Episode 18: Rachelle Hruska, Founder of Guest of a Guest | The Digital Media Platform for People, Places, Parties & Nightlife

Rachelle Hruska, Founder of Guest of a Guest, steps on to the New York Launch Pod to discuss the founding of her digital media platform and its recent expansion into weddings. Guest of Guest traces its genesis to 2007, when Rachelle was taking photos at various events on a Treo phone and posting them on her blog.  What began as a form of self-expression gained a following of influential people and the site organically blossomed into a business that caused Rachelle to forego business and medical schools in order to grow the platform. With the tagline “People, Places, Parties & Nightlife” Guest of a Guest built its brand by fulfilling a cultural niche rather than using algorithms to gain traffic at volume.  As Rachelle explains the ethos behind the site, “we want to be your cool friend.”  With the best social calendar in the city, an array of interesting articles and millions of event photographs, Guest of a Guest is able to attract web traffic of an audience that wants to be at the forefront of new trends. Eschewing corporate fundraising, Guest of a Guest has remained fiercely independent and grown to 15 full time employees and 60 photographers.  On a daily basis, the site delivers engaging content to its target audience of 18-35 year olds, with an even male–female split that has made the platform attractive to premier brands including Dolce & Gabbana and Cointreau. Four years in the making, Guest of a Guest is now launching a wedding site with the goal of having 50 new wedding albums up per week.  The idea behind starting a wedding site is to be community focused and fill a void left by traditional media.  As Rachelle explains the wedding albums will gain a unique perspective on these major life events and the related editorial content and calendar will be engaging to the site’s audience. Listen to the episode to get a ‘behind the scenes’ look at Guest of a Guest, how the company has grown with its sights now set internationally, and how it stays competitive in the ever shifting landscape of digital media.   Transcript of the episode available here: http://nylaun.ch/GuestofaGuestTr More on Guest of a Guest: http://www.guestofaguest.com/