Brianne Kimmel

Last updated
Brianne Kimmel
Entrepreneur Brianne Kimmell.jpg
Kimmel in 2023
NationalityUkrainian-American [1]
Alma mater Kent State University
Occupation Venture Capitalist
Known forFounder, Worklife Ventures
Website briannekimmel.com

Brianne Kimmel is a Ukrainian-American venture capitalist and angel investor. She is the founder and managing partner of Worklife Ventures, a venture capital firm she founded in 2019. [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Kimmel is originally from Ukraine but grew up in Youngstown, Ohio. [3] She attended a semester at Barclay College in Haviland, KS in 2010. She earned a degree in journalism from Kent State University. [3]

Career

After graduation, Kimmel went to Sydney where she worked at an advertising agency. She later moved back to the United States where she worked for Expedia and taught classes at General Assembly. [3] Prior to launching Worklife, Kimmel led Zendesk's go-to-market strategy, creating the Zendesk for Startups program. [4] She developed the concept for a venture capital fund while working at Zendesk. [3]

Kimmel launched Worklife Ventures in 2019, raising $5 million in capital. An additional $35 million was raised in 2022 [5] with the total market cap of all portfolio companies in the fund reaching $40 billion value the same year. [6]

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References

  1. Breen, Amanda (March 30, 2022). "The Ukraine Crisis Hits Close to Home for Silicon Valley, and Tech Execs Aren't Wasting Time: 'They're Thinking Like a Startup, Which Allows Them to Move Faster'". Entrepreneur.
  2. Melendez, Steven (April 23, 2020). "While stuck at home, this VC built a virtual version of Silicon Valley". Fast Company.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Fannin, Rebecca (October 15, 2022). "The female venture capitalist creating billions in a new world of work beyond the office". CNBC.
  4. Clark, Kate (September 10, 2019). "Work Life Ventures raises $5M for debut enterprise SaaS seed fund". TechCrunch.
  5. Mascarenhas, Natasha (April 25, 2022). "Brianne Kimmel's new $35 million fund isn't yet tempted by all of web3". TechCrunch.
  6. Rolfe, Brooke. "How woman built a $40 billion pandemic portfolio". News.com.au.