From Mom Bloggers to Tech Innovators: Part I

Nancy Friedman and Rebecca Levey

At a recent event, I was chatting with NYC blogger Nancy Friedman (From Hip to Housewife). We were discussing KidVuz, the new online video review site “by and for kids”, that she and fellow blogger Rebecca Levey (Beccarama) co-founded.  Nancy mentioned that she never imagined that blogging would have led them to their newest tech venture.  I asked Nancy and Rebecca if I could ask them some questions about their evolution from bloggers to technology leaders and they were kind enough to share their stories.

Prior to blogging, Rebecca started her career as a copywriter at an entertainment advertising firm working on campaigns for various clients including ABC Television. She has also worked as a freelance writer for many years. Rebecca started blogging four years ago as a way to get back into writing after taking some years off from work when her twin daughters were born.  NYC Moms (a part of the former Silicon Valley Moms series of sites) was her first introduction to blogs and provided the perfect opportunity for her to try “something new” with her writing.

In her pre-blogging life, Nancy was a television promo producer for almost twenty years. During that time, she wrote and produced work for clients such as HBO, Lifetime, and Nickelodeon. Nancy approached blogging as an opportunity to write for herself rather than to write “by committee” like she did during her television years.  Besides, Nancy joked, “I figured, why write for money when you can blog for free?”

While blogging has had its challenges for the two, the good has definitely outweighed the bad.  Rebecca shared that finding the motivation to consistently prepare fresh content in a limited amount of words is the biggest test. However, the immediate response to her written words as she watches her blog grow coupled with the “incredible online community” has more than compensated for the pitfalls. For Nancy, getting away from being consumed with stats/ratings in order to remain focused on writing quality content for herself and her audience was the biggest initial hurdle.  Like Rebecca, Nancy pointed at the online and offline community of amazing women as the highlight of her blogging life. In fact, it was the combination of both online and offline connections that brought Rebecca and Nancy together. After “meeting” online through the NYC Moms Blog almost four years ago, the two truly meshed when they met offline.  While at a cocktail party event to celebrate the NYC Moms launch, the two realized that they were both writers trying to figure out what blogging was all about.  (They also bonded over shopping for twins, since the two moms both happen to have a set.)

Be sure to tune in to Part II later this week where I will discuss how Rebecca and Nancy’s blogging friendship evolved into a thriving business partnership.

Post images courtesy of FromHiptoHousewife.com and Beccarama.com respectively