Brianne Kimmel is an angel investor and founder of Worklife.&nbsp;She started her career in performance marketing and scaled into Head of Social Media at Expedia leading paid acquisition, customer support and community.&nbsp;Today, she runs an invite-only program called&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://saas-school.webflow.io/" target="_blank">SaaS School</a> for startup founders to learn from the fastest growing companies like Airtable, Drift, Dropbox, Slack and more.

Body &amp; Jogger: 4funkyflavours
Blazer: Sandro
Watch: Cartier

How do you describe what you do?&nbsp;&nbsp;
I write the first check to help an entrepreneur with an idea become the CEO of a ten billion dollar company. When I invest in a company, there&rsquo;s typically only one or two people on the team and maybe a small business plan or a few slides.&nbsp;But typically, it&rsquo;s a coffee or a conversation on Zoom and I make an investment decision within 24 hours.&nbsp;If I believe in the vision and see potential in the founder, I immediately get to work on coming up with the name for the company, creating a business plan, bringing in engineers and designers to bring the idea to life. In our first two years in business, nine of the companies we&rsquo;ve backed early are now worth more than a billion dollars. <a href="https://hopin.com/lp/home">Hopin</a> is worth $7.65 billion in two years, <a href="https://www.letsdeel.com/">Deel</a> is worth $5.5 billion, so when a startup starts to work, it really works.&nbsp;It&rsquo;s crazy to see how quickly startups go from an idea to a company that&rsquo;s loved by millions of people. As an investor, it&rsquo;s incredible to invest in a single person and within a year see hundreds of new faces on the team.&nbsp;

How did you get started in what you do?
My first few angel investments came from sending a cold email and dipping into my personal savings.&nbsp; When I was first getting started a lot of people discouraged me from doing it because startups can be risky, but I&rsquo;ve learned that calculated risk can lead to life-changing outcomes.

What role does technology play in the current situation in Ukraine?&nbsp;
For the first time in history, anyone with access to the internet can see firsthand what&rsquo;s happening in Ukraine.&nbsp;
Our access to information is not limited to a journalist reading from a teleprompter on behalf of a major news corporation&hellip; Ukrainian people are using their smartphones and Twitter to show the world what&rsquo;s happening to them. It&rsquo;s scary, it&rsquo;s uncomfortable, but it&rsquo;s the reality. Technology is a powerful tool that gives anyone with a smartphone a voice. It&rsquo;s our job, as media consumers, to listen and take action.&nbsp;
In what ways have you been directly involved?&nbsp;
Silicon Valley has benefited significantly from brilliant Ukrainian people.&nbsp;Ukrainian founded startups like Grammarly, now valued at $13 billion, are the most highly sought after investments for venture capitalists.&nbsp;As an early investor in remote-first companies, I&rsquo;ve invested in many Silicon Valley startups with engineering teams based in Ukraine.&nbsp;Across the portfolio of investments, we have close to 100 Ukrainians on our team. Over the last three weeks, I&rsquo;ve hosted office hours with teams in Ukraine and helped technology companies with contingency planning to ensure we have flights, accommodations, and more comprehensive benefits such as therapy and resources to help our teammates and their families during this time.&nbsp;I am grateful for tech companies like <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/28/tech/airbnb-ukraine-refugees/index.html">Airbnb</a> who have stepped in to provide housing for 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.&nbsp;
&nbsp;How has being a Ukrainian-American influenced where you are today?&nbsp;
As a Ukrainian-American, I have always be grateful for my grandparents and the sacrifices they made so I could study and be where I am today. My grandfather&rsquo;s first job was sweeping floors in a steel mill and I remember very vividly growing up how difficult it was for my grandmother to assimilate to American culture. I grew up in Youngtown, Ohio, a tough blue-collar town, and it&rsquo;s where I learned the importance of hard work and humility. Ohio alone is home to 80,000 Ukrainian-Americans. I grew up going to summer camp with children from Chernobyl on exchange programs and many of my closest friends growing up were Ukrainian too.&nbsp;&nbsp;The reason I&rsquo;m in tech today is because growing up my job was to study. My grandmother would bring home free books from the library that no one wanted. I studied hard and started college my sophomore year of high school because education was my ticket out of Northeast Ohio. During the pandemic, I was grateful for the time with my family to revisit my heritage. I spent a lot of time learning old family recipes and I take a lot of pride in cooking Ukrainian dishes. I remember growing up our Thanksgiving and other major holidays were different from everyone else. As a family, we&rsquo;ve always celebrated our heritage. As a venture capitalist, I&rsquo;ve reconnected with my roots even further by investing in Ukrainian founders and by mentoring Ukrainian teammates at the companies that we&rsquo;ve invested in.

