Female Founders: Vanessa Gordon of East End Taste On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Set boundaries right away. As a business owner and founder, you have full control over your working experience; therefore, boundaries must be in place first and foremost. Always ensure your channels of communication are in writing. Contracts should always be reviewed by a legal team in advance and each contract must be thorough. Expectations, budgets, rates, services offered, and more should always be clearly layed out and written. I have invested in hiring a team to help create these contracts and terms. I strongly recommend any founder and business owner do the same. Lastly, I make sure these contracts and terms are updated annually.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Vanessa Gordon.
Vanessa Gordon is the CEO and Publisher of East End Taste, a digital sustainable travel and food publication based in the Hamptons and in the UK. She is also the Founder of the annual summer event, the Hamptons Interactive Brunch. She lives in the Hamptons with her family.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I began my company initially as a passion project, or quite simply out of a sincere love for writing. East End Taste grew from humble beginnings as a personal blog documenting my experiences as I became reacquainted with where I grew up on the eastern end of Long Island (the Hamptons). At the time it had been two years since I graduated from NYU Steinhardt School of Education and I was raising my infant daughter. I had stopped teaching English as a Second Language full-time to dedicate my time to being a new mom. It was then that I started East End Taste to keep my mind active and to help me stay on track with writing without having to juggle time sensitive articles or deadlines.
I eventually became self-taught with the skills needed to eventually transition my blog into a business. East End Taste has now expanded to what is now a digital media and marketing company with an ever-growing international presence.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
Most recently, my web team and I are heavily focused on creating more video content, with a goal for 2023 to increase our video content by 75%. Much of the video content will be for social media, targeting LinkedIn and Instagram. I am also focused on continuing to build my personal brand as a leading Hamptons lifestyle expert; therefore, much of the video content we will be producing will also include b-roll for my personal website and my event’s website (the Hamptons Interactive Brunch) that I am in the process of updating and will unveil in the spring of 2023. As someone who is most comfortable working behind the scenes as a writer, this change has me leaping full force out of my comfort zone. I am very excited about this new venture!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
During the summer months in the Hamptons, I attend on average between 3–4 events per day on the weekends and between 15–20 events per month. With running about and getting ready in between each function, there is always a considerable probability for a fashion mishap. After everything from my children hugging me with tomato sauce on their fingers and rubbing it on my white trousers to forgetting to bring my flats to ease my aching feet, I have finally created a checklist for what to always have on hand during event season.
I now keep a selection of the following in my vehicle at all times during event season in the Hamptons: comb, hairspray, ballet flats, trousers, an extra blouse, little black dress, and eyeglasses in case a contact lense falls out or gets damaged.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I am grateful to so many individuals that are a part of my life. In addition to members of my immediate family and longtime friends, one person who comes to mind is my friend and mentor, Patrice. We met through our mutual friend, Jonathan in early 2020 and Patrice has been a significant proponent on helping to propel me and my ideas into fruition. We speak on the phone biweekly and she always takes the time to guide me in the right direction and help to organize the constant flow of ideas that are always brewing in my mind. If it were not for Patrice, I probably would not have taken the leap to create a significant overall expansion within my business in 2021 as well as focus on my own PR plan.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
I instantly think back to my recent trip to Egypt where I relearned the history of female pharoahs and roles of women in ancient Egypt. In ancient Egypt, women were equal amongst men. Even in typical male-dominated roles, women in upper class societies received equal pay, were able to buy and sell land, and receive an education.
In today’s times, still there is much to be done when it comes to paving the way for women to have not only equal rights but equal opportunities. The roles of women in the work force have only started to shift signifcantly in the past 50 years. Remember, it has only been 102 years since women in America were guaranteed the right to vote! We as a society need to continue down this strong and steady pathway in support of women. It is essential as we continue to work to empower women and encourage more opportunities for leadership roles.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
Provide more accessible resources for female founders. Some examples may include more local support/networking groups, social circles, and the like. Giving more women an opportunity to voice their ideas and concerns is so critical to creating this path for success.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
As a founder, CEO and owner of my business, I have not only the freedom but capability of coordinating my own work schedule from home while balancing home and family life. Sometimes, family life brings greater and much more responsibilities, and I am able to choose to focus on my children and their needs. For instance, the summer months are my busiest for local events and happenings, and the fall and winter months are busiest for international travel.
