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05/22/12 | Uncategorized

The Key To Starting A Startup: Determination

“I realized disappointment was simply an opportunity to develop my own plan of action and recourse my life.”

By Lindsey Port (Founder, GLO Gaming)

Determination: it is the key to developing a startup, especially when you’re breaking into the technology industry.

A determined woman is a force to be reckoned with. Once you have ignited that drive and intense passion for success, a woman is boundless. Your dreams are boundless. But somewhere close by, creeping up on you is fear and more importantly, failure.

Besides being determined, having an understanding of failure is crucial. It isn’t that you failed, but rather you opened the door for a new possibility. It’s an important key when building a startup. And it was one of the greatest lessons I learned through my journey of developing my business, GLO Gaming, a scalable advertising platform that specializes in the placement of brand assets in the online and mobile gaming space.

After graduating from college with a degree in Consumer Sciences and Business Administration, I started out in the world of high-end fashion working for some influential design houses and luxury product lines. It was when I landed my job with French Couturier, Lanvin that I felt I had truly reached my dream job status. I was working as second in command in the new American marketing, running the wholesale division for North and South America. But as we know, all good things come to an end and my stint at Lanvin was cut short when the economy began to crumble the same year and my position was dissolved.

A little battered and bruised, I realized this disappointment was simply an opportunity to develop my own plan of action and recourse my life. In the interim, I turned to eBay to try and earn a few extra bucks and in doing so, realized there was a gaping hole in their business model: pictures weren’t enough to push an online sale. That was when my first online business idea was born, a concept for an online marketplace where you could use videos to sell products, rather than using a simple photo.

Having no Internet experience and knowing that no one would invest in someone who had no Internet experience, I pooled all of my savings and took the plunge to develop a prototype. Months after becoming a true starving entrepreneur, living off peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and babysitting on the side, InTheGlo.com was launched.

With so much sales and very little Internet experience, I eventually decided to table the venture and find a job that would help me marry my background in sales with the experience I needed to more forward to pursue my entrepreneurial dreams. I received a position at a well-known company who specializes in social media and began working up the ranks as a sales representative.

Not only did I excel with the company, but the experience gave me the ability to identify the untapped opportunities that existed for brands and advertisers in the burgeoning social gaming space. I began to develop a business plan for a new company, which would eventually turn into what is now GLO Gaming.

I launched GLO in my little New York City apartment, just over a year ago, and have watched it flourish ever since. From $3 million in sales within the first year to Fortune 500 clients like Walmart, Disney, Gatorade, Microsoft, Kraft and Ann Taylor LOFT, I attribute my successes and the successes of GLO to the determination I have. Without my drive and passion for success I believe I could have not come this far. My refusal to fail has led me to launch GLO Gaming, and I will not let my determination stop there.

Editor’s note: Got a question for our guest bloggers? Leave a message in the comments below.

About the guest blogger: Lindsey Port is the Founder of GLO Gaming, the leader in unique marketing strategies in the online and mobile gaming space with customized social media solutions. With clients such as Microsoft, Gatorade, Ann Taylor LOFT, Kraft, Disney and McDonalds, GLO Gaming is at the forefront of the industry, offering brands the best ways to take advantage of the new medium through a variety of opportunities including in-game product placement and video distribution. Follow her on Twitter at @InTheGlo.

Anne-Gail Moreland

Anne-Gail Moreland

Anne-Gail Moreland, an intern with Women 2.0, was on the StartupBus. She studies neuroscience at Mount Holyoke College, where she is trying to merge a passion for tech and the brain into a new wave of cognition-based technology

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