ABOUT
Dakotah Jennifer
Everything in the Studio comes from someone who actually runs businesses — the brand side and the money side. Here's the case.
Business isn't hard. It's gatekept.
I've been a business owner and contractor for six years. I've founded five ventures under my own LLC, including one with a registered trademark. I hold two C-suite titles at a real estate development firm — one for the brand, one for the business itself — which means I personally run payroll, banking relationships, loan and financing packages, financial modeling, contracts, proposals, and the creative direction on top of it. I lead an award-winning social capital platform and run its grant process end to end. And I've been published since I was thirteen: six books, thirty-plus pieces, and an MFA from Columbia.
Setting up an entity, pricing your work, signing the right contracts, moving money through the right accounts, winning RFPs — I've done every one of these things for real, repeatedly, with my own businesses and at executive level for someone else's. None of it is hard. It's just kept behind expensive doors. That's what qualifies me to open them.
What I've done
I started my first business in 2020, as a full-time student — and it earned a registered trademark. In 2024 I founded DakJen Creative LLC, which now holds five ventures: a lease-up marketing practice, a platform for women founders, a travel brand, and equity stakes in a tech company and a furniture procurement firm. Six years as a business owner. Six years as a contractor. Every entity setup, every contract, every pricing decision, every hire in those companies was mine to get right.
At the same time, I climbed from freelancer to a double C-suite seat inside a real estate development firm — six roles, four promotions, and I now hold two titles at once: Chief Creative Officer and Chief of Business Infrastructure. That combination is the point. On one desk: brand voice, creative direction, proposals, and qualifications packages. On the other: payroll, corporate accounts and banking relationships, loan and financing packages, pro forma modeling, and financial statement review. I also lead an award-winning social capital platform — setting strategy, managing the team, and running its grant process end to end. I'm a writer by training on top of it: published since I was thirteen, six books, thirty-plus pieces, an MFA from Columbia.