Jill Enos was the guest of honor at the November 18th Kitchen Table Series, the second such dinner, where she met and talked with students from across the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences about the entrepreneurial spirit that has been prevalent throughout her professional journey.
The Kitchen Table Series was designed with the goal of bringing entrepreneurs from Northeast Wisconsin around a kitchen table to share ideas and ask questions with current UW-Green Bay students. It’s an initiative of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Enos grew up on a rural farm in Illinois and went on to pursue her undergraduate degree in Political Science at Michigan State University. After, she worked in inner city affordable housing in Atlanta, worked for the Federal Reserve Bank, went to Harvard Business School, and later joined a tech startup outside of Washington D.C. Enos returned to the Midwest and has since focused on growing the entrepreneurial tech ecosystem as a Managing Partner at TitletownTech, a venture capital firm in Green Bay.
Here are our five takeaways after hearing Enos’s story:
1. Create your own opportunities
Enos mentioned several cases throughout her career where she paved an opportunity for herself – such as proposing an internship to a company – to gain new experiences. If a door of opportunity does not exist, she emphasized to create and open it yourself.
2. Lifelong learning is important
Even now as a Managing Partner of TitletownTech, Enos said she is always learning and adapting to new things – quantum physics being just one example. If you don’t adapt to new things, such as the growing prevalence of technology, you will be left behind.
3. There are a lot of ways to build a community
When Enos finished her undergrad she thought working in public policy was the path she wanted to take and decided to work in underprivileged communities in urban areas. Over time, though, she discovered a new path of trying to bring value to communities by supporting emerging leaders and innovative ideas.
4. Be willing to take risks
Don’t limit yourself on what you can do and what you can try. If you take a risk, it may pay off or it may not. Even if you fail, Enos said there is always something you can take away from the experience to apply to future endeavors.
5. If you see a problem and want to fix it, be part of the solution
It’s not enough to recognize a problem and stand idly by or just complain about it – you need to do something about it. This, Enos said, is exactly why she decided to serve on the school board. That way, she could be part of the solution to problems she had identified.