Jessica is an entrepreneur and the founder of the angel-backed startup GoGoGuest. She was born and raised in the Philippines and is a first generation naturalized American citizen. She has lived in Chicago, New York City and San Francisco. Prior to pursuing a career in entrepreneurship, Jessica held leadership roles in product marketing and digital marketing at Kaplan Inc., Young & Rubicam, Tribal DDB and Ogilvy. She also led and delivered projects at Square and Logitech. Jessica is a natural adventurer who loves discovering and exploring cities and nature. She brings Mister Beckham, her jack russell along with her whenever possible.
“Let’s be honest, women entrepreneurs focused on building and growing a technology product is a land mine of challenges regardless of your heritage. Fundraising at any stage is more difficult for women but the real difficulty comes when it is time to raise your first institutional round — from venture capital. Venture capital and their LPs are mostly from of the 1% richest households in America that own 40% of the country’s wealth. There is a natural tendency among these circles to invest in people who are like them, specifically from their university alma mater or company alumni. In venture capital world, it is called the “flywheel effect.” There is clearly a smaller pool of opportunity for Filipino-American women in the technology space. This means, a smaller flywheel effect, if any. I hope to be an active participant in changing this ratio.”
