Building a Platform for the $112 Billion Party Planning Industry - Julie Novack / Co-Founder of PartySlate

Julie Novack is the CEO and a Co-Founder of PartySlate, a startup building a two-sided platform that allows event professionals to share their work and party hosts to gain inspiration from it.  PartySlate has raised $2.6 million from investors including Hyde Park Venture Partners, Hyde Park Angels and InvestHER Ventures. In This Episode You Will Learn: Julie's motivation for starting PartySlate The importance of throwing a great party for fundraisers The wildest party someone has thrown using PartySlate How to use content marketing and promotional events to drive traffic Why you have to "super-please" one side of the market to start a two-sided marketplace How PartySlate decides where to focus their content marketing efforts The biggest benefits of going through Techstars What Julie would like to see Chicago tech improve on How we get more women involved in tech The importance of role models for women in tech The hardest thing about selling The 3 most critical elements to being a high performing salesperson What made her leave a large company for the startup world The value of dreaming outloud about your idea The fallacy of being protective about your idea How Julie decided to expand geographically before proving out the business model in one geography What their process looks for expanding in to new geographies The importance of owning and managing technology Advice for planning a great wedding Selected Links From The Episode: WiSTEM Favorite Books: Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen Bossypants by Tina Fey Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years by Mark Lewisohn Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight