Joann Jen
Director

Joann Jen is a growth and customer experience executive with more than 20 years of experience across global restaurant brands, enterprise consulting, and venture-backed platforms. She advises companies across restaurant and commerce technology, with work at the intersection of brand, customer behavior, technology, and economics.

​

Most recently, Joann served as Chief Marketing Officer at inKind, where she built the company’s growth organization and scaled the platform past 1 million users and $150 million in annual revenue run rate, tripling revenue and expanding the restaurant network to more than 1,500 locations. She positioned inKind as a new model in hospitality finance, with more than $160 million deployed to restaurants and recognition from the Financial Times and Fast Company.

Prior to inKind, Joann was Global Head of Customer Experience at Restaurant Brands International, where she was part of the early team shaping the digital roadmap across Burger King, Tim Hortons, and Popeyes. She brought Mobile Order and Pay to market, launching it at Burger King through the Whopper Detour—one of the most awarded campaigns in QSR history—which drove the app to #1 in the App Store and more than 1.5 million downloads during its launch period. At Tim Hortons, she digitized the in-store experience and scaled Mobile Order and Pay to the top of the App Store.

Earlier in her career, Joann was a Director at PwC, where she built the firm’s personalization and CRM practice and advised Fortune 500 companies on customer strategy.

Joann is the founder of Topi Ventures and the creator of Topi Topics, a live series that brings together chefs, operators, technologists, and investors across food and hospitality. Outside of work, she is at the pottery wheel or hunting for restaurants that don’t show up on any list.

​

Joann earned dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Business Administration and Political Science from the University of Washington.