Nicole Shariat Farb is an American entrepreneur and business executive. She is a co-founder and the chief executive officer of the video community

Darby Smart Nicole Shariat Farb is an American entrepreneur and business executive. She is a co-founder and the chief executive officer of the video community Darby Smart. Prior to founding the company, Farb worked as a Head of Emerging Private Companies at ...

. Prior to founding the company, Farb worked as a Head of Emerging Private Companies at

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

. Farb has also appeared several times on ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

'' as a DIY expert. She is also active in pursuing diversity and equality in the tech industry.

Early life and education

Farb was raised in

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...

. When she was 10 years old, she started a business making and selling hair bows. After graduating high school she briefly pursued a career in acting, before studying journalism at Loyola University. After Loyola, she received her Master's in Education from

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

and worked as a teacher before attending business school at the

University of Chicago Booth School of Business The University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Chicago Booth or Booth) is the graduate business school of the University of Chicago. Founded in 1898, Chicago Booth is the second-oldest business school in the U.S. and is associated with 10 N ...

Career

Farb relocated to San Francisco, California and began working for Goldman Sachs where she was a vice president. After experiencing frustration while crafting thank you cards following her 2011 wedding, she left Goldman Sachs to start Darby Smart. She recruited software engineer, Karl Mendes, as a co-founder and raised a $1 million seed round of funding. Darby Smart was launched in June 2013. In Spring 2014, Darby Smart raised an additional $6.3 million in Series A funding led by

Maveron Maveron is an American venture capital firm that invests in consumer-only and early-stage companies, with offices in Seattle, Washington and San Francisco, California. The firm was co-founded by Dan Levitan and former Starbucks chief executive Ho ...

. Farb led the company into a partnership with

Urban Outfitters Urban Outfitters, Inc. (URBN) is a multinational lifestyle retail corporation headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Operating in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, select Western European countries, Poland the United Arab Emirates, Kuw ...

in Fall 2014. In 2015, she formed a partnership with the craft retailer

Michael's Michaels Stores, Inc., more commonly known as Michaels, is a privately held chain of 1,252 American and Canadian arts and crafts stores, as of January 2021. It is one of North America's largest providers of arts, crafts, framing, floral and wall ...

. By 2016, Farb had launched the Darby Smart app which helps users create videos. Farb has been vocal about diversity and inclusion issues in the tech industry, and was quoted in Emily Chang's 2018 book, ''

Brotopia ''Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys' Club of Silicon Valley'' is 2018 non-fiction book by Emily Chang. It is her debut book and was published on February 6, 2018, by Portfolio, a division of Penguin Random House. The book investigates and examines s ...

'' about her experience as a female entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. In 2018, Darby Smart was acquired by Grove Collaborative, and Nicole Farb joined the company's beauty venture.

Personal life

Farb married Michael Farb, the co-founder of sports recruiting software company CaptainU, in 2011. The couple met while attending the Booth School of Business and have twin boys.

References

External links

Darby Smart websiteFarb on Good Morning AmericaFarb discusses marketing towards millennials
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Farb, Nicole Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women company founders American company founders 21st-century American women