Mekishana Pierre: How did you first get into the entrepreneurial business?
Karen Okonkwo: The entrepreneurial bug bit me in 2012. A year prior, I moved to Seattle via California to work in medical sales. I was getting really into my job, but I [felt] like I didn't really have a friendship circle here. Your social life is handed to you in college, so when you move, it's going to be hard for you to make friends. I decided to start a meetup group on Meetup.com to find other women — especially other African-American women — and [started throwing] events all the time. Women would ask me to plan their birthday parties, bridal showers, etc. So I was doing that on the side, and one of my friends was like, "You're so good at this — why don't you turn this into an actual business?"
My first business was Party With a K, in 2012. From there, I [started] The Sorority Secrets, which was a resource for women [on college campuses] looking for beauty, health, wellness, and fashion. That segued into Her Big Day, a site for brides looking to infuse their culture into their wedding, and Building Bridges Brunches, a women's empowerment brunch meant to encourage women to realize their vision in life. And now here we are with TONL!
![Mekishana Pierre: How did you first get into the entrepreneurial business?
Karen Okonkwo: The entrepreneurial bug bit me in 2012. A year prior, I moved to Seattle via California to work in medical sales. I was getting really into my job, but I [felt] like I didn't really have a friendship circle here. Your social life is handed to you in college, so when you move, it's going to be hard for you to make friends. I decided to start a meetup group on Meetup.com to find other women — especially other African-American women — and [started throwing] events all the time. Women would ask me to plan their birthday parties, bridal showers, etc. So I was doing that on the side, and one of my friends was like, "You're so good at this — why don't you turn this into an actual business?"
My first business was Party With a K, in 2012. From there, I [started] The Sorority Secrets, which was a resource for women [on college campuses] looking for beauty, health, wellness, and fashion. That segued into Her Big Day, a site for brides looking to infuse their culture into their wedding, and Building Bridges Brunches, a women's empowerment brunch meant to encourage women to realize their vision in life. And now here we are with TONL!](https://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/thumbor/CdnTYH9DjVEdzeLM7OUOvIUfAg8/fit-in/1024x1024/filters:format_auto-!!-:strip_icc-!!-/2018/01/19/995/n/42301552/netimgKPg64E/i/Mekishana-Pierre-How-did-you-first-get-entrepreneurial.jpg "Mekishana Pierre: How did you first get into the entrepreneurial business?
Karen Okonkwo: The entrepreneurial bug bit me in 2012. A year prior, I moved to Seattle via California to work in medical sales. I was getting really into my job, but I [felt] like I didn't really have a friendship circle here. Your social life is handed to you in college, so when you move, it's going to be hard for you to make friends. I decided to start a meetup group on Meetup.com to find other women — especially other African-American women — and [started throwing] events all the time. Women would ask me to plan their birthday parties, bridal showers, etc. So I was doing that on the side, and one of my friends was like, \"You're so good at this — why don't you turn this into an actual business?\"
My first business was Party With a K, in 2012. From there, I [started] The Sorority Secrets, which was a resource for women [on college campuses] looking for beauty, health, wellness, and fashion. That segued into Her Big Day, a site for brides looking to infuse their culture into their wedding, and Building Bridges Brunches, a women's empowerment brunch meant to encourage women to realize their vision in life. And now here we are with TONL!")
