Gotham Gal

The Spiritual Meaning of the Internet

There are not that many friends at my age that are as romanced as Fred and I are with the power of the Internet.  I have one close friend who is as passionate about the web as I am yet her passion is about the spiritual meaning where I am all about how many incredible businesses we can grow.  I love talking to her about this. 

She believes the Internet is a spiritual gift.  This tool has given us the ability to connect with people across the globe.  That the Internet fills us up and gives us each the access to people that we would have never had the opportunity to connect with before. 

This conversation really started me thinking about so many different things.  How people in areas of this world who in the past had limited access to education can now (through the web) use their brain to learn and perhaps think differently.  In turn that might be the key factor in changing what is happening in war torn countries.  How about the artisans in countries that had a very small audience to sell their wares to now has the entire globe.  How through those transactions the income will change the way they live by just putting a roof over their head and food in their belly. 

I have probably told this story before but in the 90's I had a friend who had started an interactive agency.  He understood the power of the net.  He owned more simple one word domain names because he fundamentally knew that each of them would be worth something down the line.  His sister lived in Pittsburgh and had a teenage daughter who felt lost in her own community.  She really did not find a connection among her peers based on her own interests.  That can be incredibly lonely particularly as a teenager.  She happened to be a They Might Be Giants fan.  Their website had a community that had grown around it.  She'd come home and get on the computer and talk to other people around the globe that had that one connection which was being a fan of the music group.  This online community made her feel empowered and connected and that translated to feeling good about herself and the future.  She knew that she would go on to college and find other people who she could connect with.  To me, that is the spiritual meaning of the Internet.

The web continues to transform the way that we live our lives starting with a constant connection in our pocket.  An ecommerce platform to buy anything around the globe, the access to content, the ability to constantly communicate, to share our experiences, photos and thoughts, the ongoing daily flow of new music, to ability to build unique business models that would not existed even 10 years ago, to crowd funding and crowd sourcing the web is an amazing place with powers that most of us just take for granted.  Can we all remember when we did not even have ATM cards or wireless phones.  As we move forward with technology it is easy to forget what life was like before hand.

Thinking about the world wide web as a world wide tool for community is the one piece that not only connects us to each other across many divides but also has given us a reason to take a breath, stand back and connect with the people we see every day at a different level because no matter what the web provides us in regards to finding our way and a community that we connect with, being able to sit around a table and break bread becomes even more important as we all ride this technology train that is taking us to a place that none of us are quite sure of. 

Kitchensurfing dinner

We went to the Kitchensurfing offices/townhouse in Gowanus for dinner to celebrate the closing of their Series A round.  Those dinners are to celebrate the company moving forward and meet all the people who are involved.  What was really great about this dinner is that everyone involved knows each other fairly well which not only makes for a fun dinner but is exciting that a crew that knows each other personally is involved.

Our dinner was prepared and served to us by Chef Robert Compagnon.  He is an excellent chef.  His bio gives you all the info you need to know. 

After studying Japanese at Columbia University, and spending a year cutting fish and working in a ramen shop in Japan, I decided cooking was for me. I moved to Paris after a year of cooking at Ouest on the UWS. In France I worked in both traditional (Alain Ducasse and Guy Savoy), and innovative kitchens like Rino, Spring and Chateaubriand. Five years later, I'm back in NY, working at Brushstroke in Tribeca, brushing up on traditional Japanese Kaiseki cuisine.

The meal was built around lamb after all spring is here (well sorta).  Two pieces of lamb topped with fish roe and tempura lamb brains.  The combo of the lamb with the roe totally worked.  The lamb brains although for many that sounds ghastly but it was absolutely delicious.  It had the same texture as a foie gras and the tempura was airy and crisp. 

Tongue raviolis served in a fish dashi broth with grilled scallions.  The ravioli was light yet packed with a wallop of flavors. 

This was insane.  Mushrooms sauteed in brown butter mixed with crispy deep fried parlsey with a lightly poached egg center stage.  Mix it all up (make it messy) and dig in.  The combination of the flavors and the textures were brilliant.

