Security Check:
Feel free to call me Bella. I’m an obsessive compulsive inventor. I work as an innovation consultant and run my own startup called Never Liked It Anyway.

What’s your historical Los Angeles and New York connection?
New York has been my home for the last 5 years and LA is set to become my new home! My work with Never Liked It Anyway is bringing me out and I couldn’t be more thrilled. The site is an eBay for breakups, but more akin to an entertainment property (think He’s Just Not That Into You over eBay). Much of the interest and opportunity to develop the concept is coming out of LA….and it’s coinciding perfectly with the onset of Winter! In very different ways, I fell in love with both cities when I first visited them. NYC was where I got my startup off the ground and LA will be were I evolve and grow it… well that’s the plan at least!

Describe your experience in LA and your experience in NYC
LA has come to represent unbridled opportunity, creativity and artistic collaboration – the kind of stuff that you move to America for. NYC has shown me similar opportunity and energy, albeit through a more measured and structured lens. It has a greater emphasis on getting things done, so talk quickly becomes action, and action gets respect!

What was the biggest challenge of moving from NYC to LA?
I’m not yet sure! Though I’ve just found out my Australian drivers license doesn’t count and I need to re-sit my drivers test… Parallel parking on the other side of the road? Ugh! 

How can NYC and LA best engage with each other?
The startup scene in LA is much closer connected to the entertainment world. I think we’ll be seeing more of that cross-over in the future – I believe ideas that can translate to any medium will win in the long-term. Silicon Alley has focused mainly on B2B, finance and tech and while it’s natural for each startup scene to have their own fortes, I think each could learn from each other. For example, Silicon Alley could certainly learn to popularize and socialize much of what it does, rather then keeping it stitched up and inpenetrable.

Favorite LA secret spot
I love Space B in venice… You can get a great latte and jam with a few other entrepreneurial minds, while eyeing some cute swimsuits.

Favorite NYC secret spot
A teeny tiny sake sake bar in Alphabet City called Satsko. I’ve never had a night there that didn’t quietly escalate into some form of nonsensical debauch.

What would you be doing if you weren’t working on Never Liked It Anyway?
Hopefully hatching other ideas and jamming with other entrepreneurs. Or I’d start writing that book I’ve been talking about…

Inflight Entertainment: tell us what song/album, TV show, podcast, or web videos you’ve been watching lately.

I’ve been spending some QT with Damon Albarn’s solo album Everyday Robots. And theWelcome to Nightvale podcast series – completely nutty and completely genius.

From the 2462 Miles newsletter: connecting NEW YORK CITY + LOS ANGELES