StartUp Beat Flashback: Entrepreneur Narratives: How [Alicia Navarro, Skimlinks] Did It
From July 1, 2011...
Editor’s Note: This is a Q&A series from StartUp Beat that features entrepreneurs who have successfully guided their startups (or multiple startups) to maturity. It is a complement to StartUp Beat’s coverage of early-stage startups and an effort to provide further insight into the experiences of tech entrepreneurs.
Skimlinks co-founder and CEO Alicia Navarro is one of the few female tech entrepreneurs in London, having launched Skimbit.com in Australia before heading over to Europe to immerse herself in the world of tech startups, where she adapted her business quickly to launch Skimlinks.com.
Alicia's vision for Skimlinks is to see online publishers rewarded for the role they play in informing purchase decisions, by removing the technical and administrative complexities that hamper would-be affiliates. This, she believes, will help evolve affiliate marketing into a mainstream ubiquitous revenue model.
Alicia worked for over 10 years in internet applications, designing and launching mobile and internet-based applications in Australia and the UK. She has a Bachelor of Information Technology and the University Medal for Computing Sciences from the University of Technology, Sydney.
SUB: What was your first entrepreneurial venture?
Navarro: My first entrepreneurial venture involved a foray into the beauty industry, manufacturing and selling lip gloss! In Australia, where I grew up, there’s an initiative called Young Achievers, where high school students get together and go through a life cycle of a business. We came up with the idea for a lip gloss range for men and women, and I became the managing director of Pout Lip Gloss. Within six months, we’d made a 320 percent profit, and we won Venture of the Year in the program. I was hooked.
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