Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Awards 2017: Jessica Peltz-Zatulove

An advertising veteran based on New York’s Madison Avenue, Jessica Peltz-Zatulove made her move to corporate venture capital in 2014 when she joined KBS Ventures, the investment unit now part of advertising group MDC Partners.

Her arrival followed the departure of Darren Herman as managing partner at the end of 2013 to become vice-president of content services at Mozilla. KBS Ventures had by then already negotiated equity stakes with several early-stage startups, including YieldBot, Adaptly and PlaceIQ, before Joshua Engroff took over as managing partner.

Peltz-Zatulove brought to KBS 10 years of experience in working with startups to develop their branding. Now, the Indiana University graduate uses her experience working with startups to focus on early-stage investments in media and advertising startups at KBS.

Prior to joining KBS Ventures, Peltz-Zatulove spent nine years on the customer side, including at a global media agency, Zenith Media, where she managed the media strategy of several brands, such as Verizon Wireless, H&M and Puma.

She added: “I had started advising startups on the side and immediately fell in the love with working with entrepreneurs. I recognised there was a deficiency in the market helping brands discover and activate relevant technology solutions, and had wanted to get experience being on the operator side of an early stage startup.

“I joined Evol8tion as employee number two, a boutique consulting startup that specialised in connecting early stage startups with brands for partnerships. There we matched brands such as Kraft Foods and Unilever with emerging startup solutions that addressed their business needs.

“These experiences have given me a unique perspective as a CVC, having spent time both on the customer and startup side its enabled me to both help founders understand customer nuances to secure their first contracts, as well as empathise with entrepreneurs by understanding the challenges of building businesses.

“We have received positive feedback on how we have operationalised ventures to weave our portfolio companies into our organisation. For example, we created a comprehensive onboarding process to help our founders navigate our ecosystem to identify key point people and departments, enabling them to maximise the value of our network.

“I believe every CVC should have an internal onboarding playbook that dissects the organisation for new portfolio companies. By being transparent and creating a roadmap of relevant executives and business units for the startup, going on a “kickoff roadshow” will not only help educate key point people on the new solution, but also help jumpstart relationships to identify more opportunities to collaborate.

“Additionally, leveraging ventures has become an important strategic advantage to drive revenue for our professional services business. By incorporating our portfolio companies and insights into new business pitches, it has become a competitive differentiator for MDC in the market.

“We view our venture arm as our prediction engine to help brands stay ahead and educated on marketing trends. To help elevate our founders within the marketing community, we host leadership dinners with senior industry executives, thought leadership events where we invite them to speak, and include them in innovation days.

“On the investment side, we are proud of the reputation we have worked hard to build around the venture and startup community as being helpful, supportive investors. This has enabled us to squeeze into multiple competitive rounds that were oversubscribed.”

Peltz-Zatulove is a board member at Roost, which provides push notifications, and observer at Mezzobit. Alongside her investment duties, Peltz-Zatulove maintains a passion for mentoring, and has advisory roles at UpWest Labs, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, Women in Power and Astia and coordinates the Women in Venture Capital network in New York City.