Barbara Jones- Brown: Breaking Barriers and Building Empires

In 2022, women of color received just .8% of venture capital funding. Today’s guest is one of those .8%, raising $3M in 2022 in venture capital from strong investors including Serena William’s VC fund, Serena Ventures.

Barbara Jones-Brown has never been a stranger to defying the odds. When Barbara graduated from the University of Texas in 1998 she was one of only four black computer science graduates. She would go on to be the Lead Technical Developer at 360 Commerce which was later acquired by Oracle and served as the launch of Oracle’s retail division.

Bit by the entrepreneurial bug, post acquisition Barbara would launch a consulting business that would continue to grow and allow her to create job opportunities for marginalized groups. But Barbara had always known one day she would build her own product company. Then a seemingly serendipitous hackathon would birth the idea that would one day become Freeing Returns. Then in 2020, a global pandemic went from nearly destroying her successful consulting business to being the forced change that would accelerate the launch of Freeing Returns.

This is a powerful conversation in which we discuss Barbara’s journey, her strength in building high performing teams, and learning the importance of when to listen to advice and when to ignore. 

I can’t wait for you to meet this amazing woman. Enjoy!

Show Notes:

• Connect or Follow Barbara on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Freeing Returns