Jill Kravetz will succeed Matthew M. Segneri \u201904 as executive director of the Harvard Innovation Labs, a University-wide center that provides funding, workspace, and mentorship to entrepreneurs, Harvard announced Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am thrilled to be here,\u201d Kravetz said in a Friday interview. \u201cI am coming in to fill really big shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kravetz, an i-Lab mentor for ten years, has founded several companies and currently serves as the CEO of JRK advisors, a consulting firm that assists small businesses with entrepreneurship and growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love that first 12 to 18 months of a company,\u201d Kravetz said. \u201cI love being in the throes of growing, creating something totally different, putting it out there, getting reactions, positive, negative, falling off the bike, getting back on the bike, skinning your knees.\u201d<\/p>\n
She has also worked as the CEO of iRelaunch, Inc. \u2014 a global career-rentry consultancy \u2014 and chief operating officer of BB Endeavors LLC, the enterprise of TV personality Bethenny Frankel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have always loved entrepreneurship,\u201d Kravetz said. \u201cMy background is very much combined strategy, operations, and entrepreneurship and innovation, and I\u2019m most excited to have to help the i-Lab and help Harvard have an outsized impact through the ventures that we\u2019re helping here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kravetz said she had been interested in the director position for years, but found that it was never the right time \u2014 until she saw this winter that the position was open.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it was posted in December, I literally turned to my husband and I said, \u2018I think I have to do it,\u2019 because I\u2019ve been looking at this for so many years,\u201d Kravetz said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the huge value that the i-Lab provides, because I\u2019ve been involved as a mentor,\u201d Kravetz added. \u201cThe chance to have a shot at actually helping to drive some of that impact \u2014 I couldn\u2019t ignore the thing that came across my LinkedIn saying \u2018this could be a great job for you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Kravetz was the first female partner at strategy consulting firm Parthenon Group, before she then joined Cue Ball Capital as a partner, a startup venture capital firm where she invested in emerging consumer and information companies.<\/p>\n
Kravetz has also founded two beauty companies, including Gloss48, a beauty-focused e-commerce startup. She earlier served as president of MiniLuxe, a chain of beauty lounges, which she launched as a partner at Cue Ball.<\/p>\n
Kravetz said that as a former founder, the i-Lab gives her a unique opportunity to \u201cexplore entrepreneurship\u201d in a different environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to start a venture here. You can just learn about entrepreneurship and experience it in a really kind of psychologically safe environment,\u201d Kravetz said. \u201cAnd just to be able to actually take the time to learn what entrepreneurship is, and to get access to these world class resources is so great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, after her first week as director, the i-Lab has made her feel welcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful place. I have to say, my first week I feel like I\u2019ve found my people,\u201d Kravetz said. \u201cIt\u2019s just such a lovely environment. The team is fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the plethora of entrepreneurship resources on campus, Kravetz said she will face a challenge of making sure the i-Lab can make its own unique impact in the innovation environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe innovation ecosystem is really robust all around campus,\u201d Kravetz said. \u201cOne of the challenges I see is just making it really clear to students and faculty and alumni where the best place is to get access to what resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
But despite the challenge, Kravetz said she was particularly excited to be joining the i-Lab now, with \u201cso many exciting things on the horizon in terms of innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so honored, because things like AI just driving the pace of innovation, the ability to have an impact on things like climate tech, there’s just so much opportunity,\u201d Kravetz said. \u201cTo be at this point where we can connect all 13 schools and really help drive that impact in the world \u2014 I\u2019m just so honored.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Staff writer Megan L. Blonigen can be reached at megan.blonigen@thecrimson.com<\/a>. Follow her on X at @MeganBlonigen<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014Staff writer Caroline G. Hennigan can be reached at caroline.hennigan@thecrimson.com<\/a>. Follow her on X @cghennigan<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jill Kravetz will succeed Matthew M. Segneri \u201904 as executive director of the Harvard Innovation Labs, a University-wide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[45,49,48,137],"class_list":{"0":"post-28099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entrepreneurship"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}