Jessie Jacob has built a career around bringing people together. Named one of CMX's Best B2B Community Professionals in the world, she spent five years building Culture First, the largest global HR community. In the middle of all the serious conversations about the future of work, she kept wondering why those conversations couldn't include more laughter.

Work Is a Joke is her answer. It combines her background in community building, meeting facilitation, and event experience design with a lifelong love of comedy, creating a room where people connect over the absurdity of work instead of their job titles. A longtime member of the Kansas City startup community, Jessie debuted Work Is a Joke there in August 2026, drawing more than double its attendance goal. Now she's taking the show on the road.