach out to those who've walked the path before you, as Jenna says so rightly.

Yeah. And now there are more and more. When I was young, I don't remember seeing anybody. And I certainly wasn't— now I always talk about how it's so celebrated to be right-brained and left-brained because creativity and the more logical thinking require the same curiosity, experimentation, and all of that. But when I was young, it wasn't that way. And so I'm very lucky to have ended up here. But also, I love that the world is changing and where There are so many incredible examples. You know, I always mention Serena Williams with Serena Ventures. Karlie Kloss is an engineer who was a Victoria's Secret model beforehand. Jessica Alba, who is an actress turned, you know, founder. There are so many incredible examples of women that we can, that we can learn about and read about and meet. So we're— I feel very lucky. It's a really exciting time.

Yay, it sure is. And my gosh, do we feel and hear your excitement, Jana. It's been—

Oh, thank you.

Such, such a pleasure. So what's the best way to reach out to you, whether it's a founder or a funder, an LP, or anybody who would like to connect with you? What's the best way for them to do that?

Oh, uh, anyway, really, you can email me. It's jb@embedded.ventures. You can send me a LinkedIn message. I check my LinkedIn all day. Um, Twitter messages. I'm trying to be better at using Twitter. I do too much liking and retweeting. I need to have some organic tweets out there, but please DM me. And yeah, any way you can. I do check all my social channels daily. So love, love, love. Please reach out.

And so what would be your final message that you'd like to share with our listeners today?

Let's see. Gosh, I'd just like to encourage everyone to find someone who motivates you, study them like a hawk. And for me, That was— that's always been Kobe Bryant, actually.

Wow.

From a young age, I admired his work ethic. I could hear him say one sentence and I'd feel motivated. And I can, at any point now, I can still put on a YouTube video where, you know, I'm hearing a story about him or him talking about his hard work and how he starts his day and why he's motivated and all of that. We all really need those pregame pep talks. sometimes. So, and we also all need to learn from the greats, whether they're in our sector or not. So, so that's something that before this, as I was nervous, you know, I watched, I watched one of my go-to YouTube videos of Kobe just to be like, get over yourself, you know, stop being nervous and go play the game, you know. So that's just a little anecdote and thing that I do that, you know, any, anyone else can replicate.

I love it. And, you know, I have saved— we talked about Beyoncé. We're going to close the circle with wonderful Beyoncé because, you know, that commencement speech that she gave a couple— I think it was during COVID in 2020 when we're all—

Yes, I remember.

If you want to do something, go be it, go do it, don't wait for it. And I have that on my phone. And like, just when you were mentioning about Kobe, I was just like, yep, that's— I do that.

And of course, Oprah Winfrey.

100%.

And of course, Beyoncé has always been that for me too. Like, I mean, I had a cardboard cutout of her in my bedroom as a kid and just would— I still idolize her. And, you know, we learned that we will be in Paris at her concert at the same time, which is just incredible.

It's incredible. It's so incredible. And I've never seen her, so I'm super, super excited about it.

But listen, it's gonna be amazing.

It's gonna be amazing. You're amazing. Thank you so much, Jenna. Thank you so much to you, um, and to everything you guys are doing at Embedded Ventures. I'm very excited to learn more, to see how you and Jordan explode this space in the nice sense of the word and make it go bigger, bigger, better.

Yes. Well, you are amazing, and thank you for creating such an incredible platform for people like me to become more visible and available to all. It's so important, and I'm very thankful.

Well, listen, right back at you, Jenna. It's been an Absolute pleasure, and we look forward to having you on again. Hey, let's, let's say even in, in whatever time down the road, and you'll say, okay, here's the update, here we are now, let's do it, this is what we're doing. So just anytime, pick a date for the future, right?

Uh, sign me up.

Thank you so much, Jenna. Take care.

Thank you. You too. Bye.

Thank you for listening to InvestHer Podcast. Don't miss more great funding tips and insights by subscribing to the podcast on Apple or your favorite podcast host. And while you're there, I'd love you to rate and review the show. We'd love to hear from you. So if you'd like to send in some questions, interact with our guests, or suggest other great people we should feature, join our community on the Flick InvestHer group or send us a message on investherpodcast.com. Want more great resources for female founders about funding? Check out our InvestHer Academy at academy.globalinvesther.com. I'm Anne Ravanona and look forward to having you with us again for our next episode. Let's put the fun into funding and get more women entrepreneurs funded.