This was a little more dense.  A smoky eggplant mixture where the eggplant had been mashed with rosemary and lemons.  Over the top was pan fried octopus and crispy burdock root.  Octopus is one of my faves.

A saddle of lamb stuffed with watercress that was sliced for each plate sitting on top of a sweet potato puree and little bites of root veggies.  He had wrapped the lamb with fat in order to char and roast throughly.  A little lamb jus poured over the top. Excellent.

This was incredible.  Lamb belly chasyu served in a bowl of white miso soy ramen.  Chasyu is a mixture of a meat (this time lamb) tied up with string and either boiled or baked with a mixture of spices.  The taste of the chasyu was rich and buttery.  The soup was rich and intense with soba noodles sitting on the bottom.  Amazing.

I am sorry that I can not remember the name of his sous chef who made the desserts because she was also extremely talented.  She made two desserts.  The first was a poached lemon earl grey granita with evaporated milk.  Super creative. 

This was a mixture of three things.  A dense layered cake with chocolate ganache.  Just the right amount.  Then she sprinkled this with crispy honeycombs.  On the side was a thyme flavored ice cream that was out of this world.  Each of the flavors mixed together were a total omg. 

The event was great and just showed all of us the brilliance of Kitchensurfing.  These two people came into the Kitchensurfing home to make a sublime meal where we all sat around the kitchen table talking, drinking and having fun.  We were able to enjoy a restaurant quality meal in our own home and hear from the chef about what we were eating and how it was prepared.  An incredible experience that I highly recommend trying.  A game changer. 

Kena Paranjape and Jen Lee Koss, Brika, Women Entrepreneurs

I have said this before that I actually do read all my emails and respond.  I got an email from Jen that gave me an overview of Brika and of course a few of mutual connections.  I really love what both Kena and Jen built but told them about our house rule.  We have a very hard fast rule in this house which is one investment per vertical.  We are investors in Etsy and Brika sits in that space.  She figured so much but just wanted to get some advice.  It took some time as my office was destroyed by Sandy but we finally got together.  Both Kena and Jen are impressive women who have curated a collection of talented makers that celebrate the art of crafting. 

Jen grew up in central NJ.  Her parents are from Korea.  Her mother came over during the Kennedy administration as her Grandfather was the US ambassador for Korea.  Her mother continued her education in the states at Julliard.  Her mother has continued in music her entire life building a program through Julliard to promote and nurture young Korean musicians.  Her father came to the US as a medical student at UPenn studying to be a neuroradiologist.  Her parents met at a wedding and the rest of history. 

Jen embraced her mothers love of music and went to Julliard from age 10-18 to train as a cellist.  After graduating she got into Harvard but deferred for a year to attend the a musical conservatory in Germany.  She always believed she would do something in music.  At Harvard she made a conscious decision to take business classes.  She ended up landing an intern job at Goldman Sachs doing both sales, marketing and working on debt capital markets.  Jen was offered a job there when she graduated but she also had an opportunity to go to Oxford University to get her masters in musicology, a blend of music and performance.  It was the professors at Harvard that recommended she do this and she received a John Paine fellowship through the Department of Music to go.  BTW, on the side Jen played lacrosse at Harvard while she was there too.

Off to England and after graduating from Oxford she stayed in London.  She took a job with the Parthenon Group working on analytic research and strategic advice for retail businesses.  She worked on Kettle Chips, a fitness center group and a few with a bend in the non-profit world.  She decided to move back to Boston and work for the Bridgespan Group which is the non-profit world of Baine Capital.  Jen became concerned that she was backing herself into a corner with the non-profit angle.  She decided to go to Harvard Business School and change directions. 

Jen loved the art of the deal and after graduating HBS she took a job again in London at JPMorgan.  Then as she puts is life got in the way.  She met her future husband who runs Right to Play in Canada.  She took a trip with him to Toronto and now one marriage and two kids later she has settled in to life in Canada.  Until recently she worked at the Ontario teachers plan doing pension plan investing with a $12b fund in private equity and $6b in direct investing.  She worked there with the small retail team.  That is of course until she met Kena.

