Your first job out of college was working for Attention USA, where you led some of the first online word of mouth marketing campaigns for clients like BlueFly and Estee Lauder. How did you land this job?
It was truly happenstance. I found the job on Craigslist and it literally said “seeking female account executive who likes fashion and the Internet” — yes! I applied and got it!
Can you please give a brief synopsis of your career before launching (NO SUBJECT)?
I actually started out in editorial interning at Conde Nast Traveler and SELF magazine. Following, a professor of mine sent me an interesting opportunity at Time Inc Interactive — essentially, a 6 month think tank — tasked with working on bridging the divide between print publications and the online world. After that I transitioned into marketing and PR with my first job at Attention USA. After a year there I was poached by another agency (iCrossing) and was tasked with building out their social media service lines. From there I went in-house at IAC working on their shopping start up Pronto.com, and later Citysearch, which brought me to LA.
What was your vision when you started (NO SUBJECT)?
I had initially been looking into agencies in LA and (at the time) I felt like none of the agencies were catering to the fashion, beauty and lifestyle community — most were interested in entertainment. I saw a gaping hole in the market and wanted to take advantage. When I first started, I wanted to create something new and different — an agency that focused on creating interesting partnerships and campaigns through collaboration and shared ideas, not only providing services but building companies and events that brands wanted to be a part of.
How did you start (NO SUBJECT)? Give us the details!
I moved to LA for a position at Citysearch and was laid off three months later after the company decided to focus on a b2b strategy versus b2c. I was scrambling in a new city with little to no business relationships at the time. I sent an email to my contacts about freelancing and gathered a few clients, eventually I started making enough money to get an office, then enough money to hire my first employee, so on and so forth. Luckily, as a service business upfront costs are minimal — I got scrappy and built the website myself, furnished the office with Ikea, etc. I started the company out of a rad warehouse space in DTLA where I held different events connecting the fashion, tech, and influencer communities. The events started garnering attention and clients started coming to us!
