She fell into humanitarian work in Nepal, Somalia and the Philippines, founded the Nepal Innovation Lab in the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake, and helped scale it into the global Response Innovation Lab network. Then she moved to San Francisco, raised VC funding, and launched an AI startup built around reducing the mental load on parents — particularly mothers.

The thread running through all of it, she says, is a deep frustration with inequity.

We talk about what it means to be a 'builder' — the drive behind it, the walls you run into, and what she learned navigating a world of venture capital while trying to stay true to a social mission.

Some of those stories are indeed eye-opening, but the conversation that will stay with me is on AI and the social sector. Jenny shared that while more workers in the aid sector are using AI daily than their private sector counterparts, only around 9% of organisations have integrated it strategically. That gap, she argues, isn't really a technology problem or a talent problem. It's a leadership challenge — and with funding cuts biting hard at the same moment as AI is reshaping what's possible, the organisations that don't engage with this now risk missing it all together. We talk about how organisations can seize this once in a generation moment.

Jennifer's book Do Bigger Things, co-authored with Dan McClure, is available on Amazon and you can Connect with her on LinkedIn.

(www.thinkzone.in, binayak.a@thinkzone.in)

Co-hosted by Bhavya Srinivasan, the Senior Manager at Gray Dot Catalyst, a consultancy focused on innovation, strategy and partnerships, with a particular focus on scaling innovations. (www.graydotcatalyst.com)