How has your view of the world changed since the pandemic?&nbsp;
My vision for Worklife was founded with the belief that the future of work will be the end of traditional jobs.&nbsp;Prior to the pandemic, I saw firsthand that corporate work was making us all miserable.&nbsp;Long commutes to the office, business trips that took time away from family, and a culture that encouraged people to sit in meetings versus actually getting working done.&nbsp;At the forefront of Worklife is the idea that the future of work will be the end of traditional jobs and we want to empower anyone to start their own business or creative empire from home.&nbsp;Fast forward two years and one massive global pandemic later, we&rsquo;ve seen an exodus of people voluntarily leaving their jobs to find something better.&nbsp;In November of last year, we saw an all-time high of over 4.5 million people who voluntarily left their job.&nbsp;Our investments in companies like <a href="https://www.pietrastudio.com/">Pietra</a>, a one stop shop for launching your own clothing, cosmetics, jewellery line saw school teachers, yoga instructors, and even contestants from<a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/stylish/pictures/bachelor-alums-team-up-with-pietra-on-capsule-collections-details/"> the Bachelor </a>with no fashion or beauty experience starting lines that compete with Rihanna&rsquo;s Fenty and other celebrity-led companies. The pandemic has highlighted that anyone can start the business of their dreams from their kitchen table.&nbsp;At Worklife, we surveyed tech workers and found that 43% of people were pursuing a side hustle or other money-making project not tied to their regular job. We believe in the future everyone will be a founder and we invest in companies to create new opportunities for anyone to start something.

How do you stay focused and productive given the pandemic and work life changing?&nbsp;
So, I&rsquo;m horrible at this. The first year of the pandemic there was nothing to do, so I worked around the clock. I had to hit pause really hard on work stuff, no email after a certain hour and blocking time to be spontaneous.&nbsp;I&rsquo;m not joking haha.&nbsp;

Being a female in tech and a VC/entrepreneur what challenges have you faced?&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s funny because I look nothing like a traditional venture capitalist.&nbsp;Over 40% of VCs went to Stanford or Harvard and less than 5% of female venture capitalists have the ability to lead an investment on their own.&nbsp;I grew up in the Rust Belt in Northeast Ohio, far from Silicon Valley, and went to a state school on an academic scholarship. I graduated top of my class, but in competitive industries like startups and venture capital your network matters more than your GPA.&nbsp;When I first tried to break into venture capital with close to a decade of tech experience under my belt, traditional venture capitalists suggested I go back to school and get an MBA. If I would have listened, I would have been taking classes over Zoom during the pandemic and would have missed out on investing in companies like Hopin, one of the fastest growing software companies in history, which has no offices and has fundamentally changed how companies will be built in the future.&nbsp;As someone who has fought hard to build my own firm, it&rsquo;s now my responsibility to fund female and non-binary founders and make sure the companies that we&rsquo;re building are not only hiring more diverse candidates, but building programs and benefits to level the playing field. I want companies to pay for things like childcare that are holding women back in this new era of working from home and pay for fertility benefits to make having a family an affordable and encouraged option for all employees.

What does your daily schedule look like? What have you learned that helps you adjust to the demands of the high paced industry?
The great thing about venture capital is how you spend your time is ultimately how you become known in the industry and find opportunities to invest.&nbsp;Some have a podcast. Some have written a book. There are many ways to effectively spend your time to become a leading expert and attract the right types of people that you&rsquo;d like to partner with.&nbsp;For me, I&rsquo;m the face of a new firm so my reputation is everything.&nbsp;I spend the majority of my week helping founders build their business. Sometimes it&rsquo;s designing their logo, sometimes it&rsquo;s calling an engineer out of the blue to help answer questions and get them to join the team. When you do good work and have an impact on someone&rsquo;s business, you&rsquo;ll be the first person they call when their friend is starting a company.&nbsp;

