Feeling under-appreciated as an employee, a nonexistent work-life balance, financial struggles, getting out of bad relationships – these are the most common triggers that push women to become entrepreneurs. Tell us about your trigger?

In my 16 years of working in the corporate world of architecture and design, I despised the idea of working 40+ hours a week to start what felt like “living” at 6 pm. I wanted to live to work and create a lifestyle instead of a “job,” and that’s exactly what I set out to do. 

During my career, I was constantly coming up with ideas to build my own business, but none of them was powerful enough to ultimately take the leap until one night at dinner with a colleague, I came up with an idea that would take online dating to a new level.

How did you come up with your business idea?

In February of 2008, I was out to dinner with an architectural colleague. He’d spotted an attractive woman at a nearby table and scribbled, “Want to have dinner?” on the back of his business card and slipped it to her as we were leaving the restaurant. He left with a date. I left with an idea. 

After over two years of brainstorming how to remove the “business” out of the business card, I launched Cheekd – a deck of ice-breaking dating cards with a unique code that leads the recipient to the privacy protected online dating profile of the mysterious stranger who slipped them the card where the two could start communicating online. It was like online dating but backwards. 

We’ve since pivoted Cheekd into a hyper-speed mobile dating app that gives users the ability to never miss a real-life potential “love connection.”

Have you had support from someone, even if just encouragement? Who was that and how did it help you?

Back in 2010, we’d hired a web developer off of NYC’s Craigslist to help fix our broken website. Years later before I found myself flying out to LA to film my coveted spot on ABC’s Shark Tank, Roger (my Craigslist developer from so many years before), came to me and said he’d been watching my hustle for several years, hadn’t stopped thinking about my business and wanted to get involved.

He ended up buying out my business partners, became my CTO (a crucial missing link to my business) and helped facilitate and finance the new face and technology behind the pivoted version Cheekd. Roger ultimately became my business partner, my investor, my mentor, my support system and my personal angel in so many ways.

Female entrepreneurs are often underestimated and overlooked. Have you ever felt at a disadvantage?

I always try to turn a disadvantage into an opportunity. While women are making enormous strides in the entrepreneurial world, men continue to dominate. In response, I find that the smaller business network of women is extra supportive of one another.

I’ve tried to embrace the ratio as being a female founder on the scene. It’s easy to stand out at events and I always joke that as a woman in the startup world, you never have to wait in line for the restroom!

Some say it’s hard work, others say it’s talent and resourcefulness that play a crucial role for success in entrepreneurship? Which traits have been instrumental for your success so far? And why?

I’ve got a laser-focused vision to succeed and will do almost anything to keep this business flourishing. I’m actually not surprised by my determination because as long as I can remember, I’ve been extremely stubborn. When most people would have quit, I only hustled harder. 

I think my personal approach, passion and dedication mixed with my relentless conviction that failure is not an option has been the recipe that has lead to my current success. I could be the walking poster child for the age-old phrase “what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.” 

No matter what… in the end, I’m going to have a magical story to tell.

What excites you the most about being an entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurship has been the most powerful thing that’s ever happened to me.  Building my business has been an incredible learning experience. I’ve taken a major risk (both financially and mentally) and surrendered my career in architecture and design, but my heart and mind are in this project every waking moment. I’ve never been more dedicated to anything. I’m living the American Dream—I’ve given birth to an invention. I’ve gone from 16 years of helping others build their dreams to a life finally dedicated to building my own. Instead of reading the book, I’m finally writing it.

Share with us some of the worst business advice you’ve ever received?

I had a potential advisor many years ago that kept trying to nail the power of saying “no” into my head to just about everything. I agreed with the sentiment to a point, but saying “yes” is how I’ve gotten this far in my venture. I could write a book about how many things I’ve said “yes” to that’s lead me to so many amazing opportunities and if it didn’t lead to an opportunity, it lead to a new friendship.

