Meg Brigman: Empowering Innovation by Enabling Entrepreneurs

Surrounded by passionate entrepreneurs, Rice University alumna Meg Brigman (B.A. ’18) is inspired to creatively communicate problems and disruptive solutions. Her role as the Director of Portfolio Success at ATX Venture Partners requires her to demonstrate the impact of software capable of revolutionizing entire industries to a wide variety of stakeholders.

Her passion for identifying problems and engineering new solutions was revealed early in her Rice experience. The freshman design course, Engineering 120, gave her team the opportunity to develop an improved aeration system for the campus pool. In the Houston heat, the pool’s existing inefficient cooling system was not able to provide optimal water temperatures for the D1 women’s team to be practicing and performing at their best.

“As a player for the Rice club water polo team, I knew how ineffective the cooling system was” said Brigman, “Resolving an issue with a personal benefit was rewarding, but I was more excited by utilizing the engineering design process to identify a solution.”

Brigman’s team designed new aeration nozzles with better water dispersion. A few iterations later, the team utilized the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK) to weld their design and then replaced the existing nozzles at the pool.

“After that experience, I signed up for more engineering design courses and an ACTIVATE Engineering Communication class. My desire to enable others led me to purse the GLHT (Global Health Technologies) minor with an intense senior engineering capstone project.”

Design and capstone courses require students to give presentations and demonstrations, as well as submit written documentation on the team’s solutions, tests, and outcomes. These classes with real-world clients and experiences honed Brigman’s verbal, written, and visual communication skills.

Read the rest of her story on the ACTIVATE Engineering Communication Program website.

Highlights from her current role:

Brigman balances supporting entrepreneurs with enabling her team to effectively communicate successes to investors. “I ask many questions when I am getting to know a company and their mission. My role is to promote them, so I need to thoroughly understand how they solve the problem they are tackling. Metaphors can be a way of effectively summarizing business models. In venture capital, you don’t need to be an expert in everything, but you do have to be able to efficiently explain a solution.”

She watches her audience’s reaction when describing a new startup or explaining technical details. If the investor expresses confusion, Brigman will add more context or try a different approach. She starts at a basic level and dives deeper if someone has preexisting expertise or expresses interest.

“For example, Cyvatar (think cyber and avatar) – provides cybersecurity and acts as a virtual chief information security officer (CISO),” said Brigman. “Most investors understand the software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model so simply saying Cyvatar is ‘cybersecurity-as-a-service’ enables quick understanding of their recurring subscription model. Meanwhile, for potential customers, it’s better to share that Cyvatar is the easiest way for companies to quickly become secure.

Tag lines are another tool Brigman uses to simplify complex problems and solutions. “Our company Reflex has the tag line ‘a better way to work in retail’. This helps both brands and retail associates understand their on-demand marketplace in an easy way.”

“Our founders have incredible software, marketplaces, and products in complex industries. Communication to both investors and customers should give context about where the industry was prior to this solution and focus on the benefits provided by the novel technology. I hope to continue to empower entrepreneurs because I believe they have the best chance to positively impact our world.”