Soraya Darabi on Social Media, Startups and Empowering Founders

Today’s guest is entrepreneur and investor Soraya Darabi.

Soraya started her career as the New York Times’ first-ever Manager of Digital Partnerships and Social Media, right at the dawn of social media’s first wave. There, she positioned the global news leader on fast-growing social networks such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, and partnered with startups and to establish award-winning campaigns.

Soraya went on to co-found the application Foodspotting, which was name App of the Year by Apple and Wired Magazine and was later acquired by OpenTable. She also co-founded Zady - a shopping platform focused on sustainable fashion in 2013 which was named by Fast Company as one of “The World’s Top Ten Most Innovative Companies in Retail.”

She is now co-founder and General Partner at TMV – a venture fund which focuses on investing in purposeful startups reimagining the future.

Soraya is also the founder of Transact Global - a virtual community for diverse emerging fund managers. She has also given great talks all over the world and was host of the podcast “Business Schooled.”

In this interview, Soraya opens up about her background from riding around in her father’s yellow cab as a child in New York to how and why her focus now is to empower more underrepresented founders and investors in the tech space.

Soraya is an absolute force to be reckoned with and I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and I hope you do too.

Enjoy!

Soraya  Twitter / Instagram / TMV website / Transact Global website

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