What's this? This is an unbiased just-the-facts news timeline ('newsline') about Jennifer Fonstad, created by Newslines contributors. Become a contributor

Jennifer Fonstad

Jennifer Fonstad11 posts

Jennifer Fonstad is an American venture capitalist. After a long career with Draper Fisher Jurvetson she founder Aspect Ventures with Theresia Gouw.

Biography view > Click for Latest News view
5 Feb, 2014

CNBC interview

Interview0 Comments

Gouw and Fonstad talk about starting Aspect, being women in the boardroom, and investing in mobile start-ups. Fonstad:

We both really wanted to get back to our roots and invest in startups at the early stage — rolling up our sleeves. We’ve both been working with companies for two decades each, and really wanted to work with companies through the full arc of their growth, form seed all the way through to long -term sustainable businesses.

Gouw:

Jen and I have both lived through two major boom and bust cycles, from Internet 1.0 to the age of mobility and I think that we have not yet seen a slowdown in technology innovation or in the growth of the early-stage companies. So I actually think it’s a great time to be investing in startups.

24 Feb, 2014

Time profile

Interview0 Comments

Gouw and Fonstad’s launch of Aspect Ventures is featured in Time. Gouw:

There’s tons of data showing that diversity on boards, both public and private, and in management teams, leads to better financial returns. It helps to have a board room where people are looking at the same complicated problems from different angles. There is a growing understanding among entrepreneurs and executives that there are real customer and product advantages to having a more diverse group of people on your management team and in your board room. If you’re a consumer-facing service, half of your audience is going to be male and half of your audience is going to be female…We are venture capitalists. We are in the business of making money for our investors and our entrepreneurs. Diversity makes a difference for business and the bottom line.

11 Mar, 2014

Wired profile

Interview0 Comments

Wired profiles Gouw and Fonstad. Gow describes how, when working as Accel, she felt excluded from certain networking opportunities because she was a woman, and she would use a secret code on her calendar to conceal when she was going to a women’s networking event. That changed when Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In came outand word spread that the Facebook COO had been conducting all-female salons at her house. Accel’s partners started asking Gouw to target specific women when she attended female networking events. She says her participation in women’s gatherings was now seen as an asset, and she stopped using secret codes on her calendar.

It was literally a 180.

Fonstad tells the story of an all-male engineering team she knew that was developing a hardware prototype. When they showed it to a newly hired female engineer they saw that her longer nails rendered it impossible to use, and the team ended up completely redoing the user interface. Gouw:

These companies are creating technologies that didn’t exist before — business models that didn’t exist before — and going after whole new markets. They’re dealing with complicated decisions and strategies that have no prior art. [With a diverse range of people around the table] you’re going to get a more 360-degree view on the business.

25 Jun, 2014

Importance of women entrepreneurs

Interview0 Comments

Fonstand talks with Falk Marques Group at the Women’s Private Equity Summit about Aspect Ventures, the emerging mobile market, and the importance of women entrepreneurs to the VC industry.

The certainly has been a relatively low number of women in the venture industry. Traditionally around 10-11% are professionals and 4-5% are partners. We see in the entrepreneurial ranks — particularly with the advent of social media and consumer focus over the last couple of years — that there’s been a swelling in the number of women entrepreneurs that have come forward. We think that in the venture industry there’s the opportunity to be a tipping point and Aspect Ventures and Theresia and I have an opportunity to be both thought leaders around diversity, but also in terms of role modeling in working closely with companies to help them understand the importance of different perspectives around the table and how that ultimately leads to better outcomes.

Jennifer Fonstad Discusses the Importance of Women Entrepreneurs

5 Feb, 2015

Bloomberg Business interview

Interview0 Comments

Gouw and Fonstad talk to Chang and Johnson on Bloomberg West about how Aspect Ventures looks to help start companies for the long-term and where they see growth. Gouw:

This is our entrepreneurial thing. It’s like when entrepreneurs see a vision and you are both called to something. And we think this is a great time to be focused on seed and early-stage investing around mobility as a theme, through the stack, from enterprise to consumer. And to work with someone you know for two decades.

Fonstad:

There is an explosion of opportunity in the mobile space, our firm will be focussing exclusively in the mobile space, but we define it much more broadly than you’ve seen in the press in the past. We think that that mobile will infuse and touch every aspect of the software stack.

[Video Link]

2 Apr, 2015

CNBC: Crashing the tech boys club

Interview0 Comments

In an interview about the influence of the Ellen Pao case, Gouw talks about the impact of what she describes as the ‘unconscious bias’ in Silicon Valley.

We’ve all had those little inequities, those death by a thousand cuts. The person who won’t speak to you and addresses all of their questions and comments to your male colleagues in the room, or being asked to take notes or fetch coffee…The fastest way to make cultural change,” Gouw said, “Is when you see something that is not being met in the marketplace is to go out there and start your own firm.

Fonstad says the Pao suit has opened up an important dialogue in the tech world.

This is an opportunity for both men and women to talk about what it is like to have a diverse culture and create an environment for both men and women to be successful. When that works and when that doesn’t, then I think the unconscious bias is associated with that.

7 May, 2015

CNET interview

Interview0 Comments

As part of a CNET special report exploring what people and companies are doing to make the tech industry more diverse, Fonstad says:

Both Theresia and I got to the point in our careers where we decided to focus on the early stage startup again so we can be more collaborative and company-building. We help them as they grow — getting the management team hired, and helping them get early customers and follow-on financing for the next stage of growth. It’s why we both became VCs…I’m noticing an industry shift in general. There’s been a significant inflow of newly wealthy women who are investing for themselves, becoming angels or forming microfunds with less than $4 million. It’s just more gratifying to work for themselves.

14 May, 2015

CNBC interview

Interview0 Comments

Gouw and Fonstad talk about diversity and their fund on CNBC with Boorstin. Fonstand:

Fundamentally we think diversity as a thesis is a very important part of any success in business. Whether that’s in a board room, in a venture firm or in a management team. But we think of diversity much more than just gender, though gender often becomes a litmus test for that. We certainly think that because we come at it from a different perspective that has given us a very wide scope from which to look at opportunities and to invite opportunities in. We’re collaborative in nature, we’re not trying to use sharp elbows and trying to knock out angel investment groups.

The two are optimistic that the recent media attention on Ellen Pao’s case will drive more change. Gouw:

The fastest way to make cultural change—because cultural change is very hard—is to start your own firm and build the culture from the ground up.