Caterina Fake started as an entrepreneur at a very young age. She tells jokingly that her parents told her that she had to learn to make a living on her own, so she started selling her crayon drawings to her family when she was four years old.
Caterina studied English Literature in Vassar. She believes that this training gave her a superpower in Silicon Valley because it allowed her to see things differently. For this reason, Caterina often encourages entrepreneurs to see parts of themselves that are different from what most people expect from them, because “coming from a different direction is almost always an advantage.”
Caterina Fake is a pioneer of social media. She is known for being the founder of Flickr, the online community for sharing photos. However, she does not see Flickr as a Social Media platform. For her, it is more of a community where people can share and comment.
Fake considers that Flickr’s success was due to “timing.” Flickr arose at a time when the production of cameras was on the rise, but there was no place to place them.
Fake believes that the human factor in a company is crucial. Therefore, after Flickr has invested in companies that have this in mind, such as Etsy, Kickstarter, and Stack Overflow.
Currently, Caterina is an investor in Yes VC and directs the podcast Should This Exist?
Caterina Fake is considered a leader in Silicon Valley. Among her acknowledgments, she has received Bloomberg Businessweek’s “Best Leaders” in 2005, Forbes’s 2005 eGang, Fast Company’s Fast 50, and Red Herring’s 20 Entrepreneurs under 35. In 2006 she appeared on the list of the 100 most influential people of Time for his participation in Flickr.