Kena grew up in Halifax Nova Scotia and at 11 they moved to Newfoundland. Her Mom has a PHd as a linguist where she taught in the local high school and then went back to get her masters to shift into the world of being a librarian.  Both her parents came to Canada in their 20's from India.  Her father came to get his masters and PHd in oceanography.  The area where they live is highly educated as there is a university there so growing up Kena knew nothing else. 

She graduated from high school and went to McGill University.  She started off majoring in chemistry and six months after school began her father passed away.  It made her dislike chemistry and she turned to the environmental sciences which she really enjoyed.  Upon graduation her mother said now you should go get a masters but Kena had other ideas.  She moved to Toronto and landed a job at doing marketing at Indigo.  She stayed there through the merger with Chapters.

Kenas boyfriend now husband got a job in SF to work at a start-up building medical devices.  She decided she would go too and landed a job at the Gap doing marketing.  It was a great job but she could not get her visa.  She wondered if she got a MBA would it be easier to get her visa and the answer was yes.  She went back to Toronto to get her MBA at University of Toronto but returned during the summer to work at the Gap until she graduated.  During that time she met many merchants.  She found that was who she really connected with.  It was crystal clear to her that she wanted to be a buyer, a merchant.  She landed a job buying mens woven bottoms at Old Navy and stayed for a year and a half.  Unfortunately her husband became ill and they moved back to Toronto. 

He slowly got better and Kena took a job managing the womens businesses at Joe Fresh.  Her role was more planning than merchandising but she got to work with Joe and learn a lot.  Kena wanted to have her own business from the time she was 16.  She knew the right idea would eventually come to her.  She decided to start a blog which was a great creative outlet for her.  Starting that blog was a way for her to own something that was only hers and think about what business was out there for her to start.  Kena left Joe and went to work for Pistachio a high end eco friendly brick and mortar store.  There were no buyers when she got there but the owner and Kena got involved and eventually ran the whole thing for two years. 

Jen had started to read a lot of blogs.  She particularly loved consumer retail blogs.  She loved each ones individual voice and aesthetic.  She had been reading Kenas blog and loved it.  Jen decided to shoot Kena and email to see if she would be interested in having a cup of coffee and much to her surprise she said yes.  They were both living in Toronto, they were both at a crossroads in their lives, they both had young kids, they both wanted to do something that they owned and was creative and Jen happened to be on her second maternity leave when they met.

The one coffee turned into a weekly coffee.  They would give each other homework.  Kenas job was working with a lot of makers and was inspired by them.  She would see the customers come in daily and be inspired by each unique piece.  They asked each other is there a place where you can go daily to be inspired and see unique products to buy that also has a community.  The answer was no and so Brika was born.

At the same time they finally figured out their business together Kena was offered a job at Target.  It was a defining moment for the two of them.  At first she said yes to the job and then two weeks later she changed her mind.  Jen had also been offered a job as the director of strategy for Holt Renfrew and she turned it down too.  Brika has been up and running for six months now and they have put their efforts into something they are passionate about. 

The site has grown organically.  It has been incredibly rewarding and challenging for both of them and you can tell that they are having the best time.  The makers love working with them.  There are also off line components that they plan on working on from meet-ups to working with bloggers.  What was inspriing for me is talking to two very smart women who are so obviously excited and engaged in what they have built.  That is exactly what you want to see in an entrepreneur sitting on the other side of the table. 

Transparency in Legal Documents

I had to do something this week that I have never done before which is almost walk away from a verbal commitment I made towards giving money to a company.  It has to do with legal documents and zero transparency.

I can't stress enough the importance of having a company being built on smart legal documents that create transparency for every investor in the company.  Over time there will be more documents drawn up as more money comes into an organization but those first set of documents set a tone for everything going forward. 

