Jim Jonassen

Founder, JJ&A Venture Search

Jim founded Jim Jonassen & Assoc. Venture Search in late 2006. Prior to JJ&A, Jim built two executive search firms and two successful software companies. Jim founded software company Micro J Systems in ’87 where he still serves as Chairman, and he co-founded PeopleMover in ’97, merging it with Opus360 just prior to its IPO in 2000. Jim co-founded two other search firms, Palo Alto based Riviera Partners in ’01 and The Larkin Group in ’93. Working with then Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan, Jim co-founded the Digital Coast Roundtable and launched LAwNMoweR – the Los Angeles New Media Roundtable in the mid ’90s. He was also a talent scout for America Online’s AOL Greenhouse incubator and venture fund. Accolades include being named the 1999 Software Entrepreneur of the Year by the Software Council of Southern California. In addition, he was named three-times to the “Top 25 People in High Technology” by the Los Angeles Business Journal. Jim is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana. He is a member of the Board of the Santa Monica Boy’s & Girl’s Club and has been a Big Brother since ’92.

Articles by Jim Jonassen

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,...