In Memory of Jessie Dixon

On Tuesday, September 12th our friend and operating partner at SpringTime, Jessie Dixon, passed away after a battle with cancer. She was previously a co-founder at Havenly, and in the e-commerce industry before getting into the startup world. More importantly, she was a wife and a mother of two. Our loved ones live on through the stories we tell about them. And in the spirit of VC Minute offering quick advice to startup founders, I invited some friends of the pod to share their memories of Jessie and the lasting advice they will take forward with them. Here's Matthew Erley. He was the VP of Growth at Havenly.

I worked with Jessie for four years at Havenly. I was the head of marketing and she was a COO. So there's a funny kind of relationship that I think exists oftentimes between those two roles. One's highly practical and database and revenue based on all those things. And then you have the marketing person that's coming up with lots of things and throwing things against the wall. We developed a really unique and strong relationship through a lot of push and pull. Jessie was someone that was tough in how she evaluated opportunities in business, but she was willing to have conversations about anything and poke lots of holes in your idea and look at it 100 different ways to make you defend it. And through that I grew up a lot in my own role. She trained the people around her to be really prepared and thoughtful. You knew walking into a conversation with her that you needed to have spent the time building that out. And as much as there was so much room for the in between, the casual conversations, which I think is what allowed her to build strong connection with so many people around her. She also expected a lot from her team and from her colleagues and that made everyone push themselves a little bit harder in the best of ways. As I was visualizing the time we spent together in our office at Havenly something that came back to me was, and it's kind of an allegory for who she is, but her door was literally always open. She had an office, I don't think she actually even wanted an office. And the 2nd thing I remember is there was always a comfy chair that was in there, that was not hers. I think the reason for that was, she created an inviting place. She was happy with people walking in the door and spending time and talking and she was there for her team. She was there for the people around her. She didn't need a spotlight as a founder. She wanted to just operate and build a great business. And she took care of people. And so I think this idea of an open door and a comfy chair is something that I'll remember about her and and smile about.

Shannon Erley is the Co-founder and CEO at Pomp. We met Jessie through Shannon after we invested in Pomp.

When I think about Jessie, I kind of think of her in different pillars. One, just an overall friend. The second, is her strong presence. The third her support. As an overall friend and how I got introduced to her, it was through Matt, my husband. He had worked with her for four years at Havenly very closely and became friends, and I just heard such amazing things about her. And so I figured, how can I work with this person to. And what I quickly realized is she genuinely cared about the people that she worked with. I also just looked up to her as a fellow Christian entrepreneur, which can also be hard to find in a startup ecosystem. The second piece to Jessie was her presence. And I really say this in the best way possible. She had such a strong presence and the advice and support that she gave could have been tough, but it also came from a really good and supportive place. Something that I think about is, if you are getting advice, think about it from the lens of the person giving it to you and how they do care about your success. And then I think of the advice and support that she gave me. When we first launched we had investors pushing us to improve unit economics, and she reminded us that, that would come as we scale and businesses could always improve those metrics. But in the beginning, just to really focus on product market fit, make sure consumers would really use our platform and come back and reminding us to stay true to our business. And the last thing with Jessie is I went out on maternity leave very early on in the startup of Pomp. And that was really scary, and she stepped in and helped my co founder and team while I was out on maternity, and that was just just such a huge, huge support to us.

Here's my partner at springtime Matt Blomstedt.

I had the pleasure of getting to know Jessie Dixon pretty well over the last two and a half years. Even before she joined the SpringTime family in November 2021, when we launched our 2nd fund, I served on Pomp Beauty's board here in Denver with her prior to that. Some of the things that I'll never forget about Jessie or how witty she was, she was sharp as a tack, and she knew how to communicate with people and really connect with them. So even tough conversations, she had a way of putting things at ease. But more than anything, what I'm going to remember about her is her big heart. The work that she did with Hope for Kids in Colorado and the passion that she had is really the epitome of what Jessie was and what she stood for. I'm really going to miss her.

Finally I'll share one of my memories. One thing that Jessie said during the heady days of 2021 has always stuck with me. As founders were raising tons of capital, her commentary was simple yet profound. She said,"drink when served." That was one of her go-to phrases and now is one of mine. Drink when served. Jessie was an invaluable member of the SpringTime team. Her spirit, wisdom and generosity was a perfect match for the SpringTime culture. We will miss her and her memories will be carried on. On behalf of our team, Matt. Rick Patch, John, Jeff, Allyson and Rick Jones, and all of our investors in portfolio companies. We thank you, Jessie, for everything. Whether or not you knew Jessie, you can always have an open door and a comfy chair.