Kelli Jones

Co-Founder & General Partner

2019 - Current

Seen. Heard. Funded. We are the first Indiana-based Venture Capital firm dedicated to investing in Black, Latinx, Women, LGBTQ+, and disabled founders. We use capital, connections, and community to support scalable and investable tech and tech-enabled companies with a clear road to profitability.

Founder/CEO

2016

Be Nimble is a 501(c)(3) social enterprise with the goal of advancing diversity initiatives to create fully inclusive tech ecosystems. We focus our efforts on workforce development and start-up and entrepreneurship support. We help people gain high-paying jobs in technology and support diverse start-up founders through our accelerators, workshops, and pitch competitions. We are here to close the economic wealth gap and create generational wealth for our community. What does it mean to Be Nimble? Not tied to trends. Forecasting what’s next. Being flexible enough to know that nothing is permanent.

Founder

2016

Chief Strategic Officer. The backbone. The Khaleesi. Running daily operations for a growing community of innovators, creatives, and culture juggernauts.

Program Manager

2020 - 2021

Program Manager, The Heritage Group Accelerator

2019 - 2020

Techstars is the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. Each year, Techstars chooses over 400 companies to join its 3-month mentorship-driven accelerator, investing $120K and providing hands-on mentorship and access to the Techstars Network for life. This program is designed to help startups gain traction through deep mentor engagement, rapid iteration cycles, and fundraising preparation.

Recruitment Consultant

2019 - 2019

Director of People, Culture, and Brand

2018 - 2019

Givelify is the most downloaded, highest rated mobile and online giving platform, revolutionizing the way people give to causes that matter to them. We are trusted by places of worship and nonprofits of all types to help them raise money so they can fund their organization’s mission. As the leading mobile and online giving platform, we believe the experience of giving should be as beautiful as the act of giving. In my role as Director of People & Culture, I'm responsible for recruitment, company culture, and brand, marketing and community relations.

Business Development & Partnerships

2016 - 2017

General Manager

2012 - 2016

I create, execute and manage all projects, bookings and collaborations with our client DJ, Engineer, and Speaker Gimel "Young Guru" Keaton. OneTwentyTwo Agency is a management firm working with engineers, DJs and artists to create cool and unique opportunities within the music industry. I am the lead project manager for Era of the Engineer, a brand founded by Young Guru to celebrate the emergence and importance of audio engineering and creating access to tech careers for Black youth. Through the EOE brand, Guru has become an ambassador for engineering, creating online classes through Skillshare, co-creating Earsketch, a platform teaching Python and Java using music production with Georgia Tech, teaching and creating an degree program with USC's Thornton School of Music, and touring colleges and universities worldwide.

Director, Sales & Marketing

2015 - 2016

- Strategized and executed marketing, sales and business development strategies for the #1 Hip Hop news outlet on the internet - Served as a member of the executive leadership team along with the President & CEO, Editor-In-Chief and Chief Technology Officer - Established relationships with major labels, independent labels, artists, brands, creative/advertising agencies and promotions companies to build advertising campaigns for HipHopDX both on-platform (HipHopDX.com) and off-platform (social media, video and events) - Managed social media team and created posting and content strategy for all of HipHopDX’s social media outlets. The new strategy increased growth on Instagram by 400%, growth on Twitter by 115% and growth on Facebook by 50%, including a huge growth in our Facebook video platform with several videos reaching over 5M views. - Created HipHopDX’s first branded content video program including original programming such as “In My City,” “How I Live,” and HipHopDX’s weekly livestream for emerging artists “#DXLive” - Established “The Breakdown With HipHopDX” a weekly news segment on Sirius XM/Shade 45’s All Out Show - Planned and executed one of HipHopDX’s most successful events, #BriskDX an Official SXSW showcase in partnership with Def Jam Records and Brisk Iced Tea. - Managed all media, brand and event partnerships with HipHopDX including show support, marketing support, editorial support. - Develop and execute pro-active media relations and other high-level communications activities in support of organizational goals

Public Relations and Communications Specialist

2014 - 2015

• Direct all public relations and communications strategies for Indiana Black Expo’s most attended events including Summer Celebration and Circle City Classic • Marketed #good4IN hashtag through all relevant social media and communications strategies, yielding 11.5 million impressions on social media between July 10, 2014 – July 20, 2014 • Define and develop a public relation strategy for maximum exposure of IBE programs and events on a local, state, and national level • Execute meaningful and consistent messages that create internal and external understanding of IBE's programs and events, developing and managing the external positioning and image efforts • Develop and execute pro-active media relations and other high-level communications activities in support of organizational goals • Maintain all social media networks including twitter, facebook, and Instagram • Maintain media lists and databases and update lists and databases on a consistent basis • Organize regular press events to highlight the organization's events and programs, and the organization's mission, vision, and objectives • Work with all departments to coordinate and implement the communications and public relations initiatives for the organization and all of its programs and events • Write press releases, radio spots, TV spots, and copy for internal and external communications • Conduct and assist with media buying and regularly review all radio station affidavits to insure spots are ran according to schedule • Write speeches and create presentations for organization's programs and events • Work with all departments to develop, update and manage website, online community and social network accounts • Establish and maintain relationships with key media to insure consistent publicity and serves as a media spokesperson when required • Serves as day-to-day external public and press contact for all organization inquiries