Rana Mumtaz, 38

Forest Hills, N.Y.
Laid off from: Mimeo, Oct. 30, 2008
New venture: Fablogue.com
Last year's profile

Where she is now: Rana Mumtaz shifted the business model for Fablogue, a site designed to help people discover fashion items, from selling ads around content to actually selling merchandise from up-and-coming designers. She realized an ad-supported model was unlikely to work, particularly in a recession. After months of recruiting clothing, accessory, and jewelry designers, she retooled the site with an online store expected to launch next month.

Mumtaz is self-funding Fablogue, and though the business had no revenue in 2009, the former finance manager isn't planning to return to the corporate world. Mumtaz was accepted into Astia, a nonprofit business accelerator for women, last summer, and hopes the new e-commerce business model will be a faster route to profitability.

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