I feel so empowered knowing that I have full control over my schedule and the workload I choose to take on. Starting my own business was one of if not the best decisions I ever made for myself.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
The biggest myth that comes to mind right away is that we have it easier than anyone else. As a founder, as opposed to other positions I have held in my life thus far (fitness trainer and English as a second language instructor), my job is tremendously more challenging. Not only do I have to maintain my expertise within my specific field as a Publisher, I also have to have a basic to intermediate understanding and skill in all other departments within my media company. IT/tech, marketing, accounting, web development, etc. I need to understand these jobs and also have to manage each department, respectively. With this being said, I enjoy every aspect of what I do, and relay that notion on a regular basis. What it all comes down to is loving what you do, and that ultimately molds how successful you are as a founder.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
Everyone is certainly capable or has the potential to be a founder. Will everyone be a successful founder? Not necessarily. Success is determined by resilience, determination, dedication, and passion, among many other factors. Support from those around you is also crucial but it is up to you and you alone how successful you are. Remember, success has so many layers and can be very personal.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
1. Set boundaries right away. As a business owner and founder, you have full control over your working experience; therefore, boundaries must be in place first and foremost. Always ensure your channels of communication are in writing. Contracts should always be reviewed by a legal team in advance and each contract must be thorough. Expectations, budgets, rates, services offered, and more should always be clearly layed out and written. I have invested in hiring a team to help create these contracts and terms. I strongly recommend any founder and business owner do the same. Lastly, I make sure these contracts and terms are updated annually.
2. Your business is not always a reflection of you, and vice versa. As I am also in the process of building my personal brand, I have created a clear separation between myself and my business in terms of branding and messaging. A clear example is I have built my own website highlighting my personal brand and services I offer that are separate of East End Taste. This may not be a goal for everyone, but as I prefer to not be the ‘face’ of my business, I am choosing to take more of a backseat role as my business continues to expand.
3. It is always acceptable to ask questions. I am still learning new skills and new methods on a daily basis. At first, I was always concerned about asking questions. As I have now overcome that fear, I now enjoy learning about everything from new apps and platforms to creative initiatives and research tactics. Techonology always continues to evolve and as a digital platform, we must continue to evolve with it.
4. Stay humble. Simple. Always be grateful, always be open to listening, and remember that there is always room for growth. Humility gives us that opportunity and desire to learn and it will keep you grounded.
5. There is always room for improvement and perfecting new skills. This also goes hand in hand with asking questions. Bettering our lives and continuing to learn and maintain curiousity is always a positive movement in the right direction. No matter how great things are around us, we can always make the world around us even better.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
The work my team and I do through East End Taste and my media company’s event series, the Hamptons Interactive Brunch, have made signifcant strides to making the world a better place. We have and continue to support several local nonprofit groups and initiatives including The Retreat, a local women’s shelter, as well as the Children’s Museum of the East End that has done so much to support moms and families on the East End of Long Island. Any way my business and I can help, we are always welcome to extend that support.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
What I love most about being a CEO and (female) founder is that I continue to inspire others around me to be their best selves and strive for greater independence and self-worth. I always love hearing from our East End Taste readers and those close around me, especially when they express that we have inspired them to pursue a specific passion project, travel or simply pursue an enterprise that means a great deal to them.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with Dolly Parton. I have been seeing her name in the news often in these recent months and have always admired her outstanding efforts outside her music career. I love how she created her charity, Imagination Library, which encourages literacy and mails free books to children. For instance, I am a tremendous advocate for the Little Free Library and many other initiatives to encourage people to read more. I would love to discuss this and more with Ms. Parton.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Thank you for this opportunity!
Female Founders: Vanessa Gordon of East End Taste On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.