The Women of augustwenty: Jenn Clay

“Amazing things happen when women help other women!” - Kasla Gospo

I would like to introduce you to an amazing person we brought onto our team from the beginning, Jenn Clay! Just as the quote above implies, she has helped me tremendously with this new adventure of building augustwenty. Let me take a few minutes to share a bit about her.

Jenn and I worked together for about 8 years at a company that got purchased and dismantled. Staying in touch with her, she asked what DJ and I were up to—only to discover that we were going to start augustwenty and would like for her to join us from the beginning. As Jenn put it, “it was a no-brainer…to get a chance to again work with my favorite people.” Jenn had never worked for a start-up and in her words, it has been like a “fun roller coaster ride–NOT scary!” Why? Because as she tells me, she has had a chance to really explore, learn, choose and establish various systems that WE wanted to incorporate into our business processes. Her overall role began as “Finance” but as we have grown she has shifted some of her focus to Human Resources enabling her to choose and set up more new systems; learn about tax laws and human resources practices and so much more. She has already had to help us expand some of those systems to accommodate our growth. For example, she set-up our first payroll/hr system that lasted about14 months before we outgrew it. So after much research and discovery, she set up a new system that can better meet our needs for the future.

As I spotlight each wonderful woman that works for augustwenty, I am curious to know about anyone in their life that is or has been an inspiration. I love what Jenn had to share so much that I want to share it with you exactly how she tells it:

“I am beyond grateful to be surrounded everyday by passionate, strong women that have helped to guide me and shape me into the person I am today. My biggest inspiration is always my Mom...she is the strongest, most positive, loving, and hard working woman I know. She was a single Mom to me and times were not always great for us when I was growing up, but you'd never know it...I had the best childhood and she was always teaching me valuable life lessons and she was always staying positive. Even now, I know I can count on her for the perfect advice on whatever is going on in my life and she'll end everything with a smile.” ……..And that too is exactly who Jenn is to the people around her—providing perfect advice and always with a smile.

Lastly, Jenn plans on making it a point to learn and celebrate other fabulous women, not only in our rich history of women, but those in her life. Something I too am aspiring to do.

To close and just for fun, I wanted to share something that most people wouldn’t know about Jenn–her favorite music is 90’s Alternative like Blur, Pearl Jam, Oasis, Nirvana…not the “new Alternative.” Who knew?