OUR STORY

In the back room of the Tribeca Grill in NYC where some of Robert DeNiro’s father’s brilliant colorful paintings are hung on the walls, our team gathered. The editors, writers, photo editors, videographers, creative team, and tech team of one of our brands were having our quarterly meeting.

A business-driven discussion began about the alarming problems with social media and its negative effects on users, brands, artists, and our own business.

Several of the artists we covered had their content censored, images blocked and cropped when they posted stories on social media and as a result, they were angry and frustrated. They would take breaks and, in some cases, left social media altogether. Our COO shared that she was sick and tired of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, because of their ongoing spread of misinformation. Our Tech Director quit Facebook because of the lack of privacy and data abuse. The Managing Editor, a young woman in her early twenties, bravely shared that she had to take frequent breaks from Instagram because comments could be hateful, and she had been bullied.

Maybe we should do something about it, our CEO led. Could we launch something entirely different, put the user first, challenge this unacceptable norm in social media and create a successful and highly scalable new brand? Would you vote yes, or no? She asked for a show of hands of the twenty-two attending and every hand shot up for yes. We began together to explore the possibilities and the ideas excitedly flowed. This was the beginning of EXPOSVRE.

Prologue
After extensive research by Senior Directors of Research and friends at Dotdash (formerly Time Inc. and Meredith), EXPOSVRE was born with the mission to shift the social media culture to a positive experience and tear down the years of control and abuse of social media users. Marian and Paula gathered a stellar team from multiple disciplines:

Meet our core team-
Marian Schwindeman, Founder & CEO
Marian is EXPOSVRE’s brand visionary. She is an innovative entrepreneur and marketing executive. Marian is the founder of Premiere Magazine, the former SVP of Global Marketing at Polo Ralph Lauren and on the Board of Directors board member of the Telluride Film Festival and Film Independent. She is also an established artist and museum curator.
Paula Romano, Founder & COO
Paula is media professional with years of achievement in driving revenue and building successful B2C Ecommerce and consumer websites & magazines, including Vogue, Entertainment Weekly and Sports Illustrated Women.
Wendy Laister, Co-Founder & SVP of Marketing
Wendy is the Founder and CEO of Magnus Entertainment and former CEO at Laister Dickson where she worked with the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Tina Turner, and on event campaigns:
The Nelson Mandela Freedom Concerts, The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, and The Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Tribute Concert.
Alexandra Baker, SVP Artist Relations
Alexandra is Founder/CEO of High Rise Public Relations representing some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry from Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga to Madonna.

Georgia: I play online Survivor games on Discord and I won the first season I played in.

Davi: I sometimes perform drag, but only post on my private social media account that I share with only my closest friends.

Amanda: I know all the lyrics to every song in the Silence of the Lambs musical parody.

Mark E.: I was in two punk rock bands and have several albums recorded with them.

Mark G: My great, great, great (I don’t know how many greats) grandfather wrote the music for Auld Lang Syne.

Wendy: I have an enormous collection of hands made of every material imaginable.  It’s a collection I started when I was about ten years old.

Keith: I am a blues aficionado. Especially British.
If you could have an unlimited supply of one thing, what would it be?

Georgia: I should say something practical like toilet paper, but tbh M&Ms is my real answer.

India: Books!

Wendy: The ability to more easily walk away.

Mark E.: Unlimited supply of tacos, for sure! hahah

Mark G: The focus is to make every day count and dark chocolate (OK, that’s two). 

If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?

Marian: An otter, who wouldn’t?

Mark G: A lemur. Inquisitive, roguish and lovable.

Wendy: A Chausie cat.  They are one of the bigger breeds of domestic cats.  They are fast, intelligent and regal.

Davi: A wolf with a pack to roam the forests with, free from the strife and war and egoism of humankind.

Mark E.: A dolphin – smart af and they actually surf waves!

Paula: An eagle- they are majestic, strong, courageous, wise, powerful and free to roam the world with an amazing sky view.

If you could be a superhero, which power would you want to have?

Amanda: Teleportation, just think how much money you’d save on airfare. And, as a native New Yorker it would be amazing to never have to factor in subway train times.

Mark G.: The power to enable everyone to see the person and not the label.

Paula & Wendy: The ability to time travel.

Marian: Invisibility ……think of all the things you could see, smell and touch and the ability to fly invisibly.