Julianne Zimmerman shares her circuitous path in her life journey, career and work legacy, all of which are nothing short of fascinating and remarkable. Julianne's professional passion is putting technology and capital to work for the greater good. She has been in the innovation space since the 1980s as a member, founder, mentor, and advisor to a host of mostly technology driven startups. Twice a finalist in the NASA astronaut selection process, Julianne’s work legacy tells a story of invention, reinvention, vision, and passion, and the power of pivoting.
Julianne Zimmerman is a leader who wants to be remembered as somebody who was always game for “good trouble”. She is passionate about investing in founder teams who are creating value with their businesses and whose businesses will go on to create still greater value for their stakeholders. The BIPOC (black, Indigenous and people of color) teams are also about racial, social, gender and economic justice, along with social resiliency and financial returns. She is committed to working with aspiring entrepreneurs to help them to acquire the resources, the skills, the perspectives that they need in order to be successful, because she hopes they will become significant legacy creators and changemakers and impact leaders. For her, focusing on the things that have the potential to create real good in the world is what makes work interesting and worthwhile.
Julianne’s journey from a 16-year-old college student focused on becoming an astronaut to innovative financier with an eye towards social justice has had many twists and turns and provides lessons we can all relate to. Her dual degrees from MIT in humanities and literature and aeronautical and astronautical engineering, provided different kinds of critical thinking and have informed Julianne’s journey to her current work at Reinventure Capital. Julianne believes it takes a purpose built and proven approach to cultivate transformative value and to collaborate, to drive positive financial and social impact for the greater good. She has approached that proposition from several different vantage points and different roles in different industries.
Julianne is currently focused on Reinventure Capital which is an impact investing practice. They invest exclusively in US-based companies led and controlled by BiPOC and or female identifying founders who are growing profitable enterprises. It is about creating wealth, opportunity, economic value and social value in a way that continues to generate still more value. It is not a quick turn over but investing in founder teams who are creating value with their businesses and whose businesses will go on to create still greater value for their stakeholders. That is a legacy endeavor about racial and social, gender and economic justice, but it's also about social resiliency and financial returns.
She is also working with and mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs to help them to acquire the resources, skills, and perspectives that they need in order to be successful. She hopes they are going to become significant legacy creators, changemakers and impact leaders. She offers her insight and assistance so that they can be successful, hoping to remove some of the impediments for them so that they can be more successful sooner. An auspicious legacy.
Takeaways:
Ask questions in a different way.
Don’t take the received wisdom too seriously. Don’t assume that just because there's “a way things are done”, that, that's the best way to do those things or that it's the only way.
It's important to have a practice in your life, whether that's spiritual, exercise, meditation, drawing, journaling that gives you the opportunity to connect with what you care about. To give you a bit of clarity every day and help connect you with at your core, what matters to you.
Don’t allow yourself to be dissuaded from your passions and interests, even if they seem to be completely disconnected and unrelated. They will make sense and they will have value in ways that are impossible to know in advance.
"People as they mature, tend to reach a certain point and say this far and no further. And that's really the point at which they begin to die." So, to continue being curious and impassioned and purpose driven is really to continue to be alive and growing. Julianne intends to continue living and growing right up until death.
Quotes:
“Share your vivacious way of thinking with the people around you”.
“Bring the perspectives and experiences and skills you have to bear, in a way that creates new possibilities and generates real good in the world”.
How to reach Julianne:
Email: julianne@reinventurecapital.com
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliannezimmerman/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/juliannezim
Bio:Julianne Zimmerman’s professional passion is putting technology and capital to work for the greater good.
For the past several years, Julianne has integrated all of her education and experience for the benefit of Reinventure Capital. Reinventure Capital takes a purpose-built and proven approach to cultivate transformative value and collaborate to drive positive financial and social impact. The company invests exclusively in US-based companies at breakeven that are poised to grow profitably and are led and controlled by BIPOC founders and/or womxn founders of all identities who are largely overlooked by mainstream investors.
Julianne writes and speaks on innovation- and strategy-related themes for domestic and global audiences, including GreenMoney, GreenBiz, Sloan Women in Management, Sloan EMBA, GIST Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, High Water Women, We Own It Summit, All-Russia Innovation Convention, among others.
Julianne holds two undergraduate degrees from MIT in Humanities/Literature and Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, an MS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland. She was twice a finalist in the NASA astronaut selection process. She teaches Innovative Social Enterprises at Tufts. A frequent speaker, reviewer and judge for innovation and entrepreneurship programs in the US and abroad; she currently serves on the MIT Venture Mentoring Service and as a mentor with WPI, the Majira Project, and others.