Why I Launched Here

The T.P. Gilmore Company venture capitalists in San Marcos, Texas, and I were looking for an opportunity to work on something together. Dr. John Ivy, chair of the kinesiology and health education department at the University of Texas, had developed nutritional performance sports drinks that were being used and tested by athletes like Michael Phelps and Nastia Liukin prior to the 2008 Olympics. We refined the products and founded PureSport in November 2007.

Startups are very successful in Austin because of access to capital and the talent that's here. Three of our employees are under 25, and are working on or have completed their master's degrees. They're all athletic and have a different way of approaching business, like the use of social networking. I wanted a balance of senior and young people.

This area is such an outdoors community. We've focused on athletes who are into things like cycling, swimming and triathlons. We haven't had any problem selling the products at places like Sports Authority and HEB Grocery stores.

Recessions are the times when companies are launched and made. I believe people want to be healthy in this environment. They spend less money traveling, and more on working on themselves physically and mentally. So I think PureSport fits that perfectly. -Dinah Eng

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