Kelly O’Malley

Tell us about your background: What do you do now, where did you get your start?

I am the City Fellow at the Vinetta Project, where I help match female founders of startups to investment capital. Prior the tech world, I worked in entertainment as a film & television development executive.

How do you believe you use your strengths in the context of your work?

More than 50% of my job is networking and my greatest strength from the assessment is relationships.

Detail a day in your life — from wake to sleep.

I wake up, workout, drink coffee, some mix of meetings / emails / events / calls and either a lot of running around DC or having people come meet me at my office in Shaw. I try to read the paper while I’m eating lunch to give myself a bit of downtime. Then usually a networking or work event in the evening and once I get home, I try to read until I fall asleep.

Why did you join/start your current company?

I was affiliated with Vinetta as a founder. Last year, I applied to pitch the showcase events and attended some of their workshops. When the opportunity came up to join the team full-time, it just made a lot of sense for a lot of reasons.

What has been an unexpected challenge along the way?

I didn’t realize how much work went on behind the scenes until I was doing the job. This organization is incredibly high-touch when it comes to building relationships and I didn’t realize how much of my day a lot of little things would take up.

Who or what motivates you?

The founders we work with motivate me. I genuinely like meeting new people and hearing their stories. When I meet someone who is incredibly passionate about a product or industry that I know nothing about, I love to learn from them, but also figure out how I can help them get from point A to point B.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

You can’t do everything.

Was there a moment in your life where you decided to change paths/pivot? If so, what was it?

There have been a few, but moving out of entertainment was probably the most impactful. I don’t remember the exact moment, but I know that I had felt unfulfilled for a while and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. What I’ve realized about myself since that time is that I don’t like being reactionary – I want to spend time working on things I believe in and have a strategy in place around what I’m doing. The entertainment industry as a whole right now is very reactionary, it’s all about what everyone else is doing and how you can find the next version of something that’s already been successful – that’s not exciting to me and I think it’s why I like tech so much. People coming up with new ideas to change the status quo, that’s inherently exciting.

What is one word that describes your leadership style?

Grateful.

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The Women in Tech campaign exists to help redefine what women in technology means in the 21st century. Started independently by a group of professional women who, after many impassioned discussions about women in tech knew we wanted to expand this definition beyond ‘traditional’ technology skills. To us, it includes most every current, emerging or evolving role within an organization. By featuring leaders and emerging leaders across industries who embody this we hope to collectively ‘stand up’, be proud of our place in the digital world and inspire young women or those new to the ‘tech space’ to get involved.

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