Meet Jenna Jackson: LA Mama and Founder of August California
Jenna Jackson
“Make deep, meaningful connections with the women around you. Ask what you can do for them and give freely of yourself and your advice.”
What do you do and what led you to this career?
I am a managing director at Imperial Capital in our consumer division. We advise companies on their growth capital raises or M&A. We focus only on lifestyle brands and I am in charge of beauty, apparel and accessories and lead the charge in female founded companies. We work with brands like Sugarfina, Spiritual Gangster, Anastasia of Beverly Hills.
What are the names and ages of your little ones?
Keller, who is 5 years old; and Everett, who is 3 years old.
What has been your biggest career achievement thus far?
Building entrepreneurial businesses both inside of large corporations, like the Gap, and outside at Wantful.com and my own brand, august.
What is the most rewarding aspect of being a mother?
Those little boy snuggles!
And what is the most challenging?
Balancing my guilt about not being the “perfect” mother and the “perfect” businesswoman.
What is your best advice for someone new to your industry?
Make deep, meaningful connections with the women around you. Ask what you can do for them and give freely of yourself and your advice. It will all come back around.
What is your best advice for a new mother?
Lots of self care and self love.
What's next for you? Do you have any exciting projects coming up?
I have a goal of bringing together the female founder and founder communities more closely. I’ve been hosting lunches and brunches across the country for groups of women to get to know each other, share their knowledge and their contact info and close the funding gap for female founded companies.
Follow Jenna at @augustcalifornia