Just Go Grind #290: Jesse Draper, Founding Partner at Halogen Ventures, on Her Unique Journey From Actress to 4th Generation Investor, Challenging Imposter Syndrome as a Female in VC, and Supporting Women in Consumer Tech
Jesse Draper is a mother of 2 boys, founding partner of Halogen Ventures as well as creator and host of Emmy nominated television series, The Valley Girl Show. Jesse is a 4th generation venture capitalist focused on early stage investing in consumer technology companies led by female and co-ed teams. Among her 55 portfolio companies are the Skimm, Glamsquad, Carbon38, HopSkipDrive, The Flex Company, Eloquii (recently sold to Walmart) and This is L (sold to P&G). She stars on SET's television series Meet the Draper's, currently in it's second season. Jesse was listed by Marie Claire magazine as one of the ‘50 Most Connected Women in America’. She has been a contributor to Marie Claire, Mashable, Forbes, and is a regular investor and tech personality on shows including TLC’s Girl Starter, The Katie Couric Show, Fox’s Good Day LA, CNBC’s Who Wants to Be the Next Millionaire Inventor? & Freeform’s Startup U. She proudly sits on the board of directors of Blue Fever, Carbon38, Preemadonna (creator of the Nailbot) and the non-profit board Bizworld and Project Glimmer. Jesse supports the Parkinson’s Institute and is very involved with growing UCLA’s female entrepreneurship community.
Some of the Topics Covered by Jesse Draper in this Episode
- What Halogen Ventures is doing today
- Jesse's unique journey from Nickelodeon actor to venture capital
- Jesse's tech talk show (The Valley Girl Show) and her initiative to interview 50% women in tech
- The imposter syndrome that comes with being a female in VC and how to overcome it
- How Jesse approached identifying the right LPs and raising her first fund
- How raising her first fund differed from her second
- Jesse's advice for first time fundraisers
- How Halogen is supporting their founders
- How to leverage media for consumer companies
- Jesse's outlook on relationship building and prioritization
- How Jesse and Halogen evaluate early stage founders
- Jesse's investment in Toucan and how she views the future of work and learning
- What industries Jesse recommends investing in now
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