Rieva Lesonsky

Rieva Lesonsky is founder and president of GrowBiz Media, a content and consulting company specializing in small businesses and entrepreneurship. Rieva has been meeting with, consulting to and speaking to America's SMBs for nearly 30 years. Prior to co-founding GrowBiz Media in 2008, she was SVP/Editorial Director of Entrepreneur Magazine.

Rieva's energy and enthusiasm have helped inspire entrepreneurs nationwide. A nationally recognized speaker who regularly addresses audiences across the country, she has appeared on hundreds of radio shows and numerous local and national television programs, including CNN, Good Morning America, the Today Show, Fox Business News, The Martha Stewart show and Oprah and can regularly be seen on MSNBC's Your Business. Rieva is also the author of several books about small business and entrepreneurship, including the bestseller Start Your Own Business.

In addition to blogging on SmallBizDaily, Rieva regularly blogs about small business for AllBusiness.com, AT&T, Microsoft, Small Business Trends, Business.gov, The Huffington Post and numerous business Web sites. She regularly contributes editorial content to SCORE and the Los Angeles SBDC.

Many organizations have recognized Rieva's tireless devotion to helping entrepreneurs. She served on the Small Business Administration's National Advisory Council for six years, and was honored by the SBA in her region as a Small Business Media Advocate and a Woman in Business Advocate. The Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization honored her for helping drive "the entrepreneurial revolution in secondary education," and the ASBDC awarded her a "Champion of Small Business" award. In 2003, Rieva was inducted into the Business Journalism Hall of Fame; in 2009 she was named to Folio Magazine's 2009 "Folio: 40" list of publishing's top innovators and influencers.