Career
In 1997, she took a job managing the community forums of Netscape.[2] This experience, along with others in blogging and online communities,[4] led her to co-found Ludicorp in Vancouver with Stewart Butterfield and Jason Classon in summer 2002.[5] The company developed a massively multiplayer online role-playing game called Game Neverending. The game did not launch, but Fake and Butterfield started a new product called Flickr in 2004 that became one of the world's most popular photosharing websites. Flickr was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005 for around US$30 million. It became part of the "Web 2.0" sites, integrating features such as social networking, community open APIs, tagging, and algorithms that surfaced the most popular content. After the acquisition, Fake joined Yahoo, where she ran the Technology Development group, known for its Hack Yahoo program, Yahoo Pipes and Brickhouse, a rapid development environment for new products. She left Yahoo in June 2008.[6]
Fake previously worked as the art director for Salon, a news and opinion website started in 1995.[7] In 2007, she co-founded the website Hunch with entrepreneur Chris Dixon, which was acquired by eBay for $80 million in November 2011.[8] As of 2014, Fake's most recent project is called Findery. It launched under limited beta in February 2012 and was originally called Pinwheel. It was renamed to Findery in July 2012.[9] The company is headquartered in San Francisco.[10]
Fake joined the board of directors of Creative Commons in August 2008,[11] and the Sundance Institute board of trustees in 2015.[12] She served as board member and chairman of Etsy from 2006 to 2014. [13]
Fake has won many awards, including Bloomberg Businessweek's "Best Leaders" in 2005,[14] Forbes's 2005, Fast Company's Fast 50, and Red Herring's 20 Entrepreneurs under 35.[15] She was listed on the 2006 Time 100—Time magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people—under the category "Builders and Titans".[16] She received a lifetime achievement award in 2009 from Rhizome at The New Museum and honorary doctorates from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2009[17] and from The New School in 2013.[18] Fake was a recipient of the 2018 "Visionary Award" from the Silicon Valley Forum, which recognizes leaders in Silicon Valley businesses. Among her most recognized businesses, she was identified for her contributions to Silicon Valley as an author and angel investor.[19]
Fake hosted the podcast "Should This Exist?" produced by Quartz.[20]
