I couldn’t be happier to share that Heather Widman is now a partner here at Building Ventures. Having worked with Heather at two prior portfolio companies before recruiting her to leave the operating side and join Building Ventures in early 2019, I knew firsthand the impact she would have. Heather has been instrumental in our investment process, our portfolio leadership relationships, and our growth as a firm. As early stage team builders, Jesse Devitte and I appreciated the criticality of adding the right first principal to our team. We knew we wanted someone dedicated to our mission who would be generous in mentoring our portfolio leaders, sharp in observing the investment landscape, and, knowing we’d be sharing the same small office in Boston, enjoyable to work closely with. We got all that and more when Heather joined.
Our founders love Heather’s dedication to furthering their missions (as much as our own) and her thoughtful guidance from her significant operational experience—especially the reminders to consider the customer early and often. Before joining Building Ventures, Heather spent more than 15 years working across the tech sector in roles covering product management, marketing, customer experience, and sales. “Working with Heather has made a big difference,” shares Federico Negro, co-founder and CEO of Canoa, the platform for designing low-carbon workplaces that just recently announced its $8.7 million seed round. “From pre-product days where our offering and our value proposition were less clear and sometimes it was hard to see the forest through the trees, to our current stage where we have a product and revenue, and we’re starting to scale, Heather has been a steady hand of support.” With her deep operational experience and her passion for building companies, Heather has been able to serve as an invaluable resource for our portfolio companies as the teams consider key hires, identify product-market fit, and prepare their go-to-market strategies, and more.
Heather approaches our firm with the same passion for building. When she joined, in addition to her investing responsibilities, Heather took charge of our branding and marketing strategy, including overseeing a complete overhaul to create our new website and our BVIN summits in San Francisco and Brooklyn. Last year, she led the charge in bringing on a head of marketing, and we know this won’t be the most recent addition to our team for long. Just as Heather champions our portfolio companies, she encourages all of us at Building Ventures to think strategically about the future of the firm, the impact we strive to have with our founders, and the ultimate better built world we hope to create.
Heather’s dedication to driving innovation in the built environment extends beyond our team and our portfolio. She is actively involved with larger communities in construction tech and proptech, including CREtech, BuiltWorlds, Blueprint, as well as specialized industry groups like the smart buildings community Nexus Labs run by James Dice, and the Real Innovation Academy run by Dror Poleg and Antony Slumbers. Heather also serves as an advisory board member for Women in PropTech, a collective committed to innovation in real estate, and is an active member of both the national and Boston chapters of All Raise, an organization dedicated to empowering female and non-binary startup founders and venture capitalists.
Heather Widman, far right, moderating a panel at CREtech San Diego in March 2022 with BV LPs, from right to left, McCarthy’s Dave Burns, HITT Contracting’s Megan Lantz, and JE Dunn’s John Jacobs.
Heather’s commitment to mentoring our portfolio companies, supporting innovation in the built environment, and fostering diversity in our industry speaks to our mission here at Building Ventures. Even more so, it demonstrates that Heather is not only an outstanding investor, but also an exceptional person. The path to a better built world is dependent upon people who will relentlessly pursue it with optimism, humility, and resourcefulness. Heather deeply embodies these qualities and so much more. Our industry and our portfolio companies are lucky to have her as a passionate advocate for improving our built environment, and our team is lucky to have Heather as a partner on this journey, particularly as we look toward the future of Building Ventures.
If you’re a founder working to improve the way we design, build, operate, or experience our built world, get in touch with Heather and the team here. You can also follow Heather on Twitter and on LinkedIn.
