The Team

Hillary Talbot | Managing Partner

Hillary is a sailor, surfer, and former competitive Alpine skier who brings her passion to win to être Venture Capital. She co-founded être to dismantle barriers that constrain innovation, focusing on the undercapitalization of women and minority founders, and entrepreneurs solving real-world challenges through manufacturing critical technologies.

She is hands-on with portfolio companies, helping to shape strategy, drive profitability, and engineer exits using an extensive network of subject-matter experts built through 20+ years in the startup ecosystem including as an advisor to high-growth startups in the California Tech Futures Group.

Jenny Kuan, Ph. D | Managing Partner

Jenny co-founded être Venture Capital to put into practice the collaborative model of venture capital investing she discovered in her research on the history of Silicon Valley. She is interested in helping women join this important industry underpinning the US economy, and launched a fund to lead by example.

She holds a Ph.D. in Business from UC Berkeley and an MS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University. She has worked in software development and manufacturing at such firms as Apple and Solectron and is now a tenured professor of economics and entrepreneurship at the College of Business at California State University Monterey Bay. She also leads CSUMB's Institute for Innovation and Economic Development. 

Her academic research examines the role of nonprofit organizations as industry scaffolding for emerging and innovative industries, including venture capital, open source software, and fabless semiconductors. In 2021, based on her research, Jenny created a free, online course — "Venture Capital 101 for Women" — to demystify VC investing and to encourage women to establish their own funds. The Institute is now launching a Women in VC Initiative, a member organization to support women venture capitalists.