Alexa Maniaci ~ Co-Founder

Alexa moved towards her life path when she entered high school and met teacher and mentor Stephanie Licata during her freshman year. She spent the next four years assisting Stephanie managing events, participating in various service projects, creating a student community service board, organizing volunteer fundraisers and a service trip to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Alexa’s family’s background in entrepreneurship along with Stephanie’s mentoring  led her to study International Economics and International Development with a minor in Political Science at the George Washington University in Washington D.C.

Community service remained a constant with Alexa throughout college. She  took on leadership opportunities at the Beacon House and Latin-American Youth Center as a bilingual mentor as well as internship with Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District in Washington D.C. Alexa supplemented these experiences with a financial internship in Manhattan following the economic recession as well as an economics internship studying the International Energy Markets. Her long-term stints in China and Latin America cemented her passion for entrepreneurship, service, community, and the importance of small business.

Following graduation in May 2012, Alexa chose to train with Bimbo Bakeries, the largest global bakery in order to understand the supermarket business from the back room. Her grandfather founded his family-owned and operated supermarket chain in 1943. After managing a customer sales base of $9,045,255 YTD and 13 bread vendors, she decided to leave in order to help manage the floral business she started with her Father in 2006. Alexa is now the owner and director of Anna Rose Floral and Event Design in North Haledon, NJ specializing in weddings, corporate events. Anna Rose is also a custom boutique retail florist featuring home decor and the work of local artisans. In 2014, Anna Rose was a premier vendor providing floral design for MetLife Stadium and the Izod Center’s Superbowl events.

Now, fully dedicated to the small business movement, Alexa is facing the challenges and opportunties of running a business in the Internet age head on.  Similarly, the Get Smart ideals of using social media to empower young women was born out of her hope to help her teenage sister and other young girls grow up with confidence in a technology based world.