Hidden Gems: Meet Lena Strothe of Wrangle

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lena Strothe.

Hi Lena, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up loving stories. The ones my grandma told me, the ones I read and wrote, the ones in movies and television shows. I loved that feeling when you forgot everything around you and fell into another world.

And so when it came to choosing a college and focus, the liberal arts were a natural and easy choice. Business never interested me – that was for suits and squares. When given the option between “Business Fundamentals” and “Figure Drawing”, I chose the latter. When a tarot card reader told me I would be better suited running a company, I told all my friends how hilarious that thought was.

I still don’t believe in tarot cards, but as it turns out, the joke was on me.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When I first started Wrangle, I had a simple idea that was born out of my own frustration as a producer: The hiring process for freelancers in media should be modernized and simplified to allow for more fruitful creative collaborations. I couldn’t believe how nerve-racking it was to find a qualified crew or artists who fit the brief. At the time, I was working at an agency in Hollywood, the epicenter of film, storytelling, and creativity. It shouldn’t be this tough to find the right people! Why had no one made a functional professional network just for our industry?

Well, when I began building out the platform with my friend and Wrangle’s CTO Phil Brown, we started to see why: It is always a struggle to convince people whom you do not know to trust you with their time and information, no matter how beneficial we believed our site to be. It took some time for us to prove ourselves and show potential members, both hiring managers and freelancers, that we can make their lives a lot easier.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Wrangle is a members-only hiring and staffing platform for creative industries. Once admitted, members can browse our vetted network, post jobs, manage applications, message and collaborate with one another in projects, and so much more. Our mission is to help freelancers find exciting new opportunities and support hiring managers in their search for qualified candidates -then get out of the way and let them make something amazing.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Curiosity is a big one. I mentioned that I’d never considered business or engineering or entrepreneurship as an option. But when a problem presented itself, I was curious why it hadn’t been solved and started asking questions. Those questions led me to find a technical cofounder and opened the door for a whole new world that I am so grateful to be a part of.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wrangle.work
• Instagram: wrangle.work
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wrangle.work/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wranglework/