Rising Stars: Meet Jesse Draper of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jesse Draper.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I went from being an actress to an entrepreneur in media. I started the first technology talk show in 2008 and had incredible guests like Elon Musk and Eric Schmidt. I realized all of the guests were male so I made an initiative to interview 50% women and created what I still call ‘the Batwoman signal’. I noticed that there were not enough women in tech as an industry and understood that I could help by getting them media exposure to inspire new young women to go into technology and that the ones starting technology companies weren’t getting funded. Through my show, I started seeing many pitches from incredible women and I started angel investing or negotiating sweat equity. I created a track record and sold my stake in one company for a 26X multiple on the secondary market. I then used my track record to raise my first fund and pitched a lot of the guests I had on my show first. We have now closed our 3rd fund, have 80 companies and 6 unicorns. And we are still investing in women!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Of course not! Is anything in entrepreneurship smooth??? I have been laughed out of multiple rooms because I invest in women founders. I am regularly judged because my Dad is a venture capitalist and my success is attributed to him almost daily despite my own accolades. I have hired the wrong people for my business. I have taken too long to fire people. I have navigated at least 5 con artist situations because finance brings weird people around. I have had to fire a lot of people. I have had to fire CEOs of my companies. I have lost money in companies I believed in. I have had crazy LPs. There have been so many lessons but I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t learned them. Because of these lessons, I am more confident, I am a better leader, I understand people better, I have better processes. I can think bigger and love harder! LOL! After reading this, don’t you want to become an entrepreneur?

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
What I love about Halogen Ventures, the company I have built, is that we have made a name synonymous with female founded businesses and now have 6 unicorns. There was a day when I was regularly told that women founders were too small a niche as a focus of investment. I can tell you, to this day, the people who told me that; they have never had one billion dollar plus company in their portfolio…we currently have 6 and more to come. Can you tell I have a chip on my shoulder? LOL. I feel like the doubters and the haters help drive you. Don’t listen to them. Your vision is the most important vision to drive you and no one can see that vision except for you. Keep building. The other thing I am incredibly proud of is that we are actually solving childcare with for profit investing. This is something only non-profits used to tackle which we also need but wasn’t a full solution. My 2 partners Ashley Balla, Jennifer Mandelbaum and I created a thesis around Future of Family. We were the first to realize what an opportunity this was and here we are.

How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
What I love about Halogen Ventures, the company I have built, is that we have made a name synonymous with female founded businesses and now have 6 unicorns. There was a day when I was regularly told that women founders were too small a niche as a focus of investment. I can tell you, to this day, the people who told me that; they have never had one billion dollar plus company in their portfolio…we currently have 6 and more to come. Can you tell I have a chip on my shoulder? LOL. I feel like the doubters and the haters help drive you. Don’t listen to them. Your vision is the most important vision to drive you and no one can see that vision except for you. Keep building. The other thing I am incredibly proud of is that we are actually solving childcare with for profit investing. This is something only non-profits used to tackle which we also need but wasn’t a full solution. My 2 partners Ashley Balla, Jennifer Mandelbaum and I created a thesis around Future of Family. We were the first to realize what an opportunity this was and here we are.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://halogenvc.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessecdraper/?hl=en
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessedraper/

Image Credits
Kendall Goldberg and Stephanie Day.