Good taste and perfect timing are essential ingredients when it comes to scoring big in a competitive marketplace, and knowing that you can’t plan for either makes success that much more sweet.

One beneficiary of both is digital entrepreneur and mother of two Talline Gabriellian, whose app Hippie Lane was borne from a love of food, innate style and, crucially, good timing. Beginning as an Instagram passion project, Gabriellian’s app was created with the intention to empower its users through sharing 100% vegan and gluten, refined sugar, dairy and GM free recipes in the most practical and accessible way possible.

Below, Talline talks to GRAZIA about the process of turning a social media passion project into a self-sustaining business with ambitions beyond the App Store.

 

A photo posted by HIPPIE LANE (@talinegabriel) on


“My first real job was working as a student counsellor, which involved the privilege of providing people with a safe place to talk through their worries and concerns while offering appropriate guidance to help them on their way toward a positive resolution. There’s an obvious difference in the day-to-day operations between counselling and what I do today, but there are also some basic similarities. The goal for me in both roles is to empower people to make positive change in their lives.

“About six months into my Instagram journey, I began to notice a strong interest in my work on social media. I was sharing pictures of my food and found there was a real interest in my recipes. A friend of mine who is a web and brand developer suggested that I begin looking into building an app rather than producing an electronic recipe book. It felt like a natural progression to develop a platform where I could share my favourite healthy recipes in a user-friendly format.

 

A photo posted by HIPPIE LANE (@talinegabriel) on