Our Team

Jenny Kassan

Jenny Kassan

Founder

Jenny has 25 years of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises.  She has helped her clients raise millions of dollars from values-aligned investors and raised over $1.5 million for her own businesses.

She is the author of Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business without Selling Your Soul (Berrett-Koehler, October 2017).

Jenny earned her J.D. from Yale Law School and a masters degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley.

She served on the Securities and Exchange Commission Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies. She submitted the petition to the SEC that led to the passage of the 2012 JOBS Act and was present at the White House signing ceremony.

Jenny is also a fellow at Democracy Collaborative and the co-founder of the Force for Good Fund.

Before becoming a securities lawyer, Jenny worked for eleven years at a nonprofit community development corporation in Oakland, where she served as staff attorney and managed community economic development projects including the formation and management of several social ventures designed to employ and create business ownership opportunities for low-income community residents.

Jenny is the President of Community Ventures, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the economic and social development of communities. She also co-founded the Sustainable Economies Law Center, a nonprofit that provides legal information to support sustainable economies.

Jenny is on the board of directors for CfPA (Crowdfunding Professional Association) and formerly served as a director of Berrett-Koehler Publishers.   Jenny is certified as a coach by the International Association of Women in Coaching.

 

Michelle Thimesch

Michelle Thimesch

Legal Director

Michelle has over two decades of closely-held business consulting experience as an estate and succession planning attorney. She has helped her clients create legacy and philanthropic planning goals that ensure the continuation of business and community involvement for the next generation. Michelle is the founder of East Bay Revitalization, Inc., a nonprofit that addresses the scarcity of affordable housing and economic opportunities for working families.  She is also the CEO of Crowdfund Mainstreet, a regulated investment crowdfunding platform.

 

Africa Archield

Director of Insights and Strategy

Africa is the founder and owner of Africa Archield Strategies, a business coaching firm and consultancy.  She has over a decade of experience working with entrepreneurs and small businesses helping them streamline and scale.

Africa earned her EdS in Organizational Development & Change and MA in Adult & Developmental Education.  She taught in higher education for over 20 years and spent over 10 years in the finance industry.

Amy Short

Community Engagement Manager, Angels of Main Street

An enthusiastic advocate for inclusive financial empowerment, Amy joyfully self-directs her retirement funds, supports investment crowdfunding, and empowers others through encouraging financial literacy and sound business practices.  Amy is excited to take on the role of Community Engagement Manager for Angels of Main Street, a nationwide investment community for anyone who wants to learn about investing directly in business doing work they care about.

Find Amy at our Angels of Main Street meetings or through her consulting practice website: LovesCompany.co. She welcomes chats about how to bring more womxn in and how to democratize access to information around business opportunities.

Dann Moreno

Strategist, Capital on Your Terms Community

Dann Moreno has over five years of experience in the social business ecosystem and has helped mission-driven entrepreneurs at all stages of growth accelerate their businesses. He has worked with Socialab, HEC Montreal, and Future Skills facilitating workshops on ideation, models of impact, prototyping, validation, time management, and prioritization.

Dann is experienced in the energy, environmental, fintech, and high tech sectors. His work has ranged from designing and developing renewable energy and accounting emissions modeling tools, facilitating team building and employee engagement activities focused on climate change initiatives, participating in programs on crowdfunding and fintech at Anahuac University, and collaborating on Nauphilus, an AI platform to help financial institutions lend money to people with minimal credit score data.  Dann has a BE in Electrical Electronic Engineering and a MS in Environmental Sciences, Policy, and Management.

Marin Dell

Attorney

Marin Dell has been a member of the California Bar since 2003 and has been on the law faculty, and an adjunct faculty member, of several US law schools for the past 15 years. She has an LLM in Taxation from the University of Florida Levin School of Law and graduated from California Western School of Law with honors.

Amrita Sankar

Stephanie Cannon

Director of Operations

Stephanie Cannon brings over twelve years of corporate communication, event marketing, sales development, meeting planning, and employee engagement experience to Jenny Kassan Consulting.  As Director of Operations, she manages Jenny’s meetings and events and provides support in marketing, customer engagement, and compliance.  Prior to joining Jenny Kassan Consulting, Stephanie worked for the Alliance of Chief Executives in sales development and for PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. in event and meeting management.

 

Michelle Richardson

Shirah Dedman

Strategist, Capital on Your Terms Community

Shirah Dedman began her career in the entertainment industry, with positions at William Morris Agency, DirectTV, and Paramount Pictures, before her desire to create and her passions for foodways, health, and film led her to pursue independent filmmaking and a radically new professional path.

Shirah’s filmmaking efforts culminated in producing and directing the full-length documentary, Follow the Drinking Gourd, which has since screened at several film festivals and is available to view on kweliTV. 

In addition to media, food, and agriculture, Shirah specializes in assisting cooperatives, housing related enterprises, and Black-owned businesses—she’s passionate about providing entrepreneurs with the legal and financial information they need to grow and thrive.  Shirah earned her JD from the University of Southern California and an LLM in Food and Agricultural Law from the University of Arkansas.

Michelle Richardson

Michelle Richardson

Accountant

Michelle Richardson is the founder and owner of Leverage, a boutique cloud-based accounting firm for freelancers, startups and small to mid-size businesses. A senior accountant with over 15 years of experience, she is recognized as an early adopter of cloud technology for accounting and other businesses. Her areas of expertise include software integration, systems creation, complex reconciliations and financial reporting. Before launching Leverage, she worked in a wide variety of industries including publishing, wine import/distribution, online education, technology, digital media and non-profits.

In addition to her training in accounting, she received a BA in International Economics from the University of California at Santa Cruz. As a French-American, she is a board member of an association for developing the local French community, Los Angeles Accueil. A proponent for women’s education, she sponsors schools in Guatemala and is an avid supporter of women entrepreneurs in the tech industry.

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