My startup land reading list: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13HzpLEICL-sCvZ7XcNJrVlAk10afVlM956peybLEeGc/edit?usp=sharing

How I got here: I started my own non-tech, non venture backed company straight out of college (dance classes for everyone -- https://www.instagram.com/chromaticdance ) and made all the classic mistakes of a first time founder. That company got me to start networking with venture backed tech founders in NYC. When my own company didn’t work out, I served as a contractor generalist marketer to a lot of those founders in their most early stages (i.e. pre funding -- that's why I was a contracting with a bunch of them!).

When one of those companies (a travel startup - https://www.instagram.com/gojourny ) raised a pre-seed round, I was brought on full time to be their Head of Growth (I still love geeking out about growth!). Fun story: the founder offered me the job by calling and asking: "What's your schedule look like for the rest of this month? Like, if I asked if you'd be willing to get on a plane at the end of the month and live in LA for 3 months, would you do it?" I said, "Tell me more..." I did end up getting on that plane and spent 3 months in LA participating in the 500 Startups Series A accelerator alongside her and her co-founder to kick off that job.

I led growth at Journy until they raised their seed round, led by Menlo Ventures, and then I left for business school, where I started exploring early stage venture capital. In business school, I invested out of a school fund (https://www.thembafund.com ) and interned at Pear VC (https://pear.vc ). While I loved the people at both, I found that traditional VC wasn't as "startup-y" or as close to founders as I thought.

So, after business school I went back into the startup world and joined a Series A startup (https://www.withotis.com ). Otis was acquired by Public.com in March of 2022 (https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/09/public-buys-otis-bringing-fractional-ownership-of-alternative-assets-to-its-platform ). While I loved the people there as well, and the problems were fascinating, a Series D startup already felt too big for me!

Luckily I saw the role ‘Founder Advocate’ pop up on my LinkedIn and it sounded like exactly my dream job—not to mention, I was already and am still a huge believer in the studio model—so here I am!

Through all my experiences, the uniting theme is I LOVE working with and talking to founders. I love when founders show me their authentic passion for a whole new world or rabbit-hole that I might not have known about and teach me something that I don't know, or get me to see the world in a new way. Having seen the many different sides of the early startup ecosystem, I am passionate about helping people understand the language and game of startups and venture capital, with the aim of increasing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in startup land.

The fact that Platform has a role dedicated to founders says a lot about Platform. From my own experiences, I know that many VC firms and investors claim to be founder friendly, but are not actually so behind closed doors. Make no mistake, I'm here to advocate and fight for founders and be on their side. There are many actors in the Platform ecosystem—investors, experts, coaches, the Platform studio team—but founders are most important, and I'm on the team to be *their* voice and that's always going to be my driving fire.

Outside of work, you'll find me in one of three places: (1) a dance studio—either in a hip hop class or aerial hoop / lyra class (2) in my living room at home reading or writing (English major at heart 4ever) or (3) out and about in my beloved NYC, taking in some kind of art show (dance, music, gallery, etc.).