Our Story
FabFemme founder, Susan Lubeck arrived in San Francisco from Chicago with a handful of personal contacts. With a busy career as a marketing executive at a technology firm, she didn’t have much time to meet new people. Certainly there were stylish, intelligent, outgoing women in her new hometown. The trouble was how to find and connect with them.
The first step was to bring together the women she did know, and ask them each to bring their friends. They chose a chic, subterranean wine bar and restaurant called Bacar, where soulful jazz trios play nightly. Eighteen vibrant, career-savvy women attended, had a great time, and vowed to do it again. Soon more than a hundred women were attending the mixers and smiling all the way home.
That was back in 2001. What started as a personal quest to create a thriving social life quickly grew into a multi-city phenomenon helping thousands of lesbian and bisexual women expand their personal network, get to know each other, and build rich, rewarding, and lasting connections. The repertoire of events expanded to include sailing excursions, wine tours, dinner salons, volunteer events, singles velocity dating, dance parties, film salons, comedy shows, and art gallery and theater events.
Soon it became clear FabFemme needed to be more than a series of social events. Leveraging her experience in technology and marketing, and using what she'd learned from organizing her own now-extensive address book, Susan decided to create an online tool that facilitated not just online connections, but genuine, life-enhancing relationships and experiences.
"I wanted to create a means for other women to do what I had done—that is, proactively energize and expand their social world—but much more efficiently and easily," says Susan.
The result is a highly innovative web-based networking and planning tool that gives individuals the power to build a great social life—without waiting for the next FabFemme Event.
"FabFemme is a means of transitioning online connections into real-world experiences," says Susan. "It makes it easy to invite people to go do things, and to stay in touch with all your connections. FabFemme is more than a place to meet someone and then leave. It's a tool for managing and growing your social life on a daily, ongoing, and meaningful basis."
Today, FabFemme communities are springing up in major cities across the US, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago, with more being added all the time. While FabFemme Events are still the talk of the town, the advent of FabFemme online member profiles has empowered each and every FabFemme member to reach out, form new bonds, enrich their lives, and expand their social worlds. Join us and energize your social life!
Susan Lubeck
Founding CEO
FabFemme, Inc.
Susan Lubeck, founding CEO of FabFemme, Inc., is a senior marketing executive with almost 15 years of experience heading up global marketing initiatives at leading technology firms such as Intel, 3COM, Philips, and Kodak. She earned an MBA in international business from DePaul University, Chicago, and began her marketing career at USRobotics in the personal communications division, where she first came to appreciate the power of the Internet to break boundaries, accelerate processes, and create compelling new ways for individuals to connect. Susan launched FabFemme in 2001 with the goal of bringing lesbian and bisexual women together to improve their enjoyment of life and strengthen their community. Under her direction, FabFemme has expanded to five major US cities and counting. When not hosting FabFemme Events or researching new ways to use technology, she can be found—like other FabFemme members in her area—enjoying one of life's many splendors, such as appreciating art and theater, visiting local wineries, hiking in Marin, spending quality time with friends and family, attending lectures, volunteering, working out so she can indulge in San Francisco's great restaurants, or planning her next adventure travel excursion. Proudest moment: completing the 450-mile Twin Cities to Chicago AIDS Ride.