One of the most influential was her time at MySpace, the most commonly used social media platform in the world until Facebook took its place in the market in 2009. Her time there gave her an inside view of the various parts of the company and what made it all work.
Her job specifically focused on content and she worked closely with security in regards to user activity, threats to the site, and then was promoted to oversee the new “apps” project to design the system for approving or denying apps on the platform. Additionally, she noticed one department was missing, one that would oversee the groups and forums section, a place filled with trolls and hackers. She stated her case and with approval of management and the director, she made a new department… bringing her to oversee two departments at MySpace.
After MySpace fell at the beginning of the 2008 recession, Jennifer went back to school – pursuing a degree in science and landing with a degree in Art History and Religious Studies. She saw how the corporate preferred people with degrees, no matter what it was in, and wanted to make sure not having one wouldn’t limit her chances as getting ahead. She put herself through school attending full-time classes and working part-time for the first two years and full-time the last two years.
First Successful Launch
During the second two years she was approached by the founder of BioMethod, a beauty product that was ready to be launched but had no infrastructure. She wore multiple hats and oversaw the website design, artwork, sales, shipping, import, and marketing systems for this start up. Jennifer used this as an opportunity to create a significant milestone in her business career. She found a high-level marketing expert who was the Vice President of Global Marketing for Mattel for 2 decades to mentor her and worked with him for the next 5 years. Not only was she attending school full-time, but she had a full-time job and spent every last hour reading marketing books and studying different technologies available for selling products online. In one year she was able to bring BioMethod to profit and carry it to the point of VC investment.
After leaving BioMethod, she started a consulting company focusing on start-ups, working with various companies in e-commerce, beauty, and fashion such as Trendy Butler, Tailor Vintage, and Yogi Surprise. She began noticing some interests and values were repeating themselves in what she wanted to do.
She wanted support people struggling to work, struggling to stay afloat, or generally struggling financially. Her desire to help companies succeed was based on the opportunities that companies provided for employment. After 3 years she closed down her business and decided she wanted to be a founder like her clients. She focused on her photography while exploring new ideas and inventions.
The beginning of Community Living
During this transition, she realized she had neglected her personal and home life for her work, finding herself lacking in social time and that the friends around her were not really compatible with who she was. Knowing she is highly focused on her work, she envisioned a new home with other entrepreneurs who would also be friends, where the house was beautiful and the people would be there to support one another, share ideas, or just share company. So she created a community home for creative entrepreneurs in the Hollywood Hills as a side passion while she figured out what to build next.
The beginning of Friendsmates
Jennifer has discovered how vital our home life is to our success in anything. A peaceful and stable home where we can readily have our social needs met, that is compatible with us and our lifestyle, where we have support in case we need anything, is so helpful if you’re trying to accomplish anything. She believes in the power of community and its role in any kind of lifestyle, whether your goals are to build a business, stay healthy, be a student, a parent, or more… And she built FriendsMates to help change and elevate the current disconnected culture of roommates, who don’t really have a relationship.. and create a new world that combines collectivism and individualism, and fills in the gap in a struggling roommate culture.