About the Founder
Alexa is the founder of EatingNYC – an influential digital brand which has amassed over 320,000 Instagram followers who salivate daily over its mouthwatering images of food in New York City. But her brand didn’t just become successful overnight – it was a long journey filled with grit, obstacles, and hard work.
How Alexa Got Her Start
Alexa always had an inkling for food. Before Alexa started EatingNYC, she wrote for a lifestyle magazine where she cultivated her interests in social media, communications, and sharing new restaurants with others. Five years ago, she decided to create the EatingNYC Instagram account, where she could combine her interests and help others explore the best part of New York City – its food.
Subsequently, Alexa entered the marketing and hospitality industry to develop the necessary skills to build EatingNYC. This led to the launch of her first website and thus began her journey of turning her passion into her career.
It took Alexa about three years of hard work to see real traction from users and brands. In fact, she had a full-time job while working on EatingNYC part-time. Eventually, EatingNYC became so successful and profitable that she left her job to work full-time on EatingNYC. While it was scary at first, she never looked back.
So how did she do it? Well, the barriers to entry were relatively low and she could run her Instagram with no significant costs. Her main costs were her website and photography. Today, while she has a handful of part-time employees – a manager, a photographer, and an intern – EatingNYC is all Alexa.
Her Relationship with Reliable Bits
Alexa was looking to improve her website’s functionality and user experience in order to increase user engagement. That’s when she turned to the team in Reliable Bits. While Alexa had the branding and hospitality expertise, she knew that Reliable Bits had the technical expertise to make her vision a reality.
Alexa worked with Reliable Bits to completely transform her website. By working with Deepak, she could maintain complete creative ownership without having to worry about the technical aspects of re-working her website. Alexa was able to stay involved every step of the way. The largest undertaking became the site’s search engine, which has now become a critical component of the website. Reliable Bits transformed her vision into a new website which has allowed Alexa to increase engagement and grow her business – in fact, check out her recently re-launched shop.
There is nothing Alexa would change about her path building EatingNYC into the successful business it is today. Her advice for all entrepreneurs is to be persistent. You have to be patient because it may take longer than you thought and you have to stay optimistic even if things are not going your way. Most importantly, enjoy the journey.