After majoring in Mechanical Engineering, Judy went off to Harvard Law School. She practiced law for almost an entire year before she came up with a business idea and got started. Within 6 months she made it into a profitable venture, however, when she hit a snag, she needed a solution for a problem. It struck her then that the solution itself was a separate business idea for her and went ahead to set that up as well.

A similar event occurred on her next business venture, which led her to move out of Dallas and to St. Louis, where she was running two businesses together and figuring out her next big idea. That is when she was invited to volunteer at a Non Profit which was helping new startups up and running.

Through the process of volunteering she came up with the idea of Capital Innovators as she believed that the companies needed something different. Judy made it her mission to go out and get more funding for these startups while also revamping the mentorship model. What started off as a purely volunteer gig, became her “next big idea”.

At follow-on funding of $330 million for up to 128 companies and creating over 1300 jobs, it is no wonder that Capital Innovators has managed to bag the Top Accelerator title for 5 years. Shows that Judy and her team have always played their A Game!

Summing up her decade long endeavor, Judy shared a few insights that are worth talking about.

“You need perseverance” for all the ups and downs was one thing she started off with. Secondly her sound advice “from a business standpoint…you may have to go out and live a little life first.” All her business ideas stemmed from all the problems she was personally facing. She believes it is easier to sell a solution to somebody’s pain rather than sell them an idea of a great opportunity.

Hard work creates successful companies to get follow-on funding and that has helped Capital Innovators be ranked 2nd and 3rd in the country for the ability to raise follow-on funding. “See where the best fit is for you to grow that business,” is her means of getting work done right.

Discussing the future of remote employment Judy shared that, “In the immediate future remote workers can really work for a lot of companies” and that it depends on how a company can motivate people to feel a part of the team and reach for the success that any company is striving for.

It is super important to have daily meetings for the core tech team and she compares it to “imagine playing a sport; but not in person – those are very real challenges.”

She summed up with further insights on how she has fared through her life as an entrepreneur. Hear on for more details and let us know what pain points do you feel need to be addressed in order to make startup ventures more successful?