Lisa S. Jones

Early career at NASA and AT&T

Lisa S. Jones is from Montgomery, Alabama, and began her career at NASA as a logistics specialist^[5]. After a few years she moved to Atlanta to work in telecommunications at BellSouth Mobility, now part of AT&T^[5]. There she worked with architecture project teams and later moved into supplier diversity, where she worked with women-owned and minority-owned businesses on contract opportunities^[5]. In a 2021 interview she said the spread of BlackBerry phones during that period was when she first became interested in email^[5].

She holds an MBA from Alabama A&M University and an executive degree from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth^[2].

Founding EyeMail

Jones founded EyeMail Inc. in Atlanta in 2004 and is its Founder and Chief EyeMail Officer^[3]. In early 2004 she signed up for about 150 marketing emails to study them, and found that they all relied on static images or links that had to be clicked^[2]. She set out to build email in which video plays instantly inside the message^[2]. She has said she is not a developer or coder, and that her strength is planning and managing technical teams^[5].

Hypepotamus reported in 2018 that several US development agencies turned her down, so she built an international team, with coding done in India and Pakistan and video compression in Hong Kong and the Philippines^[6]. To test the product, she offered a free campaign to the Greater Women's Business Council in Georgia, sent to its 700 members and board^[6]. According to Jones, Time Warner asked about the technology after seeing that campaign and became EyeMail's first client^[6]. Hypepotamus listed Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines and Major League Baseball among later clients, and reported that the company had been self-funded up to that point^[6].

The technology and Microsoft partnership

EyeMail's patent-pending technology compresses 4K video to about 15 kilobytes so that it plays automatically inside an email^[3]. The company's site says it delivers up to 60 seconds of instant-play video in the inbox and works across major email clients^[1]. In 2021 Jones described closed captioning on EyeMail campaigns as a growing trend that makes the videos accessible to more viewers^[5].

Jones has worked with Microsoft since soon after launching the company, starting at a Microsoft conference on women in technology^[3]. EyeMail later received support from the Microsoft Technology Center through a supplier diversity initiative that mentored technology startups in Atlanta^[3]. After Microsoft announced its Racial Equity Initiative in 2020, a Microsoft procurement manager contacted Jones, and EyeMail integrated video into email marketing for the Windows 11 launch in 2021^[4]. Microsoft reported in 2023 that EyeMail had grown 71% in two years and was on the Inc. list of fast-growing small companies in the US Southeast for 2023^[3]. The same case study said the company had cut the time to deliver managed services projects by 40% after adopting Microsoft 365^[3].

Recognition and community work

Hypepotamus reported in 2018 that EyeMail had won Delta's Catalyst of the Year at the airline's Star Awards for diverse suppliers^[6]. EyeMail's site also lists a Stevie Award for Innovator of the Year^[2]. Jones has spoken at the Billion Dollar Roundtable, an invitation-only gathering of companies committed to supplier diversity, and was a speaker at the MailCon email conference in January 2022^[6][5].

Her company biography states that she sits on the Technology Association of Georgia's diversity and inclusion board and volunteers with the local chapter of the Women in Technology Association^[2]. Microsoft reported in 2023 that she and her staff mentor high school and college students^[4].

Known for

• Founding EyeMail Inc. in 2004
• Instant-play video inside email
• Video in email for Microsoft's Windows 11 launch
• Supplier diversity work at AT&T

Sources

1. EyeMail Inc.: homepage — checked 6 Nov 2026
2. EyeMail Inc.: Our Story — checked 6 Nov 2026
3. Microsoft Customer Stories: EyeMail brings innovation to email marketing, grows 71 percent in two years with Microsoft 365, June 2023 — checked 6 Nov 2026
4. Microsoft Source: How Black-owned companies are using corporate connections to give back, June 2023 — checked 6 Nov 2026
5. MailCon: EyeMail CEO Lisa Jones Discusses the Future of Email Marketing, October 2021 — checked 6 Nov 2026
6. Hypepotamus: How This Founder Got Execs At Delta, Coca-Cola and More to Notice Her Email Marketing Product, May 2018 — checked 6 Nov 2026