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S E L F - S TA R T E R S ins and outs of the industry before heading to college. By the time he started college, he had decided to set up an independent sales office (ISO) of BluePay, which he would own and run. First Bankcard Processing, Inc. was founded in September 2006 while Rante was a college student! Working alone, Rante handles all the aspects of the business, but as an ISO of BluePay, he has access to their underwriting, risk, IT and customer service employees. Having them at his disposal allows First Bankcard all the resources of any large credit card processing company with technically only one employee. Rante prides himself on providing his customers first-rate service. His sales continue to grow, hitting a company high last December when First Bankcard processed $14 million worth of Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express cards. Go to firstbankcardprocessing.com to learn more about Rante’s company. Chris Bell ’89, of Los Angeles, has always had a passion for computers, completing an independent study in electronics during his time at Gilmour. After graduating from Tufts University with a master’s degree in water resources engineering, he went to work at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland working with synthesized data to ensure that the instruments used would yield useful data. Bell’s desire to create and develop at a faster pace led him to switch gears. Still in computing, he moved from the scientific world into e-commerce, working in research and development at Universal Music, where he focused on mobile applications. From there, Bell decided to start his own consulting
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business, which he eventually shut down to join another company. He then teamed up with his brother, Michael ’83, who has worked as an account executive for the James B. Oswald Company, marketing manager for Investor’s Business Daily and executive director for a privately held law firm. The brothers launched and built Shopping Syndicate LLC, the company behind the popular consumer shopping and savings website Dealhack.com. They ran this company in their free time as they both had full-time jobs. The company demanded so much time and energy that they sold it in 2010, after learning much about the industry and about running a company. They used the knowledge, experience and resources gained from operating Dealhack to launch a new company called Zoomergy LLC, a web and mobile e-commerce and performance marketing company. The brothers are the co-founders and Chris runs the company full time. Bell says that the key to successful entrepreneurship is perseverance, as launching and running a company require a tremendous amount of work. He also contends that an entrepreneur must be able to focus on the goal, but have the ability to refocus often as change is constant. To learn more about Zoomergy LLC, visit zoomergy.com. New York-based jewelry and fashion designer, Adrienne Alaimo ’01 began to feel dissatisfied designing for someone else’s vision while working for a fashion design company. A knitwear fashion design graduate of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, Alaimo was drawn to the timeless nature of jewelry and began to create jewelry that integrated her knitting skills. In 2010, she launched AEA Jewelry. Part of her collection is one-of-akind fine knit necklaces intricately adorned with vintage, rare beads and custom metal work closures. The other part is made in small production runs with custom cut gemstones and other items that Alaimo specifically designs for each piece. The entire line is made in New York City. To see Alaimo’s line,