Lara Eve Feltin
Biznik Business Networking Co-Founder

Biznik: Business Networking That Doesn't Suck

• http://www.biznik.com

I'm an indie too, a fine art photographer, although building Biznik has become a full time job. The desire to find a business networking community that both of us wanted to be a part of provided the motivation for my husband and I, Dan McComb, to start Biznik. We held our first business networking meeting in May of 2005 and invited all the creative indie entrepreneurs we knew. A dozen people showed up at the ungodly hour of 7am. Our intention was to organize a group of people we could share resources with and send work to. Known as the BizGroup, it was a gift to our community, but more importantly we hoped to simply drum up some more work for ourselves. Word began to spread and within 3 months we realized we were on to something. Biznik LLC was formed on November 1, 2005, Nadja Haldimann created a logo for us, Chris Haddad wrote a killer Manifesto, and Dan launched a new site to go along with it all.

[Christopher Johnson, aka The Name Inspector, wrote an excellent blog post on the name "Biznik".]

By December 2005 we had 100 members. By the anniversary of our first meeting on May 25, 2006 Biznik reached 751. As our membership grew so did the requests for more features, and Dan continued to develop the site in his spare time. It was now time to start charging some money so Biznik could support itself and continue to grow. In February 2006 we made it possible for members to submit and host their own events. Those who charged an event fee, passed 1/3 of the fee on to Biznik. In July 2006 Biznik began offering it's members web hosting services for $12/month. In September we introduced a supporting membership category that provided increased visibility on the site for $10/month. By November 1, 2006, Biznik's first anniversary, we were in the middle of developing the new site we launched in July 2007.

Biznik is an event-centric social network for the indie professional. Our mission is to help each other build our businesses through networking, collaboration and education. You can host events in your own area, and participate in the community online through the BizTalk forum and the event discussion boards. If there's anything I can do to help you to get Biznik working for you, please do not hesitate to drop me a line.

Connect people.

Two BS degrees from the Universtity of Washington in Art and Art History.

Lara Feltin graduated from the University of Washington with art and art history degrees in 1994. With experience in oil painting, photography and digital design, she pursued the path of an independent contractor, freelancing in graphic design, photography, and creative direction under the name Studio LEaF. In 2000 she began photographing babies and young children on black and white film, hand printing the silver gelatin prints. Studio LEaF Fine Art Photography continued to grow for five years until 2005, when along with her husband Dan McComb, she co-founded Biznik, a business-building social network for the independent professional. With over 6,000 members in 85 countries, Biznik members meet, network and support one another both online and at the member-organized face-to-face events.