Jen Lee Koss: From Musician to BRIKA Co-Founder

Jen Lee Koss built a career that refuses to fit into a single box. Trained as a classical musician at world-class institutions, educated at Harvard and Oxford, and seasoned in consulting, investment banking, and private equity, she ultimately co-founded BRIKA, a retail company dedicated to curated, design-driven products and the makers behind them. Her story offers a roadmap for professionals who want to blend creativity, strategy, and purpose into a single, evolving career.

1. Early Passions: Music, Curiosity, and Discipline

Long before she was negotiating deals or analyzing financial models, Jen was immersed in music. She trained seriously as a cellist, eventually studying at prestigious institutions including Juilliard and later earning degrees from Harvard University and Oxford University. This musical foundation did more than hone her technical skills; it shaped how she works and leads.

Key traits that music cultivated in her include:

• Discipline – Years of structured practice built a strong work ethic and comfort with long-term effort toward distant goals.
• Performance under pressure – Playing on stage prepared her to present, pitch, and make decisions in high-stakes environments.
• Attention to detail – Precision in tone and timing translated into rigor in analysis, operations, and hiring.
• Collaboration – Ensemble work taught her to listen to others, adjust, and balance individual and group performance.

Research on arts education supports this kind of transfer. Studies indicate that intensive music training is associated with improvements in attention, executive function, and perseverance—skills that are highly relevant for entrepreneurship and leadership.

2. An Unconventional Academic Path

Jen did not follow a linear academic track aimed directly at business. She studied music and anthropology as an undergraduate at Harvard, then pursued musicology and performance at Oxford before attending Harvard Business School. What looks eclectic from the outside turns out to be highly complementary.

Her academic journey helped her develop:

• Analytical depth – Anthropology sharpened her ability to observe culture, communities, and consumer behavior from multiple angles.
• Cultural fluency – Time in different countries and institutions exposed her to diverse perspectives and markets.
• Intellectual stamina – Admission to, and success in, highly selective programs demanded focus, resilience, and self-direction.

While there is no single “right” degree for entrepreneurship, research from the Kauffman Foundation notes that entrepreneurs often leverage varied educational backgrounds, with liberal arts and humanities providing advantages in communication, adaptability, and problem framing.

3. Corporate Training Ground: Consulting, Banking, and Private Equity

Before launching BRIKA, Jen spent about a decade in the corporate world, working in management consulting, investment banking, and private equity, often within the consumer and retail sectors. This phase supplied the structure and technical skills she later applied to her own venture.

Her corporate experience exposed her to:

• Rigorous financial thinking – In banking and private equity, she learned valuation, capital allocation, and investment decision-making.
• Strategic problem-solving – Consulting roles trained her to break down ambiguous problems, synthesize data, and recommend actionable strategies.
• Exposure to high-performing teams – Working with seasoned professionals gave her a benchmark for talent, standards, and execution.
• Deep familiarity with consumers and retail – Many of her assignments focused on retail and consumer goods, giving her insight into how brands win and lose in crowded markets.

4. The Spark: Meeting a Co-Founder and Seeing a Gap

The turning point came when Jen met fashion blogger and retail professional Kena Paranjape in Toronto. What began as a simple coffee conversation evolved into a recurring meeting where they traded ideas, assignments, and reflections on their careers and passions.

Through these conversations, several themes emerged:

• They were inspired by independent makers, artisans, and designers who produced beautiful, meaningful goods.
• They noticed a lack of retail experiences that combined discovery, storytelling, and community around these makers.
• They both wanted careers that felt aligned with their values, not just their résumés.

From that insight, the concept of BRIKA was born: an online (and eventually offline) platform that curates high-quality goods from artisans and small brands, emphasizing narrative and craftsmanship.

5. Building BRIKA: From Idea to Brand

Jen and Kena did not simply launch a generic e-commerce site; they were intentional about brand, experience, and community from day one. BRIKA’s mission centered on celebrating makers and helping customers discover products with a story.

5.1 Early Strategic Choices

In the early stages, they faced classic startup questions: what to build first, where to invest limited funds, and how to divide responsibilities. One of their earliest and most significant investments was in branding. They worked with an established creative agency led by a well-known branding expert to define BRIKA’s visual identity and voice.

This strategic move helped them:

• Communicate clearly to both makers and customers what BRIKA stood for.
• Differentiate from generic marketplaces focused only on price or scale.
• Create a cohesive foundation for both digital and physical experiences.

5.2 Dividing and Leveraging Complementary Strengths

Jen and Kena organized their roles to match their skill sets rather than trying to do everything together. Jen led operations, finance, and business development, drawing on her consulting and finance background. Kena led merchandising and maker relationships, drawing on her retail and creative experience.