Investing in a company is risky but when the documents are anti-investors then there is nothing legally covering your risk.  If you have intellectual property the documents need to be shared.  When a company shares documents with me that are a mess it sends a lot of red flags.  It makes me want to dig deeper to find if there are other deals that I don't know about that might crop up later from employment contracts to advisor shares.  When you start to take money from the first round of investors particularly ones that have seen more documents than they care to, listen to their advice about cleaning up the legal part of the company before moving forward.  It is for the good of everyone.  Documents are not like a diner where everybody gets a different order. 

I felt terrible thinking that I would have to walk away from a commitment but it was the company/entrepreneur that was putting me in a situation where I had no choice.  I can't participate when I know that we will discover information after the closing that will put all the investors in a situation that did not need to take place. 

MOOC conversation

MOOC is an anacronym for Massive Open Online Courses.  Fred and I attended the meeting of the Presidential Council at Wesleyan this past week.  The topic of conversation was around MOOCs.  It was a fascinating conversation.

Wesleyan offers six courses through Coursera.  There are more than several of the best schools in the world offering courses on Coursera.  At a glance it appears that most of the courses offered are unique ones taught at each individual school vs the standard Economics 101.  Several thousand people signed up for each individual course taught by each of the Wesleyan professors although not all end up attending.  The numbers are still huge for attendance as in something over 20,000. 

What each professor learned was consistent.  You are teaching a course online so it is different than teaching to an audience that is sitting in the same room as you are.  The lectures need to be shorter.  Videos need to be made in advance.  The currriculum is a bit different.  The tests need to be true/false vs long essays.  You can start the conversation flowing but many times the crowd takes it to another level.  Some students find each other and meet in cafes where they live to discuss the class.  I thought that was incredibly cool. 

Michael Roth, who run Wesleyan is not only teaching a course on Coursera he is also taking classes from other Universities to educate himself about MOOCs. Impressive.

The million dollar question is how will MOOCs change the undergraduate experience.  Will these courses complement the curriculum already being taught at universities and colleges.  Will there be a time when you can get a degree from Coursera because each of these classes will become accredited although not the same as the ones taught in-between the four walls of an institution.  As online education evolves what will be the repercussions for a standard undergraduate experience. 

Personally I am don't believe that taking four years of classes online is ever going to be a substitute for a four year institution where you take classes and interact with professors and other students in person.  The social experience is unique and can be essential to the growth of an individual.  It isn't for everyone and certainly the cost of an education is huge.  To take on that kind of debt for many makes one wonder do the benefits outweigh the costs. No doubt going to college is a privilege.

What is great is that through MOOCs people around the globe who do not have the ability to leave their countries or have access to a fine education can take classes and learn.  That makes for a flatter globe and education is a good thing at every level. 

My father who is a sponge for knowledge is going to love Coursera.  I just told him about it this past weekend and I am a bit concerned he might not come up for air for a year.  Wouldn't it be great if through MOOCs we can engage every young person across the world that is hungry for knowledge and through the Internet we can provide it. 

Question of the week #27

There are many men who make sexual innuendos and my sense is that most of them do not even realize that they are offending the women in the room.  That certainly does not make it okay.  I am not saying you can't teach an old dog new tricks but you can call them on the mat when they do it.  I have called a few on the mat and they have profusely apologized and then they do it again. 

With that being said, here is the question of the week:

I'm an occasional watcher of The Chew, frequent enough to notice that Mario Batali shamelessly flirts with every female celebrity guest, while making sexual innuendos. I find it offensive and degrading to women. Am I alone? Disappointing that ABC condones

I happen to know Mario.  He is full of life and he is also a very intelligent man.  He is beyond well read, has a head for business and has serious street smarts.  I'm a fan. He also flirts shamelessly with women for whatever reason. 

Should ABC do something about that?  If he continues to get the ratings they are not going to say a word.  If a woman barks back at him on air when it happens then perhaps things will change.  I doubt it but it might make ABC think about how as a network they are condoning his behavior. 

