The Jane Dough: HILLARY REINSBERG

As two women who work in the business world, we're no strangers to the uneven balance of female presence in our office environments. That said, our day jobs afford us the privilege of working among many talented women who transcend these odds to achieve new levels of success. And when we're not experiencing their efforts first-hand, we're reading about them on The Jane Dough, our go-to site for coverage and commentary on women in business. The Jane Dough "celebrates women who have found success, dissects how powerful women are treated in the media and applauds forward-thinking companies," and the site's personal voice and conviction offer a unique edge to the content that is covered, all thanks to the strong team behind it: Publisher and Founder Dan Abrams, Managing Editor Amy Tennery, and Associate Editor (and our Question(NY)aire feature!) Hillary Reinsberg. Hillary has been involved with The Jane Dough since the site's conception, bringing her expert writing skills and extensive background in journalism to the team - her previous experience includes positions at Crushable, Daily Candy, NY1, and New York Magazine.

Male or female, we encourage you to check out The Jane Dough for your daily dose of business intrigue.

Lerer Ventures: STEVE SCHLAFMAN

New York City’s Silicon Alley has claimed a place among the ranks of top tech-hubs across the country such as Boston, Dallas, Seattle, and of course, its namesake and the “mothership”, Silicon Valley. While each of these start-up communities boasts its own set of advantages, Silicon Alley benefits from New York’s buzz and density people, which, in the past few years, has played into the hands of the social media phenomenon. Yet in many ways, the most important feature of any tech boom-town is the availability of funds. Enter: the venture capital firm. Steve Schlafman is a principal investor at one of these firms, Lerer Ventures, which focuses on funding companies in the “seed-stage”. That is, Lerer trudges through the weeds of all start-up hopefuls to find entrepreneurs with “product vision, consumer insight, focused execution, and unwavering ambition.” Although he is now in the position of the lender, Steve is no stranger to the experience on the other side of the table. His work experience spans from startups such as Stickybits and Turntable.fm, to more traditional environments such as The Kraft Group and Microsoft.
 

And what’s in Lerer’s portfolio these days? Just so happens they were one of the VC’s that took a stake in GroupMe (prior Q-naire feature, recently aquired by Skype), as well as other awesome hits like: Dispatch, Hipster, Yoke, and Venmo. Previous investments that have already made it big include: the Huffington Post, Paperless Post, Thrillist, and Business Insider.

iWould: JON BUDISH

Modern times have brought almost every imaginable type of human interaction to the digital world--with a host of social media devices available, communication has become nearly inextricable from the Internet. After working in customer support and account management at the site most responsible for this digital trend, Facebook, Jon Budish’s inside scoop planted an idea that given the amount of time people spend on the site “Facebook-stalking” the profiles of their romantic interests, users should be able to connect with their crushes. And so, Jon created iWould, bemoaning: “Over and over, we witnessed people not ask someone out because of the risk of embarrassment from possible rejection...So we decided to try to fix this problem. We sought out to create a safe, easy, and most importantly, private, place to help people get past the awkwardness that is finding out if someone they like, likes them back.” iWould isn’t a dating site--it’s a Facebook application, a “complement to your existing life on Facebook,” explains Jon. After all, if you are already checking out the Facebook profiles of people you like, why not find out if they are checking you out, too?
 

So if you’re itching to know if your crush likes you back, give the app a try! You might find yourself pleasantly surprised...

ALIOMI: CAROLYN PRIDE

It is no wonder that with 5 New Yorker’s at the helm of its success, fashion-site ALIOMI lives and breathes New York style. Carolyn Pride, ALIOMI’s Director of Operations, manages the development, design, operation, and improvement of the systems that create and deliver ALIOMI to the masses. Designed as a “street-couture fashion blog and online boutique that sells vintage, DIY, and resale pieces,” the site was founded a year ago by Carolyn’s high school pal, Naomi Bishop, and her college friend, Allison Sparkhul (“ALI”+”OMI”). The founders sought to incorporate Carolyn into the venture because of her solid background in market research and business development, as well as her enterprising and upbeat attitude. Carolyn is a formidable individual who contributes her wide-breadth of experience to the group; having attended Connecticut College (‘08), she not only played on the Varsity Basketball team, but also majored in Economics and Sociology, and was selected to study Economic Development at Hanoi University of Finance and Accounting. Carolyn has brought her business savvy, sense of humor, and boho-chic style since day 1, and ALIOMI has been on the rise ever since.

ALIOMI is just what every NY fashionite needs--be sure to visit the site to browse through their wonderful selection yourself (and if you're wondering who took this awesome shot, it was Elias Wessel). 

