PartySlate’s Julie Novack on quitting her job, raising $15M, and surviving the pandemic

In 2014, everything was going well for Julie Novack. She had spent her career at digital marketing agencies, at times with $50M budgets and in charge of 250 people. It was a fulfilling career that most would dream of.  Except Julie’s dream was the idea that she couldn’t stop talking about for years – a content-rich marketplace that inspires people planning events and connects them with the leading event companies across the country and the world — all in one place. That idea was PartySlate, which now has raised over $15M and has over 15,000 users.

Tune in to hear Julie’s inspiring story.

Transcript

Julie Novack: I will admit I cried in the car a few times. Like, you know, it is. Very painful. When it’s your baby that you’re working so hard on you feel like you’ve got good progress, you have things, and then you get no, no, no, no. 

Dana Kadwell: Welcome to Hustle and Gather, a podcast about inspiring the everyday entrepreneur to take the leap. I’m Dana

Courtney Hopper: and I’m Courtney. 

Dana: And we are two sisters who have started multiple businesses together. And yes, it is as messy as you think. Because we know that starting a business, isn’t easy. 

Courtney: I mean, we’ve done it four times. And on this show, we talk about the ups and downs of the hustle and the reward at the end of the journey. 

Dana: And we love helping small businesses succeed, whether that is through our venue consulting, speaking, or team training, we love to motivate others to take that big leap. 

Courtney: You could just use our misadventures to normalize the crazy that is being an entrepreneur, because every entrepreneur makes mistakes, 

Dana: but we like to call those unsuccessful attempts around here.

Courtney: But we know us just part of the process, and today we’re learning from Julie Novak. Julie is the CEO and co-founder of Party Slate; a photo rich website where leading event professionals share their work and build their brand. With over 20 years of digital marketing experience with some of the biggest brands in the world, Julie is excited to bring her expertise to the events industry.

Since its founding in 2015, over 15,000 of the country’s top event professionals and venues have uploaded over 1 million event photos to their beautiful profile pages. She’s absolutely incredible, and we are excited to have her. Julie, welcome to Hustle and Gather.

Julie: Thank you so much. I’m so honored to be invited to chat with the sisters.

Courtney: I know, but feel like we’ve done so much chatting already. Like, I feel like I know you very well. So 

where is this conversation gonna go?

Julie: I don’t know. I’m excited to see where it goes and I like that there’s no prep questions or anything. So it’s just like, Fire away.

Full Episode Transcript

Hustle and Gather is hosted by Courtney Hopper and Dana Kadwell, and is produced by Earfluence.  Courtney and Dana’s hustles include C&D Events, Hustle and Gather, and The Bradford Wedding Venue.

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