Jenny Sui is a principal on the investment team at Craft Ventures based in New York. Prior to Craft, she was an early employee at Brex across operations and strategic finance, driving cross-functional strategic planning and helping scale the company's underwriting processes to serve thousands of customers. She was also involved with the launch of the company's e-commerce offering. She started her career at Visa, where she worked in New York and San Francisco across IoT, digital products, and consumer credit.
Jenny has been interested in the startup and venture ecosystem since college, and particularly in the fintech space given the sheer amount of innovation in the industry in recent years. "In my current role at Craft, I spend my time meeting with and learning from incredible founders building early-stage companies across fintech, but also more broadly across SaaS and marketplaces. I feel very fortunate to get the opportunity to learn from experienced founders and operators in my job every day."
Jenny remains closely involved with the fintech ecosystem as the head of community and events for Women in Fintech, a non-profit dedicated to increasing representation in the fintech industry. "We host events across the country for over 2,000 members, spanning networking happy hours, industry content events, and conferences. I also get the opportunity to chat with founders across fintech every day and invest in exciting new ideas at the intersection of fintech and SaaS."
More on Jenny
Where you currently live: NYC
Hometown: Seattle
Favorite hobby: Pilates
Favorite part of your day: Early mornings
Favorite show to binge: The Amazing Race
Media recommendation: I’ve been a huge of How I Built This by Guy Raz for a very long time – I love hearing stories from different entrepreneurs I admire on both the highs and lows of building their businesses.
What's the best job decision you ever made?
My best job decision was making the leap from Visa and deciding to join Brex. At the time it was still a riskier career decision given how early the company was, but it was a fantastic learning experience and gave me a new perspective on the fintech ecosystem.
Do you have any productivity hacks?
I’m a huge fan of early mornings to give myself time to reset before the day starts. It helps keep me organized and sane before my meetings start. I also have a weekly to-do list that I separate out into daily action items so I feel a sense of accomplishment when I get the few most pressing items done on my list every day.
Daily Diary
Tuesday
7:30am: I like to start my mornings off with coffee and reading up on news.
8:00am: Start catching up on emails from the day before. I read up on decks before calls for the day, send emails to schedule meetings, and follow up with specific data requests for companies we’re chatting with.
10:00am: Calls with founders.
1:00pm: Take a quick break and whip up something for lunch – currently getting a lot of salad inspiration from Tiktok so I try out a new dressing recipe from Baked by Melissa.
1:30pm: More calls.
4:00pm: Start running through materials from companies we’re in the midst of chatting with. We have a fairly standard metrics exercise as part of our diligence so make note of anything we may be missing or need clarification on.
6:30pm: Pilates class – I try to take class at least 3 times a week if possible. I picked up Pilates during COVID and have been a huge fan since.
8:00pm: Dinner – usually something quick or I order in. I’m a big fan of Cava lately.
9:00pm: Catch up on more emails and materials – I like catching up on things before bed because I don’t have calls or any distractions. I also catch up on messages and work for Women in Fintech (scheduling events, figuring out logistics, etc.)
11:00pm: Read a few chapters from whatever book is currently on my Kindle, which I just bought and love!! I just finished Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou.
Sunday
9:30am: I try to take a Pilates class early on weekends to keep me from sleeping in too much. I like to grab coffee and a chocolate croissant afterwards before walking back to my apartment.
11:00am: Shower and get ready for the day.
12:00pm: Grab lunch with a friend (I’ve been trying out new spots around me since I just moved to NYC a few months ago.)
2:00pm: Run errands and grocery shop at Trader Joe’s and Whole Food for the upcoming week.
5:00pm: Start prepping again for work for the upcoming week. More calls, emails, and materials + deck review.
7:00pm: Prep dinner – I’m into one-sheet pans so prep is easy – and watch reruns of New Girl while doing it.
10:00pm: Read and veg around the rest of the night catching up on work and reading.