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"After more than five years at the helm of Ning, Gina Bianchini stepped down in March 2010 from her position as CEO of the custom social network creator that she co-founded.\nAt the time, the startup had an impressive 2.3 million user-created networks and more than 45 million registered users. But not everything was coming up roses at Ning. Shortly after Bianchini's departure, the company laid off 40% of its employees. Glam Media purchased Ning earlier this month for an estimated $150 million \u2014 a fraction of its reported valuation.\nMeanwhile, Bianchini transitioned back to her early-stage startup days by becoming an entrepreneur in residence at Andreesen Horowitz. Eight months later, she emerged with a new startup, Mightybell. \nMightybell helps users break a big idea \u2014 anything from a recipe to a cross-country trip \u2014 into small, doable steps that they can share with their social networks. \nMashable asked Bianchini about the inspiration for her new company and the challenges of being at the head of a new startup again.\nName: Gina Bianchini\nCompanies: Ning, then Mightybell\nFounded: 2005 and 2010, respectively \n\n\n\n\nQ&amp;A with Gina Bianchini\nWhat inspires you?\nI\u2019m inspired by building social software that seeks to grow the things that make people uniquely, well, people. My first product, Ning, unlocked the creation of 2.3 million different social networks for every conceivable interest and passion. Now with Mightybell, we\u2019re taking online conversations and translating them into better, more interesting real-life experience. We do it by offering a way for one person to lay out a series of small steps towards a goal or steps around a topic for other people to come in and do. Then, how people do it is up to them.\nWhat about your startup idea was game-changing?\nSocial technology took off because it gives people the feeling that they are connected. But after hours of checking in on their friends, uploading photos, and updating their status messages, people want more. They are looking for their hard work online to translate into a better life in the real world. Mightybell was built around the idea that success comes from thinking big, but acting incrementally \u2014 baby steps matter. By creating a platform that offers a simple, lightweight structure for organizing action, Mightybell allows anyone to create a series of clear and achievable steps towards a goal, and allows anyone to follow those steps.                                                                                                                                            What was the pivotal point in your early startup days?\nThere wasn\u2019t one \"aha\" moment in the early days of Mightybell. The idea and all of the web and iOS apps\u2019 features unfolded step by step \u2014 just like the company's premise \u2014 based on the fundamental concept that \u201Cyou are what you do.\u201D                               \nWhat was the biggest challenge you faced with your startup?\n\u201CSuccess comes from thinking big, but acting incrementally \u2014 baby steps matter.\"\nIt is always a challenge to create something real out of an idea in your head. The decision to persevere is one that is decided in a series of small moments, when you have the choice to do one more thing to see something through to its fullest or, well, watch TV. Next to this, making a screaming fast, beautifully designed product with a lean team seems downright easy.\nWhat is your vision of success?\nI believe that the definition of success is knowing that you\u2019ve operated to the best of your potential \u2014 you\u2019ve given it your all, and you focus on the things within your control. [When] one is taking nothing and making it something, that\u2019s really the only way you can define success.\n\n\n\n\nHow did your social network of peers influence your business?\nI think we\u2019re in a technology or social software scene that is not so dissimilar to London of the swinging '60s or Seattle in the early '90s. What\u2019s inspiring to me is how my peer group of entrepreneurs spent the last five years figuring out how to get one billion people connected around the world via social software and are now turning their attention to how to take these newly connected people and find ways to make everyday life more engaging, active and interesting. I am honored to be a part of it.                                  \nWhat advice do you have for other entrepreneurs?\nFocus on making a great product that people need \u2014 not just want \u2014 in their daily lives. Beyond that, learn something new every day. As Jeff Bezos says, \u201CEvery day is day one.\u201D\n\n\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2011/10/13/gina-bianchini-ning-interview/>