According to entrepreneur Lindsey Port, when people ask her how she knew to grow a business that is expected to surpass $3 million this year and $5 million in two years, she simply says, “I didn’t, I just let my instincts guide me.”

After quickly moving up the corporate ladder within the high fashion industry, working with Peter Som and Lanvin, an unexpected layoff in 2008 left Port in a tough dilemma, personally and professionally. Lindsey would soon land on her feet and take another job that would ultimately spark an idea leading her directly into entrepreneuship.

Learn how Lindsey Port’s career setbacks and savvy business instincts led her to create Glo Gaming and capture the attention of clients includinig Walmart, Gatorade, 2K Games, Nickelodeon and many others.

How I Got Started

When people ask me how I knew how to grow a business that is expected to surpass $3 million this year and $5 million in two years, I simply say, “I didn’t, I just let my instincts guide me.” As a determined woman with an innate sense of business, learning from experience and hard work has helped morph me into the entrepreneur I am today.

After graduating from the University of Arizona, I began my career in the world of high-end fashion and luxury goods at the budding design house, Peter Som. During my two years at Peter Som, I took the initiative to assist the growth of the company and develop a sales plan on my own where no established sales department existed. With much diligence, my plan was approved and within a year, my efforts helped quadruple the company’s distribution.

Word of my powerhouse work ethic spread and soon caught the attention of the French couturier, Lanvin, in 2008 when the label expanded to the United States. Achieving dream job status, I was recruited and served as second in command in the new American market, running their wholesale sales division in North and South America. However, my dream was short-lived when the economy began to falter in spring that same year, a time when Lanvin had expected to expand. Not only did they table their plans for expansion, but they also dissolved my position, leaving me unemployed.

In an attempt to rebuild my career and pay my bills, I turned to eBay and developed a company which I then tabled to pursue an opportunity with Jun Group in November 2009. Not only did I excel with the company, but the experience gave me the ability to indentify the untapped opportunities that existed for brand advertisers in the burgeoning social gaming space.

The experience led me to develop GLO Gaming, in January 2011 — an advertising platform focused on the social gaming sphere. We enable marketers to engage directly with consumers using in-game integration, sponsorships, video and display. With social gaming on the rise in places like Facebook or mobile devices, Fortune 500 advertisers are clamoring to establish themselves in this new medium – and the results have been explosive.

Since its creation, we have partnered with an impressive record of clients including Walmart, Gatorade, 2K Games, Nickelodeon, Ann Taylor LOFT and Microsoft, just to name a few.

Best Success Story

We were hired by MSN to deliver Facebook Likes within a 6 week period at a very aggressive cost-per-like. Two weeks into the campaign we were performing so successfully that they kept adding incremental budget to the program and we ultimately increased their fan base by 319% in just 6 weeks with a total campaign earned media value of $3.6M.

Biggest Startup Challenge

Finding passionate, hard-working talent to hire.

#1 Tip for Entrepreneurs

Go to market as quickly as possible, get feedback, make tweaks, and go back to market- this is a never ending cycle. Very often entrepreneurs wait till their product is perfect and finished. This is a recipe for failure because nothing is ever finished or perfect as you should always be improving and innovating. Market feedback is crucial and will determine your next move. This has been Google and Apple’s motto forever.

Connect with Lindsey on Twitter and Facebook.

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