Former ATDC GM to Help the Coastal Empire Grow to the Next Level

In 2015, I sat down with Jennifer Bonnett, the founder and Chief Chick for the women’s entrepreneurial organization StartupChicks, and the ATDC acting general manager at the time (she went on to become ATDC’s general manager), to learn what it’s been like to grow her career from software developer to CTO to startup community catalyst, and more.

 In May of this year, Jennifer was named vice president of innovation and entrepreneurship at the Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA). We know she will be a huge benefit to the entrepreneurial community in Savannah and we wish her all the best in her new endeavor! The following originally appeared in a blog post for Venture Atlanta.

“One Chief Chick: Q&A with Jennifer Bonnett”

A technology entrepreneur who co-founded eTour.com in 1997, Jen designed, developed and launched the site in 1998. She grew the tech staff to 60 and by 2001, eTour reached 5 million subscribers before being acquired by Ask Jeeves (now ASK.com). Jen launched StartupChicks in 2009 to connect women entrepreneurs and equip them with the resources to be successful. She served as community catalyst with ATDC from 2011 until last year, when she took the role of its assistant director and was tasked with leading its educational programs and community outreach. Today, she serves as the technology incubator’s acting general manager.

Peter: You’ve taken on a variety of roles during your career, and you’ve undoubtedly seen a lot of change over the past 20 years. Tell me how you’ve changed over the course of your career.

Jen: What I’ve learned as I’ve progressed in my career is that it’s really about the people. When I was a young manager of technology folks, I was very focused on timelines and building the right teams. I was an “on-time, on-budget at all costs” kind of leader. Now as I look back, it’s clear to me that it’s all about relationships. There are at least four or five people who were on my team at eTour.com some 15 years ago that I continue to see on a regular basis today. I still talk to them regularly.

As I’ve moved up the ladder, I’ve been able to leverage those relationships with investors and the startup community. For instance, Pete Rosen of HR Strategies and Solutions helped us put processes around our employee practices for eTour. He’s now a sponsor at StartUp Chicks and a mentor at ATDC. It’s great to have a relationship that was developed so long ago and is still thriving today.

Peter: How have you evolved as a leader over your career?

Jen: With experience came some wisdom. I used to think everything was the end of the world and that every crisis had to be dealt with immediately. Everything was a priority. And things could get crazy, like when a board member came to me demanding an immediate fix. To help balance my approach to things, I embraced yoga, which has given me more mental clarity. Oftentimes, my job is to diffuse different situations and to come up with solutions. I have to take a deep breath and say, “Is this really the end of the world? How can we best address this problem to arrive at a solution?” Some things even resolve themselves if you can introduce some space into your timeline.

Peter: Do you have any rules in your career that guide you?

Jen: Definitely. I religiously take a full day off every week. On those days I’m still on the phone, talking or texting, or on Twitter, but I’m not on email. On Sundays, I typically don’t engage in any work related to the startup community. I need the downtime. It makes me more effective during the week.

Also, I’ve learned to ask for forgiveness and not permission. If I have an idea that I think will help a startup, maybe a program or a new class or some experiment around how to connect tech people to business people, I’ll just take off and pilot it and see how it goes. Sometimes I might get into trouble, but many other times I find what I did was successful and we move forward.

Peter: You’ve said that with experience comes wisdom. For young executives and entrepreneurs, can wisdom only come with time?

Jen: Personal growth takes a lot of self-reflection and really coming to understand yourself. One of the things we’ve implemented at StartupChicks is a class on mental mindset. I’ve come to strongly believe that for entrepreneurs, almost anything is possible. Most of the times when we do fail, it’s because we don’t have the right mindset to move forward. Sometimes, there’s even a different mindset required of females who are trying to grow fundable, scalable startups.

When I was seeking seed capital for my first startup, it took me 76 “Nos” to get to a Yes. Getting through those 76 rejections requires you to separate yourself from the idea. You have to acknowledge that it’s not about you—it’s about the business. It requires a different way of thinking and part of that is getting to know yourself as an executive so you truly understand your strengths and weakness. I encourage people to work on overcoming any self-limiting beliefs, including those they may have had since childhood. We have to actively seek out blogs, podcasts, books, exercises and processes that help us overcome those beliefs so we can be better leaders and grow better companies. My best advice to a young start-up leader: Do the work on yourself personally, and then you can understand how to be a better teacher and a better leader.

Peter: Have you always been self-aware in your career?

Jen: I wasn’t especially self-aware earlier in my career. It’s come with time and work. I counsel entrepreneurs to keep track of how things unfold in their businesses. For instance, if something disappointing or distracting happens once, it’s okay—let it register, learn and grow from it. But if that same scenario happens two or three times, you have to ask, “Is it me?” You may start to see patterns. Here’s a good example: If you have three rock stars working for you, and they all quit, you should be willing to see your own role in that. Your leadership style and how you carry yourself might be part of the reason your stars left. You have to learn to be self-aware. Hopefully, your mentors, peers or bosses can help you by calling you out during the times you need a course correction.

I also think it’s important to build a peer group. I’m a big fan of the “gang of five” concept—it’s where you find five peers that are doing non-competitive, similar things and meet with them once a week for a cup of coffee. Take turns in the hot seat. Everyone shares one big issue they are dealing with or a big goal. And have everyone drill into it and then help each other, and hold each other accountable.