Capital for Female-led Startups

Jump Start

Kim Seals (1998 BACH H&SS) has seen companies sold, change ownership and move on to new missions, but the most memorable moments come from being there to witness a company’s early growth.

Seals serves as a general partner within The JumpFund, a Chattanooga, Tennessee-based investment group which invests in women-led ventures throughout the Southeast. “We started (in 2013) as a gateway for female founders to have an avenue for funding and create a female funding ecosystem,” Seals said.

That decade-long journey has included investment in more than thirty companies with capital coordination through more than 100 women. Seals, a Baton Rouge native, is the only partner based outside Chattanooga – she is in Atlanta and is also a senior partner at West Monroe Partners, a digital services consulting firm. “The personal networks of our general partners raised a lot of capital,” Seals said. “It has been super helpful to have been in the business community to help fund these startups.”

The LSU influence on The JumpFund is not limited to Seals. A couple of business owners who are LSU grads have worked with Seals and her peers from the client perspective. Jessica Harthcock (2010 BACH MCOM), the 2020 LSU Alumni Hall of Distinction Young Alumna of the Year, founded Utilize Health with her husband in 2012. The JumpFund started to follow the company’s progress. “I met with The JumpFund women and it started as a mentor relationship,” Harthcock said. “They carved out this niche, and they wanted to invest in a larger mission. We wanted them to be a part of what we were doing!”

Harthcock was paralyzed from the chest down due to a gymnastics injury su ered at age seventeen. Her experiences in an inpatient rehabilitation hospital and her recovery process helped Harthcock see the need for Utilize Health. The couple sold the company in December 2020, with The JumpFund having been part of the growth process from a startup to Fortune 500 company.

“I really credit LSU,” Harthcock said. “The education, mentorship and lifelong friendships – Kim and I bonded quickly. It becomes such a source of pride being able to enjoy our successes and share that.”

Sevetri Wilson (2008 BACH MCOM, 2008 BACH H&SS) launched Resilia in 2016 to provide software solutions to help nonprofits navigate the incorporation and exemption process throughout the U.S. In seven years, the outfit has gained steam and now serves nonprofits, foundations, corporations and other entities via a New Orleans base with New York and Mexico City o ces.

“I flew out to Tennessee and met with Kristina Montague (managing partner) and the other partners,” Wilson said. “The JumpFund followed up again when we raised Series A funding and then Series B.”

Wilson credited the combination of direct financial investment support and indirect relationship building as a couple of tools The JumpFund provided to bolster Resilia. “When we first received interest from The JumpFund, we had raised $2 Million. We have now raised $50 Million,” Wilson said. “When they first invested, we had six people. Now, we have o ces in New York and Mexico.”

People outside those o ces have also received resources – namely the LSU community. Wilson established a LSU scholarship endowment in December 2019 to honor her late mother – the S.M. Wilson Memorial Scholarship Fund.

“Giving back to students creates other pathways and opportunities,” Wilson said.

Mardi Gras Royalty – Posing for photographs at the Lod Cook Alumni Center were Southdowns Mardi Gras parade royalty Queen Lynn A. Vairin (1979 BACH HS&E, 1979 MAST HS&E) and King Mike Raborn.