What are your favorite fashion and business trends and what are you watching closely?
The pandemic has really highlighted the importance of family and it&rsquo;s been inspiring to see a new wave of couples and families that have teamed up to start a company together. My favorite restaurant in Los Angeles is by Opening Ceremony founder Humberto Leon who teamed up with his mom, sister, and brother-in-law to open a Chinese-Peruvian family restaurant. It&rsquo;s not your typical restaurant, they collaborate with up-and-coming artists like the Linda Lindas.&nbsp;Another trend that&rsquo;s been awesome to see is big retailers becoming a platform and launchpad for emerging brands, especially products that celebrate culture.&nbsp;Target carries Latina focused haircare line <a href="https://www.target.com/b/rizos-curls/-/N-jekv1?Nao=0">Rizos Curls</a> founded by Julissa Prado and premium Chinese food company <a href="https://www.target.com/b/fly-by-jing/-/N-q643leicqze">Fly by Jing</a> founded by Jing Gao. It&rsquo;s so cool to walk down an aisle in the grocery store and say &ldquo;Hey! My badass friend made that!&rdquo;

What advice would you give a younger version of yourself?
Don&rsquo;t worry about saving money, find new ways to make more.&nbsp;It drives me crazy that women are constantly discouraged from buying nice things.&nbsp;We feel guilty for buying a coffee or it&rsquo;s cliche if we go out and buy new shoes.&nbsp;But, it&rsquo;s perfectly fine if a male peer buys everyone at the bar a drink or buys an insanely nice car. I want to see more women pull up in a Porsche.

Who is a woman that inspires you?
Hands down, journalist and author Lisa Ling.&nbsp;I&rsquo;ve been a long time fan of her work, specifically her ability to sit down with people of all walks of life and have an honest and open conversation in a way that brings honor and respect to their story and their community.&nbsp;There&rsquo;s a lot of hate in the world right now that won&rsquo;t be solved overnight, but I believe the first step is acknowledging and appreciating differences.&nbsp;

What accomplishment are you most proud of to date?&nbsp;
Moving overseas, there&rsquo;s nothing more rewarding than showing up in a new country with a single bag, no friends, and you need to figure it all out for yourself.

Where do you see your company Worklife in the next two years? What goals would you like to achieve?&nbsp;
We&rsquo;re currently building a few companies that touch entertainment, hospitality, and work. Our goal is to build iconic, culturally relevant companies that you&rsquo;d quit your boring corporate job to join in a heartbeat.

What do you do for fun or to unwind?&nbsp;
When I was younger I wanted to be an architect, I love cities and homes and unique spaces.&nbsp;Now because I spend so much time online, I always have a project that I&rsquo;m working on.&nbsp;I renovated a house during the pandemic and right now I&rsquo;m designing a karaoke room with 80s rockstar vintage furniture and fun antiques from Hong Kong. I lived and worked in Hong Kong and my boyfriend was born and raised there, so it&rsquo;s a fun project for us to do together.

What keeps you up at night?&nbsp;
I can sleep anywhere&hellip; I literally fall asleep in the movie theatre or anytime I&rsquo;m in the backseat of a car. Jokes aside, I&rsquo;m spending a lot of time on early childhood education. The textbooks we use in school are outdated, so I&rsquo;m actively working with teams to build new ways for kids to learn based on their interests and family values. If a child loves playing video games, why not learn how to design and build one vs. forcing a boring textbook.

How do you see the world with tech and entertainment changing?&nbsp;
Founders ask me for intros to new VCs like the Chainsmokers, Serena Williams, YouTuber Cody Ko, and Mr. Beast more than traditional VCs.&nbsp;I love seeing incredibly talented people who invest in startups as one of many things they do well.&nbsp;It&rsquo;s incredible to see role models for women like Serena Williams break down barriers in tech as an investor and owner in dozens of startups.&nbsp;

Photographer &amp; Styist: Kimberly Goodnight
Hair: Dylan Michael using Color Wow Hair , Dream Coat
Make-Up: Lisa Sasson using Thrive Causemetics and Laura Mercier

Brianne Kimmel

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