Andrea Breanna
Founder & CEO, RebelMouse
“If you combine honesty with bravery and put happiness first, it’s magical. ”
Can you share a little about your background and how you’ve gotten to where you are today?
I was born in Mexico City. My mom is Mexican and my dad is American. My dad got an MBA at Stanford [University] and worked as a journalist. I grew up in the Silicon Valley in the 1980s. I always knew I was trasngender. I was White, but Mexican. People tried to put me in boxes that I didn’t fit into. In those times, there were no narratives of people like me. I fell in love with technology and the internet. It was the first place that I could express who I am and the first place I could be Andrea.
My [areas of] passion and what I love to work on is technology, product and strategy, that [collectively] accompany editorial content and becomes a huge pop culture sensation. For example, Avaaz.org, an international advocacy platform, has forty-five million members; I built that. At Huffington Post, I ran product, design and engineering. At RebelMouse, which I started eight years ago, we build some of the biggest platforms. We have a creative agency as well. We have no [RebelMouse] office, and have very fluid roles. We’re completely distributed. [Our workforce is] seventy percent women, and twenty-five percent [of our workforce] is LGBT. Because we are totally distributed, everyone can rise up anywhere. We have fifty-six employees in more than twenty locations.
I came out as trans two years ago. Everyone understands that they are working with a trans CEO. It was obviously terrifying. I’ve always been trans [but] I was presenting in a different way. I was hiding it. There were always these dimensions that made me different from a male. Coming out of the closet and having it be accepted and being able to express myself...there’s been a lot of beautiful things that have come out of that. Being trans is very vulnerable.
We recently did a [company] survey and asked “Do you feel safe and supported in being you and who you are?” and one hundred percent of [those surveyed] responded “Yes”.
We are all weird in some way or another. Being trans, so many are in hiding. The other aspect is I’m a trans feminine person and there’s an element of embracing femininity in a tech company. I became more crystallized and focused in my ability to express myself and be a feminine leader in the company. There’s a lot of things, a lot of patterns that everyone has to face in the broken patriarchy we live in. I think that we’ve been able to make [RebelMouse] a fun environment for the men in the company, as well as making it a feminine environment.
In 2017, you founded Fluidity.love. What is it important to foster your passion through a personal project such as this?
[Fluidity.Love] was a chance for me to help create narratives like mine. If you are trans and you’re leaving your wife or your family is breaking up...the narrative has usually been about the men. There is total lack of representation. Usually trans stories aren’t covered unless it’s about a model who is skinny and lives in New York, Los Angeles or Paris. We hired a trans woman in southeast Asia to write stories and do the interviews [for Fluidity.Love]. [Fluidity.Love] gave me a chance to do business as a trans person on trans issues. But it was demoralizing. Diversity and inclusion money has clear prioritization: race, gender and then LGBT. The [team’s] focus and passion has since gone one hundred percent into RebelMouse.
You have to try things and follow your creativity and passion, whatever you’re curious about and that your mind just goes to. I’ve found in my career that following that energy is always a good idea, even if it’s [ultimately] not right for you or the company. I don’t regret it at all. For me, I’m not looking for a side project. [Instead], I’ve always tried to build towards the core - the core of my career, the core of my passion. In my mind, this side [project] should be building towards the core.
The most important KPI at RebelMouse is personal happiness. Warren Buffet has said that every key business decision he has made was [rooted in] his personal happiness. It’s about putting the pursuit of happiness first. If you combine honesty with bravery and you put happiness first, it’s magical.
You currently serve on the digital advisory board of American Express. What advice do you have for women interested in roles like this?
The roles I’ve gotten [have come through] being in the right room at the right time. For me, it hasn’t been an application process. One day, I just got an email saying “We are putting together an advisory board”. [The opportunity was a result of] a meeting.
There are moments in a key meeting where you know there is someone important in the room. I got to learn from some of the most talented people...about using those moments to capture the imagination of that powerful person in the room. [It’s] the game of empathy and getting into their shoes, thinking how they think. It’s about getting these very powerful people very excited.
Do you have any special sayings, quotes or expressions that you live by?
Put happiness first. Practice abundant thinking. It’s very important. You can’t find happiness without it. We are hardwired to think we are in scarcity mode. That we don’t have enough water, food, etc. That creates stress. When we [can think in] abundance, we can chill out. In today’s world, people don’t understand that the number one enemy is operating under the [mindset of] scarcity of time. You have to always remind yourself that we do have time...we’ll find time. When I’m in that [mental] framework, everyone is much happier.
[I also believe] that you have to treat your vision for your company, for your project, for yourself or for who you are going to be, like a creature. You have to go visit it. You have to talk to the creature. Ideas are in the ether. Someone may also have your vision. You have to go meet with it and [determine] if you’re doing justice to it or if you got it right. The more in harmony you are with this creature that is your vision, the better your decisions end up being.
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
