Meet Jerlisa Juju” Fontaine | Founder & CEO of Hue Capital”

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jerlisa “Juju” Fontaine and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jerlisa “Juju”, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
During college (2014-2018), I was heavily involved with student organizations that promoted the social, cultural, and professional success of fellow students. These organizations included NAACP, Minority Association of Pre-Medical/Pre-Health Students (MAPS), Residential Life, and Student Government. The organization that allowed me the opportunity to make the most impact was serving as the President & CEO of our Student Government. I say CEO because many people perceived our student government as a club but it was actually a 501(c3) non-profit organization with a nearly $3 million dollar budget dedicated to designing programming and policies that impacted 14,000+ student and 250+ student organizations.

In that role, I was able to lead initiatives that would impact our students’s lives from many angles, but most importantly in terms of career opportunities. One of my proudest creations was a monthly event series called Scholar Series which focused on bringing a community of students, faculty and alumni professionals together who are passionate about a specific industry, all in hopes that students would find mentorship and job opportunities. For example, one month would be Scholar series for finance professionals while another month may be for health professionals. We received amazing feedback from this event series.

When I graduated college and started my first full-time job, I actually felt useless. It was my first time in a long time where I genuinely just wasn’t apart of anything and was only making impact through my job. That wasn’t enough for me. For that reason, in 2018, I started a company called MilleniVision which was a career platform catered to helping professionals land jobs and expand their network. Inspired by the amount of impact I made on students in college through Student Government, I knew that I could leverage those skills and use them for real-world impact. In 2021, I had shut down the company due to limitations on in-person events due to COVID and just honestly felt that I needed a better vision for the company. Fast forward to 2023, Hue Capital is my second rodeo and second shot at truly leveraging media and technology to improve the future of rising business & tech leaders, as well as, founders. We now have a clear vision on how we may leverage digital media through online content, and in the future, software, to help professionals, founders and community leaders thrive.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
By profession, I’m a product manager with experience working on web, app and software products. Working in tech has awarded me the opportunity to:

(1) improve the way health insurance members engage with customer management software/phone systems
(2) engage pre-diabetics in diabetes prevention programs via SMS
(3) reduce antibiotic prescribing in acute respiratory infections via EHR software (Epic).

I have worked in healthcare for 10+ years and formerly served in other roles including project management, sales & campaign, account management, program management, and UX Research. All of these roles have awarded me the opportunity to cater to patients and their providers with hopes of improving the healthcare industry.

In addition to that, I create content and participate in speaking engagements regarding career pivoting into business & tech roles, community building, startups, and life advice (11K+ combined followers).

There is nothing easy about my career journey. Despite mainly working in healthcare, I have pivoted into numerous roles in the industry. Every opportunity I have ever received has been something I networked my a** off for and had to really lean into my communication skills so that those hiring me would trust that I am perfect for the role. Throughout this process of career pivoting, I have learned that it is very important to be able to communicate your personal and professional story while also tracking your impact via any job, organization, etc that you have ever been apart of.

If there is one thing that I am proud of, is my ability to never take NO as a final answer to anything. “Rejection is a form of redirection” is a line that truly resonates with me. Anything that I put my mind to, I go for, full throttle.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I am Bronx, NY born and raised and loveeeeee NYC. People often ask me if I would ever leave NY, and to be honest, I have a hard time believing I would. If a friend came to New York to visit me, specifically the Bronx, here is where I would take them.

Food: Zona De Cuba, Beatsro, Soyo Gastro Fusion, Goldstar, City Island, Bronx Brewery, Little Italy
Fun/Hangout: To be honest, as much as I love my borough, there isn’t many “fun” establishments I can think of. For turn up in the Bronx, I mainly go to events curated by Moments Like This (IG: @mlt_series). They throw the best brunches and parties in the Bronx.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to shoutout my amazing Hue Capital team. I have been extremely fortune to attract the right team of creatives and technologists whom have mad significant impact in my business. Since onboarding this team: (1) our social media engagement has increased significantly amounting to 150,000+ impressions on IG (2) we have a website designed extremely well both aesthetically and functionally which has drawn in ~3,000 unique visitors in less than a month with minimal website marketing (3) we have insightful career, business, and wellness content curated by myself and other contributors (4) created events that have impacted 1,000 people.

Core Team:

– Magic Washington (Also happens to be my best friend)
– Amy Zhang
– Nicole Perez
– Kojo Dadzie
– Travis Carter
– Michael A
– Aloaye Tisor

Contributing Team:
– Geraldin Noemis Diaz
– Malcolm Paul
– Devin Morales
– Jared “Red” Young

Media Partners
– Emptage Media
– Stacks Photography

Website: www.huecapital.co

Instagram: jujufontaine_

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerlisafontaine/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa69jtxXFFFRa2C1iiDr22Q

Other: Hue Capital’s IG: @huecapitalco Hue Capital’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hue-capital-community/