speaker photo

Jonathan Lowenhar (He/him)

Founder and Managing Partner, Enjoy the Work

Throughout his nearly 30 year career, Jonathan Lowenhar successfully led a $1B business segment for a large public company, guided the turnaround of a distressed $100M+ revenue business, launched and sold a venture-backed startup, and led another startup to global scale.

Those very different endeavors led Jonathan to obsess over a single question, “how does a founder become a great CEO?” He interviewed hundreds of founders and investors seeking clarity to that question. And when no good answer presented itself, Jonathan teamed up with a group of exceptional former founders, operators and investors to create his own solution.

Since 2015, Jonathan has led Enjoy The Work, a firm that has guided nearly 200 startup CEOs representing more than $13B of enterprise value.

Sessions

Startupfest

Who’s Betting on Who? The Risky Disconnect Between Founders and VCs

July 9, 20253:30 PM EDT – 4:00 PM EDT
PORT STAGE
English
Venture capitalists bet on power laws—but should founders? Investors court founders but answer to LPs. Founders court investors but answer to their own vision. This talk unpacks how VCs view founders, how founders view VCs, and why the gap between them is risky. A little more empathy on both sides could lead to far better outcomes (and far less conflict) for everyone involved. See More.
Startupfest

Enjoy The Work Sales School

July 10, 202510:00 AM EDT – 12:00 PM EDT
CITY STAGE
English
It's all about the revenue - from storytelling to founder selling to building a repeatable machine. Two hours. Zero fluff. Join the partners of Enjoy The Work for a tactical deep dive into what it really takes to go to market. You'll learn how to tell a story that moves people, how to sell as a founder (and why no one else should do it first), and how to build systems that turn early traction into repeatable growth. These are the same lessons time tested across the nearly 200 venture-backed startups we've supported over the last decade. See More.