Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, left, with Jesse Draper.
LOS ANGELES — There she was, one of the business world’s most important and serious executives, being interviewed about — leg warmers?
Oh, yes. But Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, got what she signed up for — an appearance on “The Valley Girl Show,” an Internet series focused, more or less, on Silicon Valley personalities. At least Ms. Sandberg did not have to swivel inside a Hula-Hoop and blow bubbles like Bill Clerico, chief executive of the online payments start-up WePay.
Cross “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” with “Charlie Rose” and you have “The Valley Girl Show,” created and hosted by Jesse Draper, a former Nickelodeon actress and daughter of Timothy C. Draper, a prominent venture capitalist. Ms. Draper, 27, started the series in 2008 with $50,000 of her own money.
Since then, Ms. Draper has proved herself to be a dogged businesswoman — the opposite of the ditzy persona she adopts on camera.
Her core audience is still tiny at about 15,000 viewers, posing a challenge to her strategy of selling ads, but she recently expanded from her own Web site (valleygirl.tv) to television screens in restaurants like Taco Bell. She has licensed her show to sites like Glam.com and is working on a related book series.
“We are not making zillions of dollars yet, but we are staying afloat,” Ms. Draper said when asked if she had turned a profit.
Most notably, Ms. Draper — leaning heavily on her father’s Rolodex — has managed to land marquee guests, including Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, and Craigslist’s founder, Craig Newmark. Ted Turner has stopped by. Ms. Sandberg’s episode will be available starting Jan. 17; Sandra Day O’Connor, the former Supreme Court justice, will appear on Jan. 24.
“They don’t always say yes the first time, but I’m ruthless,” Ms. Draper said, adding that her goal was to “build a brand, an approachable business brand, by portraying serious business people as fun.”
Silly would be another word for the interviewing style of Ms. Draper, whose signature is her Barbie-pink wardrobe. She opened one episode by playing the drums; in another she got the software whiz Steven C. Walske to put on a pink bicycle helmet adorned with pink pompoms.
“Which ‘Sex and the City’ girl are you?” she asked the investor Peter C. Gotcher, chairman of Dolby Laboratories and a director at Pandora. (“You know, I hadn’t really thought about that because they’re all girls,” he responded.)
Representatives for a smattering of the guests said that “The Valley Girl Show” manages to get big names partly because those people feel a sense of obligation to Ms. Draper’s father. But there are other reasons, including the chance to show off a more casual side that would not necessarily be appropriate on CNBC.
Why Ms. Sandberg agreed is not known; a Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment. But displaying her cuddly side does not appear to be a motive, at least from a look at raw video from the interview. Asked about her former career as an aerobics instructor, Ms. Sandberg shifted in her chair and replied, “I could survive with not being asked this question.”
But before steering the interview to more serious topics — like how to prioritize projects — Ms. Sandberg decided to play ball. “The silver leggings, the leg warmers, I have done a lot to hide all those pictures,” she said with a smile.
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