Read the ChickAdvisor interview here.

On September 2nd, my husband Alex and I launched ChickAdvisor, a website for women to share advice and tips on the best local services and emerging trends. We’ve differed from the traditional editorial approach where they dictate what’s hot, what we should buy and where we should go, and placed that power into the hands of the public. Imagine that?!

While finding the right audience and getting them engaged is always a challenge, the most difficult part for me has been fighting the ‘old boy’s club’. How do you convince a room full of seasoned businessmen to invest in a company that is half-owned by a woman?

I was in a meeting several weeks ago where I was politely told I should be replaced as Alex’s partner, possibly by a man. They mused aloud, ‘Would it be possible to launch ChickAdvisor without a woman?’ I smiled sweetly at them across the table.

Unfortunately, this has been a very common theme with most investors.

Despite the fact that I have more professional experience than any of the 22- year-old guys behind other web 2.0 companies like Facebook and RateMyProfessor, I have to fight to prove I deserve to participate in my company.

One need look no further than the kafuffle caused by the Office 2.0 ’sausage party?’ that was decidedly sans women to see that it’s still pretty hard out here for a chick.

My experience as an insurance adjuster didn’t get me any mileage at all. Unless you’ve worked in the industry you have no idea how much work is involved.

You have to become a jack-of-all-trades quickly adapting from a vehicle theft claim to a bodily injury claim to a sewer backup or fire in the wee hours of the morning.

It requires a tremendous amount of organization, study (of everything from anatomy to legislation and case law), legal knowledge, and collaboration with a number of different people for any one case.

It is a very demanding job, but that’s what I did for my first 4 years in Toronto at the age of 22. Since I’ve been back in school, I’m in the top 15% of my program despite the fact that I simultaneously worked an internship, a part-time job, planned our wedding out of province and then launched a company.

I could get offended, but it’s not worth my time. I simply say, ‘fugheddaboutit’ to the naysayers and keep working hard to build our company the way we envisioned it. As Frank Sinatra says, “the best revenge is massive success!”