 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(May 2020) |
Joanne Wilson | |
|---|---|
 Wilson in 2016 | |
| Born | 1961 (age 62–63) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Simmons College |
| Occupation(s) | businesswoman, angel investor |
| Spouse | Fred Wilson |
| Website | gothamgal |
Joanne Wilson (born 1961) is an American businesswoman and angel investor. She is known for backing female-founded companies. [1] [2] [3]
Joanne Wilson was born in 1961. [4] Wilson studied at Simmons College in Boston, where she graduated in 1983. [5] She met her future husband Fred Wilson while in college and they moved to New York City. [6]
Wilson began her career at Macy's, working in the retail apparel department for 4 years. [7] After Macy's she oversaw a company in the garment industry, then worked in sales for the startup magazine and events company called Silicon Alley Reporter. [7] [8] She also chaired the nonprofit MOUSE (Making Opportunities in Upgrading Schools in Education), which focused on technology in inner-city schools. [9] [10] [11]
Wilson began investing in 2007. [12] [13] She also runs the entrepreneurship blog Gotham Gal. [14] Through her investment fund, Gotham Gal Ventures, Wilson and her husband fund startups. [15] [16]
In 2010, together with Nancy Hechinger from New York University she co-founded and co-chaired an annual Women Entrepreneurs Festival. [17] [18] [19]
From 2010 to 2015, she chaired the board of Hot Bread Kitchen, a nonprofit that promotes and trains female and minority bakers. [16] [20] [21] She also was the first co-Chair of Path Forward, a non-profit, established in 2018 with a mission to get people back to work after they’ve taken time off for caregiving. [22]
Since 2009, Wilson has been involved in real estate development in New York City. [23] [24]
Wilson made her first investment into Lockhart Steele's startup Curbed. [12] [13] Some of her early investments included Food52, Rick's Picks, DailyWorth, Hot Bread Kitchen and Scoot. [25] [26] [27] In 2014, she invested in Blue Bottle Coffee, a coffee roaster and retailer, and in Spoon University, a food media company, in 2015. [28] [29] Later in 2015, she invested in Nestio, the NY-based leasing and marketing platform for residential landlords. [30]
Wilson became known for investing in women-led startups. [1] [2] [3] In 2012, 13 of her 17 investments were in tech and out of those 13, 10 were women-founded companies. [13] As of 2016, around 70 percent of her investments were in companies led by women. [12] By 2017, she has backed more than 90 female-founded companies, including 3 of the 11 black women-led startups to have raised over $1 million. [31] [32] [33]
In 2017, Wilson made two angel investments in the cannabis industry: Octavia Wellness and Beboe. [14] [34]
Wilson is married to venture capitalist Fred Wilson, a cofounder of Union Square Ventures. [35] The couple live in New York City. They have three children, two daughters and a son. [36] [37] [4] In 2016, Crain's New York Business included Fred and Joanne Wilson into its "Power Couples" list. [38]
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