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10/04/11 | Uncategorized

New Face of Tech: A Young Female Immigrant Entrepreneur in LA

By Araks Khachatryan (Co-Founder & COO, CornerBlue)
Editor’s note: Araks Khachatryan is hosting the Founder Friday Los Angeles on October 7, 2011 in Santa Monica — Join Women 2.0 and Araks by registering for free here.

As the proud co-founder and COO of CornerBlue, a technology-driven mobile marketing company in Santa Monica, I regularly find myself surrounded by hot-shot entrepreneurs.

One thing I’ve learned is that they come in many different forms, and I’m proof that the head of a successful technology business can be a young immigrant woman.

Just a few years ago, my business partner and I decided to put our powers together and make CornerBlue the rapidly growing mobile marketing company it is today. I knew instantly it was the right decision, since every major experience in my life had led me to believe the startup culture was for me. At that point I was only two years out of UC Irvine with a Criminology, Law and Society degree, which I loved earning but haven’t really used.

After graduating from UCI, a friend referred me to a job as a claims adjuster for a very popular, but very corporate insurance company. Having too many student loans and not enough life experience, I took the job. For two years, every attempt to make things more efficient got turned down, and every creative solution or new idea would get the same conservative response from supervisors. The inability to be fluid within the business was disappointing and was one of the reasons I chose to start CornerBlue.

When I finally decided to quit my stint as a claims adjuster, my partner and I had a late-night talk over donuts about what we wanted to do with our lives. In college, I became involved in marketing and the affiliate industry with my own startup, and my partner was a genius in all types of technology and development. We had both been reading about mobile as an emerging and thriving market in other countries, and that it would soon come to the US. The answer was obvious to us.

Right away we started working and after plenty of all-nighters, we managed to get some funding for CornerBlue.

Now I’m able to apply my creativity to an ever-changing and expanding industry like mobile marketing. At CornerBlue, we provide brands with targeted, high-performing mobile campaigns in areas such as branding in the mobile space, SMS, click-to-call offers, and detailed analytics.

Being involved in every aspect of the business from ideation to turning a profit has been a very powerful experience for me. With my partner Arthur Chaparyan’s expertise in technology, CornerBlue has become a front runner in the mobile marketing industry and our team is excited for the continued growth and momentum.

Knowing what my fate could have been allowed me to explore my abilities and pursue my passions with an enormous effect on my outlook on life. I was born in Armenia and at the oblivious age of five, my parents had to flee the country to avoid the draft and a certain ill fate for my father. Leaving all of their family, they brought my brother and I to California where my dad had to do a variety of jobs to take care of us. My mom got a job as a schoolteacher, still teaches today, and has always followed her passion.

I was lucky enough to learn two very important lessons at a young age: to be appreciative of what you have and take the opportunities available to you. A simple realization that a very small percentage of people, let alone women worldwide, have a shot at doing exactly what they love to do and being successful at it drives me every day to continue pursuing my goals.

I look forward to sharing more of my tech startup experiences with you as I host the very first Founder Friday event held in Los Angeles on October 7, 2011 — Join us!

See you at the V Lounge on October 7th!

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

Araks KhachatryanAbout the guest blogger: Araks Khachatryan is co-founder & COO of CornerBlue. Her experience in launching multiple internet marketing campaigns has demonstrated her ability to motivate teams to achieve desired results within a tight timeframe. Araks has an exceptional track record of developing and implementing marketing strategies. Her leadership in the marketing industry will provide a competitive edge for CornerBlue’s aggressive goals of expansion.

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