Bio

Tech Entrepreneur and Bootstrapper Janine Sickmeyer founded and built legal SaaS app, NextChapter, serving as CEO and Founder for 6 years until it was acquired in September 2019 (while having four kids!). She understands the challenges women entrepreneurs face and how to overcome them and because of that, she has dedicated the past few years to investing and mentoring overlooked founders, making nine total investments in companies with mostly Black, Latinx, and women founders. The value Ms. Sickmeyer brings to founders goes beyond capital. She shares advice and leads brainstorming sessions about customer acquisition strategies, sales goals, marketing plans, and customer development as well as many other business needs to founders who request time with her. Additionally, Ms. Sickmeyer has built an asynchronous accelerator for founders that will be launching in the summer called Cobble. Cobble is a web app for entrepreneurs to build their startup business model, marketing plan, product roadmap, and share with investors seamlessly through the personal CRM. Ms. Sickmeyer is a member of various investor groups such as Women in VC, Transact Global, Hustle Fund Angel Squad, The Syndicate, Brava VC Operator's Network, and Backstage Crowd. In 2021, Ms. Sickmeyer lectured at the UC Berkeley Newton Distinguished Series about her experience starting a company from scratch and was Featured in Forbes as one of the 51 VCs Who Want To Invest In Women, Black And Latinx, And LGBTQ+ Founders and she was recognized in Business Insider as a Rising Star VC. In 2021, Janine Sickmeyer formed Overlooked Ventures to further her commitment to changing venture capital by operating with transparency and investing in historically ignored entrepreneurs. Janine was featured in a recent Forbes article, No Longer Overlooked: The Venture Capitalist Changing The Face Of Investing. Interviewed by Amy Shoenthal, Janine talked about the state of venture capital, and how OV is working hard to change it. Read the interview - https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyschoenberger/2021/10/01/no-longer-overlooked-the-venture-capitalist-changing-the-face-of-investing/?sh=55d9713f7205 to learn more about Overlooked Ventures' background and our mission.