Stephanie Kaplan, Co-founder/CEO/Editor-in-Chief of Her Campus Media (HerCampus.com)
Stephanie Kaplan’s BIO
Stephanie is co-founder, CEO & Editor-in-Chief of Her Campus Media (HerCampus.com), the #1 online magazine for college women and an innovative college marketing firm. As CEO & Editor-in-Chief, Stephanie has grown Her Campus to over 600,000 monthly readers with branches at 200+ colleges nationwide and formed content partnerships with Seventeen magazine, SELF magazine and The Huffington Post. Stephanie and her two co-founders launched Her Campus in September 2009 after winning Harvard’s business plan competition, and have since been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, Forbes.com, Yahoo Finance, and Mashable among others, and worked with clients including Victoria’s Secret, Ann Taylor LOFT, The Body Shop, and Intel. In 2011, Her Campus was a Gold Winner and named “Best All-Around Team” in MassChallenge, the world’s largest startup competition.
Stephanie is a 2010 graduate of Harvard University where she majored in Psychology and minored in Economics. Stephanie spent Summer 2009 as an American Society Of Magazine Editors (ASME) intern atSELF magazine at Condé Nast Publications, and Summer 2008 as a Features Intern at Seventeen magazine at the Hearst Corporation. Stephanie has been named to BusinessWeek’s 25 Under 25 Best Young Entrepreneurs, Inc. magazine’s 30 Under 30 Coolest Young Entrepreneurs, Glamour magazine’s 20 Amazing Young Women, and The Boston Globe’s 25 Most Stylish Bostonians.
Follow Stephanie on Twitter: @stephaniekaplan
IN THE SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW
1. What prompted you to start Her Campus?
Stephanie: My co-founders (Windsor and Annie) and I were running a fashion and lifestyle magazine at Harvard. We transitioned the magazine online and girls at schools all over the country started reading it. We realized there was a need for a national media outlet targeted towards college women, and that we would readily be able to find writers and readers for it.
2. As we all know, there is no typical day in the life of an entrepreneur. Please share with us a sample of your day start to finish.
Stephanie: Check emails that came in overnight, meet with Windsor and Annie about strategy, edit drafts of articles, send content to the web team, meet with our Manager of Campus Development, Brittany, about campus branch recruitment, have a call with a potential Her Campus partner, answer emails, look over contracts for new clients, get drinks with a contact who is in town, go to a networking event after work.
3. What are your ‘can’t live without’ apps?
Stephanie:
4. What are your tricks for time management?
Stephanie: If there is something that absolutely has to get done by the end of the day, do it first and don’t do less important things until it is done. Always keep a to-do list. Schedule recurring tasks into specific blocks within your week each week.
5. What was the best advice you received when you started your career?
Stephanie: Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.
6. Given the current economic climate, what has been your strategy for building awareness of your business for short term and long term growth?
Stephanie: We are focused on fostering a community of women who consider themselves a part of the Her Campus team and work on a Her Campus branch at one of our 200+ campuses, since they then act as publicity agents and ambassadors for our site and our brand.
7. What is your proudest achievement as an accomplished entrepreneur?
Stephanie: My co-founders and I were named to BusinessWeek’s 25 Under 25 Best Young Entrepreneurs and Inc. magazine’s 30 Under 30 Coolest Young Entrepreneurs.
8. How do you achieve balance in your life?
Stephanie: I recognize the point at which doing more work is actually going to make me less productive rather than more, and I don’t feel guilty for watching tv or shopping online or going to the gym instead of doing something more substantive sometimes!
9. Your 3 top book recommendations?
Stephanie:
- [amazon_link id=”0307351130″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Basic Black[/amazon_link] by Cathie Black
- [amazon_link id=”0684801469″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]A Farewell to Arms[/amazon_link] by Ernest Hemingway
- [amazon_link id=”0452011876″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Atlas Shrugged[/amazon_link] by Ayn Rand- this is next on my list to read!
10. What are your most rewarding charitable involvements?
Stephanie: I do alumni interviews for Harvard and I am involved with the Harvard Hillel.
11. Who has influenced your career the most?
Stephanie: My dad. He always reminds me to aim higher.
12. What is your advice to someone interested in entrepreneurship?
Stephanie: Just go for it! Less planning, more doing.
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