About me

I am an accidental VC turned social media enthusiast and entrepreneur.

After spending five years in venture capital, I crossed over to the other side and started my first company called Work It, Mom! www.workitmom.com is now the leading online community for working moms. Along the way I fell in love with social media, online communities, and blogging and have embarked on a career path entirely different from what I ever imagined. In addition to continuing to run Work It, Mom! I recently joined an exciting new startup, DailyGrommet.com, as the Chief Community Officer. Daily Grommet is a social media product discovery channel and the company — and my role — combine so much of what I am passionate about — helping small businesses, discovering unique, creative products, and building an engaged online community.

Me in 10 bullet points:

• I grew up here and immigrated to the US when I was 14.
• I am married and I am a mom to one hyper-energetic little girl.
• My two talents: I can speak English without an accent and tie a cherry stem with my tongue.
• Work It, Mom! is technically the second company I’ve started. This was the first. (But I kept my bill-paying job that time.)
• I love to write. I wrote a book and got it published. Short story: It was fun and frustrating.
• I have annoyingly neat handwriting. When I was in elementary school I used to re-write an entire notebook if I’d made a mistake so that I would not have to cross anything out. Yes, I am a neat freak.
• Things I love, besides my family: Paris, really good paper and pens, walking, Salad Nicoise in a big bowl, anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, silly pop music, pomagranates, watching a great movie with no one sitting in front of me at the movie theater, dark chocolate, being anyplace where I forget to stress about the day-to-day, Pilates, funky jewelry.
• I have two names. My family and friends call me Natasha. Everyone else calls me Nataly. Yes, there is a story behind this.
• I am a New Yorker. I no longer live in New York, but it will forever be my home.
• I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur but I didn’t know it until recently.