What2WearWhere: KAREN KLOPP

Karen Klopp founded go-to digital retail boutique and blog What2WearWhere in order to help women answer the eternally pressing question, “What should I wear?” After experiencing various industries and roles such as a producer for documentary films, a writer, and an event-planner, Karen has truly found fun and joy in her current position. A conservationist, traveler, board member for various organizations, chair of countless events and wife and mother of three, Karen has a well-rounded understanding of how to dress for various occasions in a woman’s life. Karen and her staff of ten formidable women seek to make getting out of the door and feeling good easier for the busiest of people, or those just searching for a bit of objective fashion advice. And what’s more--the website not only promotes fashion events that contribute to charitable organizations, but also donates 25% of its retail commissions to charities that help women and the environment.

The days of relying on your friends for fashion advice are over--W2WW has got your back with their researched opinions on what looks best.

BurdaStyle: NORA ABOUSTEIT

DIY (do-it-yourself) fashion has found its home at BurdaStyle, an online social-networking community where creators can share sewing patterns, techniques, and projects, all within their own homes. Nora Abousteit, the co-founder, made her way to a career with BurdaStyle along an unexpected path. Half-German and half-Egyptian, Nora earned a degree in Middle East Studies, Political Science, and Philosophy from the American University in Cairo, and then worked at a German publishing house as a speechwriter, and also as an event planner for tech and media conferences as well as for events hosted by the World Economic Forum. She has since shared her varied experiences and success with BurdaStyle—which is growing by 10,000 members per month—with the New York Times, Wired, Businessweek, WWD, and Fast Company, as well as at Parsons School of Design, the Menorca Tech Talk and DLD “Digital Life Design” media conference, among other notable venues.

Nora has fittingly built her career’s success in a very DIY manner, and has thoroughly updated the experience of sewing for the latest, tech-savvy generation. We can tell that her passion for creation will only lead to more excitement for BurdaStyle’s future.
 

Huffington Post: ROB FISHMAN

While it’s strange to think that before 2005 the Huffington Post did not exist as a staple news source, it’s even more unbelievable to consider how extensively news media has changed over the past decade with opportunities provided by the Internet. At 24, Rob Fishman, who graduated from Cornell in 2008 and Columbia’s Graduate Journalism School in 2009, has known no other employer than the Huffington Post in his adult life. Although many writers have the privilege of blogging for “Huffpo,” the website only hires a very small and trusted paid managing staff, of which Rob is one. Rob started on the staff as the associate blog editor in 2009, and in May 2010 was promoted to the position of social media editor.

Rob's truly a journalist of this generation, adeptly navigating a network of social media tools to receive and transmit news, yet with a hunger for reading that makes him one of the gifted news writers of his age. And, of course, there's charm in his wit that extends beyond the professional arena (we swear we did not pay him to plug our blog).
 

Google Expert: EVAN BAILYN

We all take for granted the effortlessness of Google: type in a search term, and voila! Results. While this functional understanding serves most of us just fine, Evan Bailyn set out to uncover the way we receive these results and, more specifically, how the results are organized. After graduating Columbia University in 2003, Evan spent 16 months questioning, investigating, and ultimately cracking the Google algorithm. In other words, he figured out how to claim the top search return of the world’s largest search engine, based on any term. His career has soared ever since. The self-proclaimed “Google expert” capitalized on his discovery by founding First Page Sage, a search engine optimization and social media company that achieves a near-perfect record of getting the websites of Evan’s clients (celebrities and Fortune 500 clients alike) to appear at the top of a Google search. Evan then went on to apply his knowledge to founding the Cartoon Doll Emporium, now one of the largest children’s websites in the world, reaching over 70 million kids and parents. Evan’s commitment to child advocacy was born out of this project, and he has since utilized Facebook to provide inspirational messages about self-psychology and childhood, attracting over 50,000 fans in 5 months, making his page the second most popular non-celebrity fan page. In 2010, Evan established The Evan Bailyn Foundation, which awards grants to groups that promote emotional awareness in children. And if that’s not enough, his first book, Outsmarting Google, will debut in bookstores in early 2011.

The internet entrepreneur, author, and child advocate, has it all: self-made success, serious levels of publicity (ABC, Fox News, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, International Business Times, Crain's, and will be featured on an upcoming segment of Joan Rivers' reality show "How'd You Get So Rich?"), a girlfriend, great brother, and sense of humor and compassion that never fails.

Pistols Kill Ponies: LENA DUNHAM

Sharp, tongue-in-cheek comic filmmaker Lena Dunham singlehandedly founded the independent film production company, Pistols Kill Ponies:  "We like to make ourselves sound like a collective, but in truth we only consist of Lena Dunham and whoever is kind enough to work with her." At just 23, Lena already has an impressive collection of films, including webseries Delusional Downtown Divas for Index Magazine and Tight Shots for Nerve Video. She has been featured in New York Magazine, Interview Magazine, and Scarlett Cinema, among others, and has been named one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film (2009). Lena hails from an artistic family, and as a proud older sibling, she insists that she got her talent from her younger sister.

Whether as a director, producer, writer, or actress, Lena's charm, pizazz, and quirky sense of humor shines in all her artistic endeavors.