They made major strategic and brand decisions jointly while “dividing and conquering” the daily work. This type of complementary partnership is consistent with research on startup teams, which finds that ventures with diverse but aligned founders tend to perform better than those with overlapping backgrounds alone.

6. Beyond E-Commerce: Experiences, Community, and Impact

BRIKA evolved from an online store into a broader platform focused on curated retail experiences, pop-ups, and collaborations with larger brands. The company sought to offer something that big-box and mass marketplaces could not: a feeling of connection to the people behind the products.

Core elements of BRIKA’s approach included:

• Story-driven merchandising – Highlighting the maker’s journey, design process, and values alongside the product itself.
• Curated quality – Selecting products based on design, craftsmanship, and alignment with the brand, rather than maximizing volume alone.
• Collaborative retail – Partnering with other organizations and spaces to bring curated experiences to new audiences.

From a broader economic perspective, supporting artisans and small businesses is aligned with research showing that small and medium enterprises contribute significantly to employment and innovation in many economies, particularly when they tap into niche markets and unique design capabilities.

7. Evolving the Career: Investor, Advisor, and Advocate

BRIKA was not the endpoint of Jen’s journey. Alongside her work with the company, she became an active investor and advisor in the consumer space, working closely with founders and early-stage brands. She co-founded Springbank Collective, a group that invests in companies building infrastructure for working families and a more inclusive economy.

This shift reflects a natural progression:

• From operator to operator-investor.
• From building one company to supporting many through capital, strategy, and connections.
• From focusing solely on retail to engaging with the future of work and care, especially for women and families.

Her experience is consistent with a broader trend of serial entrepreneurs and founders becoming angel investors and ecosystem builders, particularly in sectors where lived operational experience adds significant value to early-stage companies.

8. Lessons for Aspiring Multi-Hyphenate Entrepreneurs

Jen’s path offers practical takeaways for professionals who want to integrate creativity, business, and social impact in their careers.

8.1 Your Background Does Not Have to Be Linear

Music, anthropology, finance, and entrepreneurship might look disconnected on paper, but together they prepared her to build a differentiated brand in a crowded retail landscape. A broad skill set can be an asset when building a company that blends art, commerce, and community.

8.2 Co-Founders Should Share Values, Not Skill Sets

Jen and Kena’s partnership worked because they shared a vision while bringing distinct strengths. When seeking collaborators:

• Align on mission and values.
• Seek complementary expertise instead of duplicates.
• Establish clear, evolving ownership of key domains (e.g., product, operations, finance).

8.3 Invest in Brand Early

BRIKA’s early focus on branding allowed it to stand out and communicate clearly to its community. For consumer-facing businesses, a strong brand is not cosmetic; it is strategic infrastructure that shapes everything from merchandising to partnerships.

8.4 Think in Chapters, Not One Final Destination

Jen’s career continues to evolve—musician, student, consultant, banker, founder, investor, and advocate. Viewing your career as a series of chapters can make it easier to take calculated risks, pivot when necessary, and stay open to new forms of impact.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1: What is BRIKA and what makes it different from other retailers?

BRIKA is a company that curates products from artisans, designers, and small brands, with a focus on quality, design, and storytelling. Unlike large mass marketplaces, it emphasizes the narratives of the makers, offering a more personal and discovery-driven shopping experience.

Q2: How did Jen’s music background influence her business career?

Her years of musical training built discipline, resilience, and comfort performing under pressure—traits that translate directly into pitching investors, managing teams, and making strategic decisions. It also shaped her appreciation for craft, which is central to BRIKA’s focus on artisans and designers.

Q3: Why did Jen move from corporate roles into entrepreneurship?

After a decade in consulting, banking, and private equity, Jen wanted to build something more personally meaningful in the consumer and retail space. Her conversations with co-founder Kena highlighted a gap in the market for curated, story-rich retail centered on makers, which inspired the creation of BRIKA.

Q4: What advice from Jen’s journey is most useful for someone changing careers?

Her path shows that you do not need a straight-line résumé to start a company. Skills from seemingly unrelated domains—like music or anthropology—can become a competitive advantage when combined with business training and real-world experience. Building relationships, finding complementary partners, and being intentional about brand and mission are also key themes in her story.

Q5: What is Springbank Collective and how does it relate to Jen’s work?

Springbank Collective is an investment platform that focuses on early-stage companies reinventing work and building infrastructure for working families, with an emphasis on women’s economic opportunity. Jen’s involvement reflects her broader commitment to supporting founders and creating systemic change beyond a single company.

Written by

Medha Deb

Medha Deb is an editor with a master's degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Hyderabad. She believes that her qualification has helped her develop a deep understanding of language and its application in various contexts. Medha specializes in the areas of beauty, health, sports, and wellness and is committed to ensuring that the content on the website is…