Meet GES Delegate: Magdalena Rodríguez

Name: Magdalena Rodríguez (Maggie)
Twitter handle: @maggie8uy
Country of Origin: Uruguay
Organization Name: GPSGAY
Organization Website: www.gpsgay.com
Brief Description of Organization:
GPSGAY is a digital resource for the LGBT community, providing news, information, tourism guides, and social interaction. By offering a place to share with others with the same cultural interests without discrimination based on their sexual orientation creating a sense of belonging among users and support between pairs; it creates an inclusive environment for users to engage in while simultaneously providing a channel for organizations to interact with this community. GPSGAY is available via web and mobile devices in Spanish, English and Portuguese.

What inspired you to start this organization?:
Being a homosexual in Latin America I am aware that the gay market is highly untended for. There are a lot of dating sites, but the gay market also has other needs than dating, like meeting people who understands us, being supported by a community, go to places without being afraid of discrimination and bullying.

It’s difficult to be openly gay in Latin America. And I want to help change that. I have always been highly involved with the gay community in Uruguay. GPSGAY gives me the opportunity to take this involvement to the next level.

What is the next big step you hope to help your organization reach?:
Our next step is to reach 1.000.000 users, and become profitable. In order to do this, we are constantly working in improving GPSGAY, and have recently started contacting organizations that wish to become sponsors to support GPSGAY and the LGBTQ community. So far, we have done some very interesting and successful work with United Nations (UNAids Division), Dove (Unilever) and IBM. The type of actions we do with them, such as starting an online health consultancy, benefit our community while helping their initiatives reach a wider audience. Reach out to me if you are interested, I’ll be happy to talk!

What has been your biggest obstacle as an entrepreneur?:
Finding funding in a small country such as Uruguay without being very connected at our very beginnings was a big problem. Also having to become a “saleswoman” for our products, which is something I had never done before. We were lucky enough to enter Ingenio, an incubator in Uruguay with our first company back in 2007 and CIE when we started GPSGAY. These networks enabled us to meet amazing entrepreneurs and business angels along the way, which definitely helped us a lot both with their experience, and later even with founding and connections. I am very grateful to all of them.

What advice would you give other emerging entrepreneurs? :
Keep trying and don’t give up if you truly believe in what you are doing! There were days I could not sleep thinking on how I was going to pay my debts, or when things were not going as good as I wanted them to. However, at some point, there would always be something happening, that filled me with strength and happiness, and led me to believe I was on the right track. And things got better.

I am lucky to have an amazing family and group of friends. Cherish the people that love you. They are the ones that help you when things get rough, and the ones you can celebrate with when things are going well. Do both: ask for help and celebrate. :)