My Business Partner is a Rockstar — Literally.

It’s not every day you get to call your business partner a Rockstar and it winds up being the perfect double entendre.  Not only is Jacquelyn Laufer my extraordinary co-founder and partner in Driver Digital, she’s also the female force behind the celebrated music duo – RYAL.

 

 

As a life-long entrepreneur I know first-hand how challenging and complicated a business partner relationship can be – many often suffering from high “divorce rates.” The right compliment of personalities, with a strict alignment of goals, yet a diversity in skill-set and ways of critical thinking is a complex formula that’s hard to get just right. Fortunately, Jacque and I are just the right amount of same… and the right amount of different to make this journey together feel like a pleasure cruise.

 

 

We first met over a decade ago – I was launching a bridal ecommerce startup and she was working for the web design and development firm we wanted to hire.  Our little business couldn’t afford her agency and had to select another partner, much to our eventual dismay.  We liked each other immediately, however, and committed to staying in touch.  We reconnected years later both working on new businesses.  We started collaborating, our connection grew and about four years later we officially became partners and launched Driver Digital.

 

 

From a professional standpoint, Jacque is in fact an ecommerce guru and Rockstar. Over the years she has helped shape and define the digital experiences of some of the best brands in the world.  She launched BLISS’s first mobile experience and IOS booking app, was an integral part in the first ever ecommerce website for New York’s famed Henri Bendel’s department store and she’s re-platformed brands like Creed and Anne Klein from outdated tech stacks to the Shopify Plus ecosystem. From a digital solutions perspective she has become a trusted advisor and confident on integral business decisions like international expansion and POS systems, 3^rd party, ERP and warehouse integrations and she can define and manage scope like no one else I know.  She’s also kind, measured and considered and everyone loves working with her.

What less people may know is that she’s also a ROCKSTAR outside of the office. She and her partner (in music) Aaron Nevezie, make up the electronic, alternative synth duo – Ryal. Her long blond hair, fair skin, piercing blue eyes and love of denim jumpsuits give me all the good Madonna Ray of Light vibes I’m looking for. Musically, tracks like “Thunder / Solo on the Dancefloor” and “Skyscraper” have me walking through the city streets with an emotional pep in my step and make me feel like I’m on a mission.  Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest can often be scene jiving to her music on commercial interludes – so try to catch her music there.  If not – give RYAL a listen on their Spotify HERE

 

 

 

Back to business for a minute.  If you have a digital solutions issue to figure out, ecommerce ecosystems to unpack and define or need the most exceptionally beautiful and highly functional digital flagship, Jacque would love to hear from you at jacquelyn@driver-digital.com