To celebrate International Women’s Day earlier this year, about 100 TiE New Jersey members gathered at Cherry Valley Country Club in Skillman to hear from Kathleen Coviello, chief economic transformation officer for the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, who has spent much of her career supporting technology entrepreneurs.
Her current roles at NJEDA include overseeing the agency’s Strategy Division, Economic Transformation Products (Corporate Tax Credit Program, Clean Energy and Offshore Wind Products, Innovation and Venture Products, and the Strategic Innovation Center), and Product Operations Division.
Careers shaped by mentorship
Coviello’s career has been shaped by great advice from mentors, both male and female.
“I started working in banking right out of college, working for an amazing mentor who has now become a very close friend,” she says. “He told me, 'The best thing you can do in banking is to become a lender, and if you go down that path, you have amazing opportunities, but you have to get credit checked first.' It sounded like a terrible job that I didn't want to do. And I was right. I hated every second of it, but I got through it, and it's a career skill that I had to pick up.”
She advised the audience to think about where they want to go.
“Listen to wise people, they will guide you.”
Finding creative solutions for technology entrepreneurs
Another turning point for Coviello came early in her career when she heard a fundraising presentation by a team of startup entrepreneurs who were struggling to raise capital.
“They told me they were executives at a company called 'Eagle's Eye.' They maxed out their 401(k) plans and mortgaged their homes,” she said.
They spent all the money they had to start the company, and no one was answering their calls because fashion startups are risky.
“And then they started telling me about their business model and why they thought the company would be successful.”
Coviello believed in the company’s story and was determined to give everything he had for it.
“I went to a bank credit committee meeting, the first time I'd ever been there, and I said, 'We work with start-up apparel manufacturers,' and the credit officer said, 'Sorry, we don't work with start-ups. We don't work with apparel manufacturers.' And I said, 'But I really believe in this team.'”
Thanks to her presentation, she got the opportunity to go to the credit committee.
“We created a unique financing structure. It was something that no bank had ever done before. And it was really a lot of fun. It was challenging, it was interesting, and I got to work with a great team. And the credit committee bought into it. They said, 'OK, we'll back this company because you've structured this in a very unique way to protect against downside risk.'”
Coviello noted that she had a very successful company under the name Lilly Pulitzer, which is how she started working on fundraising for startups. Other startups had heard of her skills and wanted her help. She told of a time when she guided another startup from organizing to succession planning. The founder and CEO came to her and said that while the company was experiencing tremendous growth, he didn't have the skills to take it to the next level. He ended up selling the company, which turned out to be the right decision.
“I found my passion while working with some incredible entrepreneurs,” she told the assembled group.
This led her to work at a number of banks in the region, eventually landing her at a California bank that “no one in New Jersey had ever heard of”: Silicon Valley Bank, which did business with tech companies and famously collapsed last year. She was traveling around the country and had three young children at home in New Jersey.
Coviello commented on Silicon Valley Bank's market failure, arguing that it was due to poor management decisions rather than the fault of the entrepreneurs the bank worked with.
“Their business model worked, but it was a basic model. They were funding venture-backed companies from venture capitalists that they knew,” she said. “I thought, this is exciting, but basically, you can choose chocolate or vanilla, and that's all they have. I like mint chocolate chip, and they didn't have that.”
Supporting Entrepreneurs at NJEDA
She began looking for more creative ways to support entrepreneurs while staying close to home and raising her young children. (As an aside, she says that when she was pursuing her MBA, no one talked to her about work-life balance or how women should manage their careers with three young children.) And her kids became increasingly vocal about her frequent business trips.
She met Karen Franzini at the New Jersey Tech Council (now TechUnited: New Jersey), when Franzini was CEO of NJEDA. Coviello believed the state wasn't working with entrepreneurs in the right way. The state needed to support entrepreneurs “who have a vision and a dream and share in the interests of these companies.”
She said she thought she would only be with NJEDA for a short time, but will be marking her 19th year in August.
“I started out as a technology advocate, saying, 'We need to work with technology, we need to do something with technology,'” she said. “Time went on and we had a governor who is totally committed to technology. I've had the privilege of working for a great CEO, who's given me a lot of opportunities, and most importantly, I have a great, great team.”
She also praised NJEDA's creativity in creating a program that isn't just a copy of what other states do. “We listen to the pain points of businesses” and work to create a program that addresses those pain points within the state's banking guardrails, she said.
The program also included a panel discussion featuring New Jersey women entrepreneurs that delved deeper into the challenges and opportunities women face.
TiE was founded in Silicon Valley in 1992 by a group of successful entrepreneurs, business executives and senior professionals. Today, the organization has over 12,000 members and 1,800 charter members in 61 chapters across 12 countries. The New Jersey chapter is particularly active, with numerous programs running throughout the year to support New Jersey entrepreneurs.
Conversation starters
To contact the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, visit njeda.gov or call 844-965-1125.
Technology Partners
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