Jan 1Jana is now a full-time investor at TQ Ventures!Hello friends! Can I tell you a secret? I must admit I’m a bit nervous about this next chapter of my career I’m about to embark on. In some ways, I’m starting from the beginning again. Do you remember the last time you felt like this? That feeling of knowing…Venture Capital4 min readVenture Capital4 min read
Nov 8, 2022Café Jana: Interviews with OGs in open sourceOk! I’ve finally figured out what’s next for Café Jana. This year, I started working a lot with founders building startups using the open-core model, and it has sparked my interest in diving into the history of open source. Understanding history helps inform how we got here and where we’re…Open Source4 min readOpen Source4 min read
Nov 4, 2022To Seeing More Women on Cap TablesI woke up this morning feeling so inspired. Last night, I attended the Modern Angels Summit hosted by Robby, a partner at Cowboy Ventures. I was surrounded by 100 incredible women and non-binary angels and investors. I felt like crying. I was overcome with joy seeing so many people like…Investing5 min readInvesting5 min read
Jul 10, 2022Five Pillars of Building Developer Communities at HashiCorpEven from the very early days at HashiCorp, community building was deeply ingrained in our company’s ethos. I remember Mitchell Hashimoto, HashiCorp Co-Founder, telling the story of when he released Vagrant in 2009, HashiCorp’s first open source tool, it didn’t have much traction initially. Once he started speaking at events…Community8 min readCommunity8 min read
Jun 16, 2022Are You Building Developer Trust?*I no longer work at PlanetScale as of July 2022. This week, I got to hang out with my colleagues in Austin, TX, for the PlanetScale Marketing Summit, which was an absolute blast. I had a 20-minute speaking slot where I was going to present the developer marketing team’s accomplishments…Developer Marketing3 min readDeveloper Marketing3 min read
Mar 8, 2022Writing My Own StoryA woman I admire posted a tweet today in celebration of Women’s International Day, and it inspired me to write this post. It seems fitting on this day to announce that I’ve officially kicked off changing my last name to “Iris.” For most of my life, I was a supporting…Women In Tech5 min readWomen In Tech5 min read
Jan 25, 2022Goodbye HashiCorpHashiCorp, you were the best thing that ever happened to me and my career, but it’s time for me to say goodbye. I’ve been working in the tech industry for almost 15 years now. I’ve had experiences beyond anything I could have ever imagined, from helping build multiple companies from…5 min read5 min read
Dec 4, 2021Importance of Female FriendshipsA love letter to my girlfriends — An important thing you should know about me is how much I cherish and value my female friends. I’ve been thinking a lot about the power of having strong female friendships in your life, and, for me, nothing is more important. Well, that and family. It became even clearer to…Women4 min readWomen4 min read
May 15, 2021Café Jana Video 2: Contingency Planning for EventsIn the second Café Jana video, I cover why it’s important to have contingency plans for all of your events moving forward. I also want to share with you a chapter from Digital-First Events where we cover in detail how to create contingency plans per event. These plans should…Event Planning5 min readEvent Planning5 min read
May 12, 2021Café Jana video 1- Real Talk: Planning Events in 2022 Will Be ChallengingSo just as we finally figured out how to run engaging virtual events, it’s now time to figure out how to bring in person events back. I will admit I keep having these “Oh, shit!” moments as I’ve started putting together my team’s plans for next year. In the first…Events1 min readEvents1 min read
