Jennifer Marcus, senior director for strategic business development, The Home Depot, is one of our Top 50 Rising Stars in corporate venturing for 2024.
For Jennifer Marcus, senior director of strategic business development at The Home Depot, innovation is at the core of the parent company’s culture and values. How an organisation innovates and thinks about technology challenges it to be better and helps it continue to advance.
Having joined The Home Depot in 2016 in her native Canada, going through a number of finance analyst roles, Marcus’s aptitude for strategic planning saw her move to the home improvement giant’s headquarters in Atlanta, two years later. There, she worked on business strategy, M&A and partnerships, eventually establishing The Home Depot Ventures in 2022.
The speed at which the unit can move – even within the confines of a large corporation with a top line of more than $150bn – if there is strategic alignment with a startup is another highlight for Marcus.
Initially operating in stealth, the public announcement of The Home Depot Ventures’ launch in May 2022 was a major milestone that supercharged the unit’s ability to establish connections within the VC ecosystem and build the brand, despite not usually disclosing its deals publicly.
The speed at which the unit can move – even within the confines of a large corporation with a top line of more than $150bn – if there is strategic alignment with a startup is another highlight for Marcus. The Home Depot Ventures’ remit goes beyond just venture investing, but also to other innovation activities that support The Home Depot’s corporate strategy.
Direct investments it has made over the past year include software provider High arc and financial services platform Flex. Defining success internally is crucial for Marcus, as is having alignment, not so much in terms of defining the number of investments made, but rather around the purpose and mission of the corporate venture capital unit.
Prior to joining The Home Depot, Marcus, who is a licensed CPA, spent four years at KPMG as senior accountant for its consumer and industrial markets group. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in commerce from McGill University.
See the full list of GCV Rising Stars for 2024 here.
