Our Team
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
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.
Jamie Frank
Attorney
Jamie Frank has experience in public and private offerings, securities law compliance, and corporate formation, and she has roots in the movement for a new economy that is just and sustainable. Jamie previously worked as Development Director at New Economy Coalition and as a corporate associate at Sullivan & Worcester LLP. Jamie holds a JD, cum laude, from Boston University School of Law.
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
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.
Recent Blog Posts
Temporary Relief for Investment Crowdfunders
I recently joined the board of directors of the Crowdfunding Professional Association. The board asked me to draft a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission requesting emergency temporary relief from the onerous requirements under Regulation Crowdfunding to...
Fundraising Tips from Dan Fireside, Capital Coordinator at Equal Exchange
Equal Exchange is a worker-cooperative that sells Fair Trade coffee, chocolate, and other staples. They created a revolutionary way of raising money from investors. Investors receive non-voting preferred stock, and if the co-op is ever sold, any excess revenues...
Major Changes to Securities Rules
For those of us who care about moving investment dollars into the businesses we love, March 4, 2020 was like Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and the Fourth of July all wrapped into one. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released proposed rule changes that will...
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