Our first GCI event of the semester will be Labs to Launch: Commercializing Technology from the Nation's Top Labs this Thursday, February 27th, 1-2 pm in the Swenson Ideation Zone (N107 / N109). Jennifer Gill Roberts, Co-Founder of Grit Ventures, will speak to students about entrepreneurship in engineering. We will have cookies and lemonade.

More about Jennifer:

Jennifer Gill Roberts is a California native, technologist, repeat entrepreneur and seasoned venture capitalist. She co-founded her current fund, Grit Ventures, in 2017 to focus on early-stage Deep Tech investments in Industrial Automation, Logistics, Sustainability, Connectivity and Space.  Prior to Grit Labs, Jennifer co-founded RallyOn, an enterprise wellness startup. She was a founder and Managing Partner at top tier venture capital firm, Sevin Rosen Funds for over a decade with a focus on investing in optical and wireless systems. Prior to her career in venture, Jennifer led product and technical efforts at Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard Company, and Sun Microsystems.

 

Jennifer is devoted to serving universities through formal and informal advisor roles. She chairs Grit’s Academic Council and is on numerous Advisory Boards at the University of Texas at Austin, Indiana University, UC Santa Cruz and former board roles at Chapman University and Stanford.  An early champion of women entrepreneurs, Jennifer co-founded Watermark, Silicon Valley’s premier organization for women founders and executives.

 

Jennifer is passionate about breaking the cycle of exclusion of women and underrepresented minorities in a focused way. Women and minorities are pursuing deep tech fields, yet few transition to entrepreneurship. Grit invests and mentors women and minority founders straight from the nation’s top research labs who are solving complex global crises and revolutionizing industries.