The Fearless Visionary NADIA SHOMALI CEO AND FOUNDER OF THE CHERRY SHARE

Shomali’s Background  Born in Amman, Jordan  Graduated from University of Jordan in 2001Computer Science Major  80% of Middle Eastern Women attend a University/College  Only 15% of women are in the workplace  Middle Eastern Women are expected to marry as young as 15 years old.

Shomali’s Background  First obligation as a Muslim wife is: children, wife and home  Women are only allowed to work with other woman  Worked in programming, sales and online marketing from 2002 to  Mother of two twin girls Sandy and Natalie age 5

Company’s beginnings  Nadia created a website called FoodLve for her and her friends to share healthy recipes.  Nadia realized the website was being used around the world, so she decide to quit her fulltime job as an IT tech and pursue her passion: healthy food.  The Cherry Share was created as a business from Nadia’s love of cooking and feeding her family healthy foods.  Moved to the United States 7 months ago to pursue the growth and development of her company.

Management Philosophy  Started company with an X Theory management philosophy.  Now has a combination of both X and Y Theory management philosophy.  Social media as a user-generated medium  Prosumption behavior: combining both production and consumption.  Promotion management: use experience to predict involvement of users and products to offer.  Business Model: concept/audience with emphasis on most recent activities.

Difficulties Encountered  Hard for women entrepreneurs to start business in Middle East  Major and experience not in management  Competition from competitors with little money.  Hard to manage cash flow  Lack of investors  Finding committed team members (outsourcing for data management and promotions)

Problem Solved!  Moved to U.S. and located company with Plug and Play: Silicone Valley in a Box!  Took a business management course and spent lots of time learning the industry.  Attracted investors and set herself apart from competition by creating new value through the ability to purchase from website.

 Find, Share, Blog, List and Buy All About Food In One Place!  Social Discovery Platform Website  Company started in 2013 with over 6 million views per month (90% from U.S.) 5K active users and over 500 records or content files.  Currently has 100k active users with 50,000 views per day.  Company revenue includes: Commission on sales from products sold through website, Targeted advertisements and promoted posts.

Future of  1Million Active users by 2016  Switching focus from commission of products to user activity to attract more users  Increase to over 1000 Grants  Attract new investors  Possibility of using DataSift to find out what users are looking for to provide hard to find specialty food items and increase commission revenue.

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