Name: Rachelle Hruska
Job: Founder of the party Web site Guest of a Guest. The Nebraska-born new media entrepreneur launched the blog in 2008 with her then-boyfriend, Cameron Winklevoss, best known for the legal battle he and his twin brother waged against Mark Zuckerberg related to Facebook. In July, Hruska bought out her ex and became the sole owner.
Guest of a Guest is part editorial, part pay-for-play (the site’s frequently hired by brands and publicists to promote events). Hruska taps college kids to snap shots of revelers on the social circuits in New York, the Hamptons, LA and DC. After events, the parties’ attendees search the site and tag photos of themselves — 400,000 people have done it so far.
Hruska got her start in New York as a research assistant at a financial firm that invested in high-growth companies. New to the city’s social scene, she started blogging about what she noticed.
“It was bizarre to me,” she says. “Kids paying $2,000 for a table? I’m from Nebraska. I was fascinated.”
At the time, the blogosphere was relatively uncluttered, though Gawker was picking up steam.
The site’s name is a nod to the inordinate number of people Hruska met who crashed with friends of friends in the Hamptons. These days, the entrepreneur has her own weekend pad in Montauk.
Office: The office, in the Meatpacking District, is hidden in the basement of an unmarked building, which makes it seem more like a secret club than a business. A cement floor and eclectic furnishings fill the space. A handful of 20-somethings are scattered around communal desks. Pounding music fills the room.
Hruska, not yet 30, is a wispy blonde. In ripped jeans, a white button-down and gold flip-flops, she looks wholesome and hip, wearing a Southwestern-style green-and-red necklace by Dannijo.
Commute: Hruska relocated her office from the Bowery last July when she was pregnant with her son. “I wanted to walk back and forth,” she explains. (She lives three blocks away.)
Décor: Hruska’s husband, a hotelier who owns chic inns including the Bowery, helped her decorate the “cheap and cheerful” office with castoffs — a black-and-red Persian carpet and a giant gold baroque mirror among them.
Desk: The desks are doors on sawhorses. They’re dominated by monitors — employees have two each.
“We’re a photo site, so everyone has the photos on one monitor and writes on the other,” she laughs.
The office is steeped in tech, but Hruska keeps a running list of notes in a marbled journal.
Detritus: A collage Hruska made with friends at a party hangs on the back wall. It features photos of New York in the ’70s sprayed with neon paint. “We did that in 2008, but it feels like a lifetime ago,” says Hruska wistfully.
A painting of Audrey Hepburn propped in a corner was a gift from an anonymous fan — it’s a reference to Holly Golightly, the alias Hruska used when she first started the site.
A surfboard in the conference room is for decoration, although Hruska’s husband is known to hit the waves.
Routine: The entrepreneur works from home until 11 most mornings. On Wednesdays, she holds weekly “bully meetings” (a brainstorming alternative) where staffers present what they’re working on.
Ironically, at day’s end, Hruska turns into a homebody: “I want to watch the party on my screen, but I never want to go,” she says.