Jude's own path into this space is a neat case study in the thing the podcast keeps circling back to: she didn't set out to found a company. She was approached by an entrepreneur — a family member, as it happens — who'd had the idea for a platform connecting early-stage founders with talent willing to work for equity, but hadn't managed to build it himself. He recognised her technical and marketing background as a fit, brought her in as a sweat equity partner, and over time she moved from contributor to the person now leading the company.
Even she didn't know the term \"sweat equity\" when she started — she understood the mechanics (contribute work, own a share) long before she'd heard it given a label. Her sense is that the phrase is still mostly tech-startup vocabulary, gradually leaking into other industries.