Jon Blackwell

CPO, SoLo Funds

Jon has dedicated his life towards helping entrepreneurs across the globe. He started out at Silicon Valley Bank working with early stage technology startups but his passion quickly lead him to leave banking behind and move to Kenya where he worked in microfinance. After returning to the US, he co-founded Tala, a mobile credit scoring and lending company. He’s spent 7 years as Chief Product Officer where he lead all product development, strategic partnerships, and expanding the business throughout Eastern Africa, Latin America, and Asia. He then continued his work with entrepreneurs by mentoring founders through Social Venture Partners, a non-profit accelerator. He is currently the CPO at SoLo Funds (Techstars ’18). Jon holds a MPP from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in Economics from Virginia Tech.

Articles by Jon Blackwell

How Shaun Merritt Vibe-Coded Karrot.ai As A Solo Builder

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Shaun Merritt, cofounder and CTO of Karrot.ai, a LinkedIn ABM tool. Shaun was kind enough to share a comprehensive breakdown of how...

7 Steps to Build a Product That Sells Itself

Learn the 7 steps to product-led growth (PLG) to build a product that sells itself. Drive activation, boost conversions, and scale efficiently with Wes Bush from ProductLed....

The Founder’s Mental Health Playbook: What I Learned After Nearly Burning Out

A hard-won guide to staying mentally healthy while building a startup I founded Stitcher, the podcast platform, in 2007 and ran it for seven years until we sold in 2014....

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for Early Stage Companies

In our latest session from the Mucker Growth Series featuring Ethan Smith from Graphite, we explored AEO, a significant new approach for optimizing visibility in AI-driven search, particularly relevant as...

Startup Guide to AI Visibility: Be the Brand ChatGPT Recommends

Introduction Today, users aren’t just searching on Google. They’re asking ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI systems for advice. AI visibility is the new frontier of brand awareness....

Practical Uses of AI & Automation for Startup Operations

In a recent Mucker Growth Series session, we invited Rock Vitale, Founder & CEO of Easie, to share how he’s helped early-stage teams move from manual, fragmented workflows to streamlined,...