My first job after graduation was as an Associate Editor for a new media start-up, PsychoPEDIA. I started as an intern and then got hired as an editor. There, I got phenomenal exposure to the New York cultural scene, and was given the opportunity to conduct interviews with extremely talented artists, designers and musicians, while also having a lot of flexibility. I then took over as the site's Senior Editor, managing a small editorial and art department team within a year of graduating.

The founders of PsychoPEDIA had produced fashion shoots all over Asia with tons of contacts in the fashion world, so that helped me get access to people in fashion. I naturally gravitated towards their stories and, in the end, the bulk of my work had been in fashion. The people I met in the fashion industry and the industry itself seemed so interestingly complicated and exciting. After experiencing that, I decided to follow fashion as a freelance writer.

It was and it wasn't. I had a lot of flexibility and I decided to go to LA for the summer where both my parents and boyfriend lived. In that same summer, my mom became President of Brooklyn College and my parents moved to Brooklyn. I immediately had a home in New York that I was able to visit whenever I wanted, and it allowed me to become an explorer in LA without the confines of feeling like it was a permanent decision.

During my first year, I spent my time exploring different work opportunities and freelancing. It was really tough not being in New York in the midst of the stories I was writing, and there were definitely some missed opportunities, but I was also hitting a glass ceiling within my journalism career. I had written for all the publications I wanted to write for and still couldn't make a reasonable living from my freelance work. With that, I started to really get serious about work opportunities in LA.

I think Pose’s credibility within the industry has been heavily influenced and benefited by our connection to brands and influencers. The press articles on Pose are, for the most part, written by peers of mine, so I think industry validation came a lot easier to us because of my background in fashion.

Most of our partnerships have been through friends that I’ve been able to connect with. Our partnership with Rachel Zoe was through a friend who knew Rachel’s husband, Rodger. Rodger suggested Pose to Rachel and she came on board, not only as a user, but as an investor. Partnerships are the best of all worlds because they're incentivized to help the platform grow, and Rachel is a phenomenal businesswoman, one we're happy to be aligned with.

We have a planning session every two weeks where the whole team discusses what's coming up, reviews marketing metrics and analyzes what's working and what needs improvement. Afterwards, I'll jump into more meetings or calls with people in New York and San Francisco followed by lunch meetings. I also make it a point to be out and about doing something most nights to make sure I continue my networking and outreach efforts.

Scheduling is the key to finding balance between conferences, travel, long days and everything else. My weekends are very sacred to me and I tend to only open my computer for a very specific period of time. I even try to leave my phone in the other room for a few hours so I get a break.

Creating a smartphone app is very expensive and a good idea is necessary to make it an effective app. Your first product will probably be a little buggy and will need to adapt based on what the users are actually doing with it as opposed to what you think they're going to do with it. You’ll need to keep building and updating so you can make the experience better, which requires a lot of maintenance.

It's an incredible opportunity but without a really strong technical team it can be very expensive. Outsourcing your building needs still means that you’ll need to think about how you're going to maintain it. If you don’t have a technical team, there are websites out there that connect you to people who are looking for freelance technical work for a reasonable price.

That's a really good question and an interesting observation. I would give the same advice for translating passions into career to someone thinking “what's my next step?”: go where you're most needed and where you can add the most value. Wherever you can add the most value, you're going to feel the most accomplished and driven to succeed.

Also talk to as many people as possible before you make the decision. I'm a big believer in talking to everyone and anyone because you might find a position that you wouldn’t have considered, but it ends up being perfect. 

There are so many new players every day and the expectation for how quickly you have to reach a million users and then ten million in a short time can be challenging. Technology professionals, at their core, are very much driven by the problem that they need to solve and how they are going to solve it; however, with start-ups you're not always solving a problem. For Pose, we are bettering an experience and it can be challenging to the tech-minded people to get on board with this idea. 

We have some exciting updates coming to our iPhone, Android and iPad apps and website at Pose.com, as well as some new email products, like a daily Fashion Forecast that gives you outfit ideas tailored to your weather. We are always trying to make what's out there better, faster and more fun.

At some point, I became someone that women reached out to and said, “You’re doing something cool and how can other women do stuff like you?” My proudest moment is when I started hearing that message. I know how much I needed—and still need—that help from female mentors in my life.