When Marve Frazier created Bossip.com with humble beginnings in 2006, she took on every position to get the website going. Since then the gossip website attracts millions of monthly visitors who are searching for their fix on celebrity gossip. Over time, Bossip has been an influential trendsetter on everything that is relevant in the urban entertainment industry. The site was voted Best Hip Hop blog by VH1 Hip-Hop Honors, “Best Online Hip Hop Site” for the 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards, and recognition in top media outlets like Entertainment Weekly, LA Times, New York Times, CNN, TMZ, and more. A year after Bossip’s launch, Marve and an anonymous partner began building Moguldom, which has since expanded to control four other websites like Hip-Hop Wired, Atlanta Post, Madame Noire and StyleBlazer.
Marve recently talked with HHE’s Editor-in-Chief Dennis Byron about entrepreneurship and the importance of building relationships in the industry.
MF: “When starting a business, it is important in understanding that you will not automatically become successful and you have to suffer in the beginning. Also, you need to understand the business and monetize it to make it profitable.”
DB: Earlier in the panel discussion you said your company did not use investors, how hard was it to become successful without the use of investors?
MF: “Yes we do not have any investors. The hardest thing about that is majority of young companies involved with the media go out and buy all these material things, but what we did is use all of our revenue and placed it back into the company. We invested back on what we already have to make our value higher and that helped grow our business to make it more successful.”
DB: Please explain to our viewers how important is relationship building for those looking to start their own business?
MF: “For me, I try to maintain as many relationships I can. I’m like the queen when it comes to things like that. Over time you might burn some bridges or there might be some situations where people won’t believe in what you do. Still, you have to make sure every relationship you are in is beneficial to you but not by specially using somebody, but everything has to be mutual.”
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