You’ve got a high stake investment opportunity. Pitch your business in 150 words.

The Cheekd dating app sets itself apart from other apps because it gives you the option to interact with a match before starting a virtual relationship with the compatible user. After setting up your page and what you’re looking for, Cheekd will then send you notifications when a potential match is nearby. Instead of encouraging users to continue to hide behind a screen, Cheekd pushes you to engage in social settings while paying attention to potential matches in the area. Our new dating app gives us the power to light the spark face-to-face first and leave the talking for later.

And because Cheekd uses Bluetooth, you’ll get a notification if someone who meets your criteria is within 30 feet of you. If you’re near a potential spark, Cheekd makes sure you know about it. It’s like online dating but it starts in the real world.

What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to inspire aspiring entrepreneurs?

My strongest advice for others considering taking the entrepreneurial leap is that if you truly believe in your idea, give up excuses and doubt, surround yourself by an incredible support network, bulldoze forward and don’t look back because you’re about to be on the journey of a lifetime.

What are your goals for the upcoming year?

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).

Any final words to end this interview?

A New Yorker of 25 years, I recently relocated to my home state of Kentucky and am working on a new app idea inspired by my own struggles trying to network, meet and date new people in a new city during an extremely unsocial time of purposefully distancing. My solution will allow users to have a more organic, yet virtual way, of making connections for anything from business, networking, fitness, friendship, hobbies or anything with anyone all over the world!  

Feeling under-appreciated as an employee, a nonexistent work-life balance, financial struggles, getting out of bad relationships – these are the most common triggers that push women to become entrepreneurs. Tell us about your trigger?

From experiencing sexual harassment and a constant struggle between a work-life balance, I learned that working for male-dominated companies wasn’t my long term career path. In my head and heart, I knew I would open a business one day once I was financially ready to do so or so I thought. 

I wasn’t ready neither mentally nor financially but after my VP of Sales at my former position made a comment “You make enough money for your age.”, I responded back “It’s not about the money it’s about the opportunity, and age shouldn’t define your wealth.” 

Although I was always an overachiever and excelled beyond the goals expected from me, I constantly felt undervalued and underpaid by my employers because I was a woman. This was my chance to prove everyone wrong, especially those who doubted me.

That comment was the breaking point in my career where my eyes opened up and it was time to make a major change. I wasn’t happy and I was not going to tolerate being mistreated any longer. I started forming my business idea and plan while I was working full time as an Account Executive. For 6 months, my days consisted of me running on 3-4 hours of sleep a day because my end goal for that year was to launch my business, Eternal Fleur, within 6 months and resign from my full-time job. 

My goal was achieved in just under 6 months and we were up live online and I ended up resigning from my job that week as well. By far one of the most difficult decisions that I’ve made but happy I did it!

How did you come up with your business idea?

There was a trend on Instagram with models holding huge floral bouquets in Russia and Dubai. I was quite fascinated with the concept and haven’t really seen anything similar in the US market. 

I started researching the floral market to see if I could find any floral suppliers but an issue that I was running into was that fresh flowers required special refrigeration and the inventory had to be sold pretty quickly to stay in business. Then after multiple discussions with the floral suppliers, I was introduced to a rose farm in Ecuador that specializes not only in fresh roses but as well as preserved roses. I haven’t seen preserved roses but when I received the samples I fell in love.

For those of you who don’t know preserved roses or flowers are coated in glycerin, a wax-like solution, that is used in a bar of candy or soap and it allows the flower to last a year or longer without water or sunlight. This was the perfect solution for fresh flowers because they look and feel just like fresh flowers. This was when Eternal Fleur was born and my goal was to become an e-commerce floral shop that specializes in long-lasting floral arrangements. 

Have you had support from someone, even if just encouragement? Who was that and how did it help you?

I have multiple mentors and close friends who are business owners. Honestly, if it weren’t for them, I don’t think I would be where I am right now with Eternal Fleur and as an individual as well today. 

