Meet Jennifer
Jennifer Gavin is the Founder and CEO of Aidgency and the Founder of The Other 80. Based in New York, she has spent more than two decades working across advertising, influencer marketing, and nonprofit consulting. Today, she is focused on improving how women founders are discovered by investors while helping organizations create stronger connections between business and social impact.
Looking Beyond the Story Everyone Already Knows
Some people build careers by following established paths. Jennifer Gavin has spent hers looking for the spaces that everyone else overlooked. Throughout more than twenty years of professional experience, she has repeatedly found herself working in industries that were still taking shape. Instead of waiting for certainty, she learned how to make sense of change and create systems that helped others move forward.
Her work has never been driven by trends alone. What motivates her is the ability to recognize when an existing system no longer reflects reality. Rather than accepting those limitations, she asks a different question. What would happen if the problem itself were viewed differently?
That mindset has shaped every chapter of her career and ultimately led to the creation of both Aidgency and The Other 80., two ventures born from a desire to solve problems that many people had accepted as unavoidable.
Learning to See Opportunity Before Others Could
Jennifer’s professional journey began in advertising at a time when digital technology was still viewed with skepticism. Many organizations considered the internet a threat rather than an opportunity, making innovation difficult for those willing to embrace change.
Working during this period taught her an important lesson. Progress often begins with people who are willing to stand apart from conventional thinking. New ideas rarely receive immediate acceptance, especially when they challenge long-established habits.
Reflecting on those early years, she says,
“Being right early feels a lot like being alone and that if you can build the economic argument, entrenched systems will move.”
That lesson stayed with her as she moved into influencer and talent marketing, where she helped develop practical frameworks in an industry that was still finding its direction. Later, her work in nonprofit consulting revealed another challenge that many organizations faced. Limited resources, growing expectations, and disconnected systems often prevented meaningful collaboration between businesses and social initiatives.
Recognizing this gap inspired her and long-time colleague and friend, Brian Riemer, to establish Aidgency, an operating system for corporate purpose that helps companies embed impact into their business strategy, turning purpose into a driver of growth, employee engagement and retention, equity, and stronger nonprofit partnerships.
A Frustration That Became a Mission
Building Aidgency introduced Jennifer to the world of fundraising, where she experienced another problem firsthand.
She found that founder discovery relied heavily on outdated methods. Entrepreneurs often had only a few minutes to present years of work. Investors depended on historical reports that described companies which had already succeeded rather than founders actively seeking investment.
For women founders, the challenge was even greater.
Jennifer realized that countless talented entrepreneurs remained invisible, not because they lacked strong businesses, but because the systems designed to discover them were no longer effective.
Instead of accepting this reality, she and her friend, Kara Dress, decided to build something different.
The Other 80. was created to answer a simple but powerful question:
Who is raising capital right now?
Rather than focusing on funding statistics from previous years, the platform provides a living picture of founders actively seeking investment. It shifts attention away from history and toward the opportunities that exist today.
Reframing Problems Instead of Fighting Them
Jennifer believes meaningful change begins by changing the way people understand a problem. Throughout her career, she has consistently entered environments where familiar assumptions limited progress.
Whether introducing digital thinking into advertising, bringing structure to influencer marketing, strengthening nonprofit partnerships, or improving founder visibility, she has found that lasting change requires more than presenting a better solution. People must first see the problem differently.
She explains,
“The founders are there. The question is whether the ecosystem is willing to see them.”
This perspective reflects her broader leadership philosophy. Rather than relying on emotional arguments alone, she believes sustainable change happens when people recognize both social and economic value. Her goal is not simply to challenge existing systems but to create practical alternatives that naturally encourage better decisions.
Creating Visibility That Matters
The early success of The Other 80. demonstrated the importance of this approach. Within a short period, the platform surfaced nearly 300 women founders collectively raising more than 700 million dollars. Most of these businesses were at the pre-seed and seed stages, where visibility is often hardest to achieve.
For Jennifer, those numbers represent something much deeper than growth.
They demonstrate that talented founders have always existed. The real issue has been whether the ecosystem was designed to notice them.
By providing real-time visibility instead of historical analysis, The Other 80. gives investors, journalists, and ecosystem partners a clearer understanding of the present rather than the past. Founders gain an opportunity to be discovered without depending entirely on pitch competitions or limited networking opportunities.
Building What the Future Requires
Jennifer measures success differently from many entrepreneurs. She is less interested in temporary recognition than in permanent change.
Her vision is for The Other 80. to become the standard reference for anyone wanting to understand the current landscape of women founders raising capital. She hopes the conversation surrounding female entrepreneurship will gradually move away from outdated reports and toward real-time opportunity.
That same forward thinking continues to shape Aidgency as well, where she remains committed to helping organizations create meaningful partnerships that deliver measurable social outcomes.
She also believes personal sustainability comes from protecting focus. Rather than chasing every conversation or trend, she chooses momentum over distraction, surrounding herself with people who challenge ideas, solve problems, and move quickly toward meaningful action.
Jennifer draws her greatest inspiration not from famous names or public recognition, but from the founders working quietly behind the scenes. Their persistence reminds her why visibility matters and why better systems are worth building.
Her story is ultimately about more than entrepreneurship. It is about refusing to accept outdated assumptions and choosing instead to create better ways for people to be seen. Through both Aidgency and The Other 80., she continues to prove that lasting impact often begins with one person willing to look at a familiar problem from an entirely different perspective.
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