What I wonder is where did that kind of behavior start?  Did the men I know have fathers who did the same thing?  As young men was it their way of getting a womans attention?  Did it make them feel less insecure by openly flirting because women reacted to it?  Perhaps it is all of those reasons.

Bottom line in a professional environment it is not okay for men to say inappropriate comments to women.  Unfortunately it happens all the time.  I wrote about this when I answered the question regarding the inapproprate behavior at the PyCon conference.  It is up to us as women who are flirted with inappropriately or asked questions that are irrelevant to the conversation to speak up and say no it is not ok to talk to me like that.  Until then, this conversation will continue going on for years to come. 

Little Prince

Little Prince located between Sullivan and Sixth Avenue took over the Shortys .32 space.  They have transformed the space from a dark claustrophobic room into a 38 seat open airy clean room.  The large windows open up to the street on a nice night allowing diners to feel like they are sitting on the street.  No art hangs from the walls allowing the simply white concrete painted block to set the edgy yet warm feeling. 

They opened theirs doors on April 10th.  The kitchen is still working out a few kinks such as flow and running out of a main dish but the execution on every dish we had was spot on.  A great new addiiton to Soho.  We had a mixture of appetizers to start.  I began with the beet salad. Red and golden beets cut into tiny cubes mixed with pieces of grapefruit.  Small pistachio nuts sprinkeld over the top with the salad sitting over a nice light chevre.  I really loved this salad.  Light simple and full of flavor.  The grapefruit gave the salad just the right shot of citrus. 

We all split the steak tartare.  Large chopped pieces of sirloin with a hint of seasoning that tasted like a little sherry.  Spread over big slabs of toasted warm bread.  Perfect for the table.

Frisee au Lardons is a classic French salad.  I always find this salad just a bit heavy to start off a meal.  They made the salad a little too salty.  The right salad for lunch.

If you love pepper this one is for you.  An aged steak coated with peppercorns served with a pepper sauce on the side served up with creamed swiss chard or maybe it was spinach.  The veggie part was not so good.  Rich and tasteless.  I'd recommend moving into fries here which we had as a side to share and they were really good. 

Crisp skinned juicy chicken with two slices of salad on top and a warm vinaigrette on the side.  The random two pieces of garlic thrown on top are not necessary.  Kind of scared me when I saw them but the dish did not have any garlic in it.  The chicken was perfect.  We wanted to order the dover sole for two but they were out when we got there.  Reason to come back.

Our friends had the lamb for two.  Looked good but I did not taste.  They could have given them two more lamb chops.  A little light for two people.  Came with a small serving of orzo as a side.

A thin sliced apple tart with a scoop of mint ice cream on the side. 

Toasted pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream on top.  I really like toasting the cake. 

Jacque Torres chocolate chip cookie with a rum infused milk for dipping.  Do not let a child drink that milk, woah.

A rich vanilla pudding almost like a panna cotta with some fresh berries.

All and all I really enjoyed my meal. The menu is simple which I like too. Jacque Torres is making their desserts.  The chef is also the owner, Paul Denamiel and there are a few other restaurant people who have been in the industry for awhile so they know what they are doing.  I hope they eventually open for lunch.  FYI, they do not have a website yet and they should get one. 

 

Politics

President Barack Obama addresses the House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference in Williamsburg, Virginia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The last few weeks there have been many articles written on why new legislation on guns did not get passed.  Now we are going to watch the Senate attempt to pass new legislation on immigration. 

Entrepreneurs are a rare breed.  They are people with a wealth of ideas or sometimes one brilliant idea that starts out as a thought that eventually evolves into a company, product, non-profit, etc.  Sometimes no matter how great the idea is the concept fails.  It is not the idea that failed but the execution.  Many times someone else might end up taking that concept and because they are better at execution making it work. There are so many mountains to climb and successes to achieve at many stages of a company. It isn't all about the idea.

I do believe success has a better chance with leaders of a vision that can get down in the weeds with each top manager in their company to nurture, challenge and motivate them to execute on the vision.  That energy and leadership bleeds into an organization from top down.  Each company has its own culture and vibe and that comes from the top.  Certainly a leader also has to take time to think out of the weeds in order to see the big picture or otherwise you end up with weeds.