One of my life-changing mentors is Sam Bregman whom I met at the beginning of this year. I came across his information online after reading an article about relationships and something that stuck out was “You need to be the best version of yourself to attract the right person for you.” After reaching out to him, we clicked right away and Sam helped me with everything from legal advice to operations and everything else in between. But the best thing he’s done for me is motivated me to keep my head up high and keep building my road to success.

Female entrepreneurs are often underestimated and overlooked. Have you ever felt at a disadvantage?

Unfortunately, I have felt disadvantaged as a woman especially when it comes to raising capital. Did you know that only 3% of VC firms invest in women-owned businesses? It’s definitely been one of the most difficult challenges I’ve experienced recently but I know I will be able to overcome it soon and raise the capital that is needed to grow and scale Eternal Fleur. 

I’ve had other obstacles in my business where I had to face difficult challenges being a female entrepreneur but I always took a step back from the problem, accessed it, and made a plan to resolve it. I believe that anything is possible even if you’re a woman. You just need to get creative and figure out how to achieve your end goal because when you do, you will feel like even the impossible is possible.

Some say it’s hard work, others say it’s talent and resourcefulness that play a crucial role for success in entrepreneurship? Which traits have been instrumental for your success so far? And why?

Based on my experience of being a CEO and Founder, I’ve discovered that it’s a mix of hard work and talent that will make you a successful entrepreneur. You have to be willing to do things that don’t always make you feel comfortable in order to attain certain goals. 

For example, I was never passionate about finance and I couldn’t afford a CFO in the beginning so I had to ask for help and then I taught myself how to create P&L’s, balance sheets, and other reports. 

You have to assess what your strengths and weaknesses are as an entrepreneur and then either hire a team who can balance out your weaknesses or learn how you can do the task yourself. You never know, your weaknesses may actually turn into your strengths. Another thing that has made me successful is my experience in fashion and consumer goods which helped me understand product placement, sales, marketing, customer service, and production and logistics. 

When I was working for employers, I always was eager to learn and took notes because I knew I’d need the information one day. From experience, I strongly feel that it is important to be willing to learn because even when you become an entrepreneur you will be not only teaching but learning every day.

What excites you the most about being an entrepreneur?

That’s a great question! 

Well, I love being able to have a work-life balance which means if I want to go to a workout class at 10 am and then work the rest of the day I can do so. Anytime I have something important to do or I need to take a personal day, I don’t have to ask anyone and I just do it. 

Another thing I enjoy about being an entrepreneur is that I love what I do and I am passionate about it. I’ve created a floral brand that creates emotions for consumers and we are not only able to create more career opportunities for women but as well as focus on sustainability programs and philanthropy. It truly feels amazing waking up doing what you love to do and giving back to the community at the same time.

Share with us some of the worst business advice you’ve ever received?

Well, the best advice that I received is not to take business advice from people who do not understand your business. But the worst business advice is investing too much capital in something you have a gut feeling won’t work but another company or employee is pushing you to invest. 

If you are going to invest then let it be a small amount of capital, this way if the idea fails you don’t lose too much. I always say trust your gut and do all of your research before you commit to a decision you aren’t 100% sure about.

You’ve got a high stake investment opportunity. Pitch your business in 150 words.

Real floral arrangements preserved to last 365+ days without water or sunlight.

What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to inspire aspiring entrepreneurs?

Be consistent and persistent in everything that you do and NEVER GIVE UP. There will be days where you feel like the most successful person and then there will be days where you feel like your world is falling apart. This is all a part of the journey. If you have a vision, make sure you write it down and create a plan before you execute. And always keep an agenda!

What are your goals for the upcoming year?

The goal for Eternal Fleur is to raise capital and then scale and grow the business in 2021. We have other goals as well within those major goals which include expanding our operations, launching new product lines, and channels of distribution.