Founder Spotlight: Liz Giorgi (soona)
Company name: soona
Company blurb: Same day photo and video studio for brands.
Company website: https://soona.co/
Company headquarters: Distributed team; but Minneapolis, MN and Denver, CO are the company’s main locations.
Founder’s hometown: Mt. Iron, MN
Founder fun fact: Most people get jazzed by the factoid that I’m an Emmy Award Winner. If you want even weirder: I am an expert sky navigator.
Why did you decide to start your company? My co-founder, Hayley Anderson, and I were wildly passionate about making professional photos and videos as accessible for businesses as a business card is — with a focus on price and speed. No one was solving the problem and we felt deeply called to make “quality content for all” possible.
What is one thing that you want people to know about your company? We offer free headshots in our Minneapolis, Denver, and Austin locations! We would love for anyone who is changing jobs or starting a company or just looking for a confidence boost to come get a free headshot. Folks can book at soona.co/headshotsforall.
When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up? Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur? Since I was a child, I wanted to be Barbara Walters. I have always loved storytelling and asking questions. And while I ended up choosing entrepreneurship over a television career — I am so grateful that I learned how to be curious and how to craft narratives from any ideas.
What is one piece of advice you’d like to pass on to new founders? Imposter syndrome is useless! Next time you feel imposter syndrome, ask yourself: what feeling am I avoiding by thinking I don’t belong here? Usually, the thing you are feeling IS TOTALLY NORMAL! Are you scared of failing? Good, we all are! Are you worried not everyone will believe in you? Good, they probably won’t! By digging beyond that phrase, we can face our biggest lessons and learn from them.
