About
LISA LESHNE has been in the media and entertainment business for 30+ years. Lisa’s experience spans the broadest range of the industry, which has greatly informed her work as a literary agent. In 1991, at age 23, she co-founded The Prague Post, the largest English-language newspaper in Central Europe, along with its book division and website, PraguePost.com. Lisa worked in Prague as the newspaper’s Publisher for almost a decade. In 1999, she moved to Manhattan to work for Accenture as a Senior Consultant in the Entertainment & Media Group. She later worked in strategy and business development for Dow Jones. She served as Executive Director, International, for the Wall Street Journal’s WSJ.com, leading business operations in Europe and Asia, where she oversaw advertising, marketing and circulation. Lisa worked as VP, Strategy and Business Development, for Ink2, an industry leader in the print-on-demand industry and owner of Cardstore.com (acquired by American Greetings NYSE:AM). Lisa spent a year after 9/11 at the Partnership for New York City’s Financial Recovery Fund, evaluating grant applications and providing strategic advice to small businesses destroyed in the World Trade Center attacks. Prior to founding The Leshne Agency in 2011, she was a literary agent for three years at LJK Literary.
Featured Work
LEVEL UP: Rise Above the Hidden Forces Holding Your Business Back
A must-read guide for small business owners navigating a critical turning point: when you either level up or give up.
It's never been easier to start a business--and it's never been harder to scale it. Half of new businesses in America don’t make it past five years. Stacey Abrams and Lara Hodgson want to help today’s entrepreneurs beat the odds by revealing the unseen tethers that keep small businesses from growing and thriving.
Drawing on firsthand experience starting and scaling multiple companies over nearly two decades, Now® cofounders Abrams and Hodgson crystallize their hard-won advice into a single how-to, got-to guide for small business owners. In Level Up, they share intense behind-the-scenes stories of building their own businesses, as well as actionable, get-it-done principles for founders looking to propel their ventures forward.
This is straight talk from the trenches on real issues like hiring, identifying a revenue strategy, recognizing when growth is a trap, and managing cash flow, from a duo that's been there. Abrams and Hodgson also elevate and share the experiences of other successful founders including, Jules Pieri of The Grommet, Alisa Clark of Glory Professional Services, and Sheila Jordan of Knowledge Architects.
New businesses started by entrepreneurs drive net new job growth. Yet, for the last four decades, startups have increasingly struggled to overcome a system of red tape and barriers to capital and commerce. As a new generation of founders launches a flurry of firms in the wake of the pandemic recession, Abrams and Hodgson offer key insights and support to help entrepreneurs break free and get to the next level.
