Meet the Author

Jennifer’s passion for entrepreneurship is deeply personal.

She grew up in a low-income household where money was scarce. Her family couldn’t afford school supplies, uniforms, or field trips. Rather than be excluded, Jennifer learned early how to earn her own money through odd jobs around the neighborhood and pretend the money came from her mom — so she could participate like everyone else, no questions asked.

Entrepreneurship leveled the playing field.

It gave her dignity, independence, and opportunity — and ultimately allowed her to break free from a cycle of financial limitation. That experience shaped her lifelong commitment to entrepreneurship as a tool for mobility, self-determination, and community resilience.

Today, that belief guides everything she builds.

Jennifer launched her first “startup” at age eight — a homemade scratch-card game she called “The Jenny Game.” By age ten, she was a tax-paying citizen reselling and delivering newspapers, and managing her own expenses. During middle and high school, Jennifer worked as a receptionist and department store clerk. 

At nineteen, Jennifer made a bold move. She put everything she had saved from working, along with her grant money and student loan into the stock market and began making strategic investments to help pay her way through University of Oxford, UK  and University of California, Berkeley. By twenty-three, she was already a Limited Partner investor in a venture capital fund.

Over the course of her career, Jennifer has held nearly every seat at the startup table: Limited Partner, Entrepreneur, Advisor, Mentor, Angel Investor, Venture Partner, General Partner and Managing Partner.

In 2009, Jennifer founded her own software company, WeMakeItSafer, which was backed by Sequoia Capital scouts and acquired in 2016.

 She has also served as Interim CEO for two  other venture-backed startups, one of which she led through acquisition, and has participated in more than a dozen successful exits as an investor.

Shortly after selling her company, Jennifer was invited to Puerto Rico to work with startups participating in an incubator program. She fell in love with the island and it's burgeoning, startup ecosystem, and quickly decided to make Puerto Rico her permanent home. She launched ATO Ventures, (for “Against The Odds”) in 2018 to help bring early stage venture capital to a community that, at the time, lacked such funding opportunities. 

The core strategy behind Jennifer’s work — Market Validation Testing (MVT) — was born from failure.

Her first startup was widely praised. Potential customers loved the concept. Senior government officials endorsed the technology. Jennifer was invited by the U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Officer to speak at the White House in Washington, D.C. — twice — about the company’s data and technology.

And yet, when the product finally launched, almost no one bought it.

Jennifer put on the brakes and went back to the drawing board. Instead of assuming demand, she began testing — rigorously. After 46 different market tests, the real market finally emerged. One year later, the company was acquired.

What ultimately took seven years could have taken four — had the testing come first.

That experience led Jennifer to formalize MVT (also known internally as “test to invest”), which is now the core strategy behind ATO Ventures and is taught throughout Valid Startup. 

MVT prioritizes evidence over enthusiasm, learning before scaling, and validation before investment. 

Jennifer created Valid Startup after years of working directly with founders who applied for funding through ATO Ventures.

She repeatedly saw talented entrepreneurs skip critical early steps — not because they lacked intelligence or drive, but because no one had ever clearly shown them how to do those steps well. She found herself spending countless hours teaching founders how to complete critical tasks such as:

• Conducting meaningful competitive analyses
• Building defensible financial models
• Validating demand before scaling
• Preparing properly for funding conversations
  
  

Eventually, Jennifer organized everything she had learned over two decades — from her MBA education to real-world operator experience, investor expectations, and internal resources developed for applicants and portfolio companies — into what became the Valid Startup program.

Since its launch, every investment made by ATO Ventures has gone through the Valid Startup process, making it the foundation for how businesses are evaluated, supported, and funded.

She believes so strongly in the Valid Startup process that she and her team actively work with participants who complete the program to help them identify and access the capital they need — leveraging her personal network of more than 1,000 investors, grant providers, lenders, and alternative funding partners.

Since moving to Puerto Rico, Jennifer has become deeply embedded in the island’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and has served on numerous nonprofit boards and advisory committees - all focused on supporting entrepreneurs. 

Jennifer also serves as Board Member and Interim Executive Director of the Plexo Foundation, the sister organization to Plexo Capital. In this role, she has managed grant funding and financial reporting for major global investors and foundations, including Google, Intel Capital, and the Ford Foundation.

She also leads the GPx Program, which trains emerging fund managers on how to form, raise, and manage venture capital funds. Jennifer has directly supported more than 45 Venture Capital General Partners, helping them to hone their LP pitch decks, tighten their investment strategies and strengthen their portfolio construction assumptions. 

Jennifer chose to open Valid Startup to cities, colleges, and community organizations because she believes deeply in economic development as a function of entrepreneurial success. The same tools, frameworks, and validation processes that have guided investment decisions at ATO Ventures — and improved outcomes for its founders — should not be limited to those seeking venture capital. 

By enabling institutions to use Valid Startup, Jennifer aims to make proven, practical entrepreneurship resources available to more people, in more places — helping communities create jobs, build resilience, and expand opportunity.

At its core, this work reflects Jennifer’s belief that when entrepreneurs are given the right tools, guidance, and access, they don’t just build businesses — they help lift entire communities.

Jennifer holds:

• B.As from University of California, Berkeley and University of Oxford, with majors in Japanese and Economics. Completed in three years total, Manga and Summa cum laude, respectively.
  
  
• MBA from University of California, Berkeley, with certificates in Entrepreneurship and Management of Technology
  
  

She speaks English and Japanese and is actively learning Spanish. The broader ATO Ventures and Valid Startup teams are based in Puerto Rico and are fluent in English and Spanish.

Jennifer believes entrepreneurship should not depend on luck, insider access, or a privileged background. When people are given real tools, clear guidance, and accountability, they can change not only their own lives, but the trajectory of their families and communities.

Through ATO Ventures and Valid Startup, she turns that belief into real outcomes.

Jennifer participates regularly in the Valid Startup Community forum, frequently answering questions, sharing insights and providing resources to entrepreneurs.  Everyone who signs up for Valid Startup has access to this community for free.  

Outside of Valid Startup, Jennifer is most active on Instagram @Hopp.vc, where she shares her personal journey, day-to-day adventures and a sprinkling of business tips.