I have been a Democrat since I was born.  When I think of Obama as an entrepreneur this is what I see.  He is great at marketing the vision to the masses but he isn't very good at marketing his vision to his company.  That company is the Senate and Congress.  When companies grow and the entrepreneur who originally founded the idea isn't able to move up another mountain many times the board brings in another candidate who might be better suited to run the company at the stage that it is at.  I believe it is important to keep that entrepreneur engaged because they see the big picture.  In our Government the founding fathers were the entrepreneurs who wrote the constitution that set up the foundation of our country.  They are obviously not running the country anymore but many CEO's (aka Presidents) have come in to run this organization for 4 and sometimes 8 year runs. The board is essentially the voting public.  It is up each President to move the company forward based on the original principles set forth.  Some do a better job than others. 

I do believe in Obamas vision for change. The changes in the private sector are so way ahead of our government that it is creating problems.  We can begin with education.  20 years ago we should have started STEM curriculum in all junior high schools as the supply of jobs is exceeding the demand because there are not enough kids graduating with the skills for the jobs available.  That is causing the price of these jobs to go way up.  Obama has set forth a vision that he is simply not executing on.  I am pretty sure our forefathers were happy for everyone to have a musket because there wasn't huge law enforcement and the country was very spread out but if George Washington came back today to see the arsenal of guns including the automatic shotguns with magazines that can fire off 150 rounds in seconds I bet he would be aghast. 

It is not pretty how our Government works and perhaps that is why Obama isn't getting down in the weeds with our Senators.  Yet this company has been at it for a long time and I am not so sure that preaching to the people who agree with what he says is how to get bills passed.  When you come into a company as the President you have to understand how a company works to get things done.  It is the same in Government.  Obama has been at it for more than four years and I would hope that he would figure it out sooner than later that he has to work in the system as ugly as it is to get his vision executed on or we will all end up no better off than we were when he took the job. 

Generation SPF

My Mom had this great idea when I was a young teen that it would be a great experiment if she started me out on the top skincare products at a young age to see what it would do for my skin in the long run.  The idea was that instead of playing the catch-up game when you wake up at 30 and realize that you need to moisturize your skin and take care of your face that you had been doing it all along.  What would happen if you started that at 8?

My Mom never did follow through on that concept but I do think about it from time to time as I get older.  There is no doubt that genes play a huge part on our skin as we age but so does that amount of time we sat in the sun with baby oil and record albums covered with tin foil to reflect the sun for a sun tan. 

There is a great article in WMagazine this month about SPF that made me think about this.  The article is about how 35 years ago the FDA introduced the SPF system.  We began doing early skin cancer screening.  The next generation of kids were covered with sun block when they went out side, went to camp, went to the pool or went to the park.  There became sun block in the diaper bag along with a juice box and a bag of pretzels.  What has happened essentially is the we have saved our face, literally. 

People who are 30 have the skin of a 20 year old because they have taken care of their skin since they were young.  It makes complete sense.  That is why when I met Christy of Willa Skincare that I got it and I invested and got involved.  She has created a product that kids want.  Of course the Moms want it too but you have to get the kids to want the product not the Moms to push it on their kids.  I know my nieces love the products.  If you have young kids and are sending them off to camp this summer make sure to send the Willa products in their camp bag.  When your kid gets older they will thank you.  BTW, I love the products too.

 

Danielle Gould, Food Tech Connect, Woman Entrepreneur

I have been following Food Tech Connect for quite some time.  If you are involved in the food industry at any level you should be getting their emails.  Food Tech Connect is a media and research company helping people understand the emerging trends in the food industry.  This platform has created a community for people on all sides of the food industry. Food is going through a major transformation from consumer products to organic farming to data to ecommerce to technology.  All of those categories are covered at Food Tech Connect through articles but also events that bring together the community at large.

