Kat Kennedy grew up on a cattle ranch in rural Utah where her father held his daughters to the same work standards as his son, and later became employee No. 1 at Degreed, holding six different roles from software developer to President & CXO as the company grew to unicorn status. She emphasizes "empathy earned by experience" as her investing edge, having personally lived through every stage of company building and fundraising, and now champions underrepresented founders in the Mountain West while maintaining deep regional roots through her entire Utah tech career.