Danielle grew up in Potomac, MD.  I lived in Potomac from 10 years old and on so that was kind of funny.  Both of her parents were entrepreneurs.  Danielle's Mom helped people with their life insurance, estate planning and philanthropic giving.  She says with pride that her Mom was turned down 12 times by New York Life to become an agent and she finally convinced them that a woman could do that job.  Her father owned his own advertising business that had a bend towards social ventures. 

Danielle did not go to the public high school I went to but to a private school where you graduate in February and then spend the next four months of your senior year in Israel.  First you go to Poland and then spend the rest of the time in a kibbutz.  It was her first trip abroad and it was an eye opener.  She returned after her travels and that September began college at the University of Wisconsin where she majored in sociology and environmental sciences. 

Like many others Danielle was bit by the travel bug.  She spent one college summer in Sri Lanka for a month with plans to return when she graduated.  Her mother begged her not to go after graduating and post-tsunami. She decided to follow her Moms advice.  She had saved some money and opted to go somewhere else.  She went to live in Argentina for three months and then took a turn and back moved to Israel.

In Israel Danielle worked for Friends of the Earth trying to get the lower Jordan Valley to be deemed as at Heritage Site.  She really wanted to get into the green space but at every angle found that she really needed a masters degree to break in.  Instead she also did a few odd jobs such as waitressing and starting up an organic cupcake company.  She found Israel tough.  It was not her native tongue and although she had some wonderful "adopted" families she found it hard to start in a business there.  She decided after 3 1/2 years it was time to come home. 

She came back to the NYC area because she her sister and cousin lived here.  She got into the New School taking classes in non-profit management during the day and waitressed at Budakan at night.  She still really wanted to get in to the green building area.  She heard about a six week program in Arizona around green building and opted to go.  Danielle says it was like living with a cult for six weeks.  Most of the people were architects and engineers but it was a wild experience.  The guy who ran it had been there since the 70s and had built a ecobuilding in the middle of the desert.  The city was literally built on a mesa.  The concept was to build a greenhouse down the mesa to grow food in microclimates .  The heat from that would be used to warm the city and then the waste would trickle back down into the soil.  She was blown away.  It was 2008.

Danielle returned to NYC passionate about getting into vertical farming.  New York Sunworks was opening up Brightfarms and she pushed them to hire her without a masters degree.  While she was there they got acquired and so after two years she left. Her old boss had asked her to start tweeting out the tech releases.  She thought this is so cool.  I do not have to pitch people but I can follow people and see what they are doing.  Her boss thought she was spending too much time on twitter so she started secretly tweeting under a different name.  She was just blown away by the information flow.  Research organizations were keeping all the data and information flow to themselves and that made zero sense to Danielle.  Nobody knew how many food businesses were being started in NYC if you don't share the info.  That is when she realized if you could scrape together all this information and create an organization/network to share all this information that it could be powerful.  As a sociologist and environmental science major she started thinking networks = interconnected webs.

Danielle began doing tons of research, going to meet-ups all around the city with anything connected to the green/food/tech world.  When the Greenpoint market was shut down she was hearing on the streets that local artisans were starting to create relationships with the restaurants.  She decided to put out a survey to collect the information and that is how Food Tech Connect began.  The first thing she did was put out an infographic on the food chain.  It went viral.  She realized that she was on to a powerful medium for spreading ideas.  She did not know anyone else who was thinking about the connection between food and technology so she started interviewing people. Danielle joined a Meet-up group that was started by Elizabeth McVay Greene and became a co-organizer.  Events started happening.  She got involved with the Open Government people and created a hackathon.  Soon things started to snowball and before she knew it she had built a readership and community around Food Tech Connect.

Danielle understands the eco-system of the food chain. She is not only putting out information she is putting on events around the transformation of the food industry.  She is hoping to provide the tools, content, connections and information around what the market needs.  They are focusing on connecting with founders and investors to increase the deal flow in the food space by having events, retreats, and forums.  Danielle took a birds eye view of an industry and figured out how to build a media business around it through engaging an audience hungry for a community and knowledge.