who she is: President and CEO, Unicorn Financial Services Inc. She founded the firm with her significant other, Steven Deli, who serves as chairman.
the biz: Unicorn is a start-up loan company for the medical industry. Doctors contract with Unicorn to offer patients financing on medical services not covered by insurance, such as cosmetic surgery. Average credit charges to patients is about 10%, and Unicorn, not the doctor, assumes financial liability for late payments.
clients: The fast-growing company has signed up 300 doctors' offices as clients since December 1997, and financed 1,300 elective patient procedures in March 1998.
how she got there: After graduating from Georgetown, Tynion got her start at a New York advertising agency and skipped across several industries on her path to starting Unicorn in 1997. She was vice president of global marketing and brand management for Harley-Davidson Inc. and was a senior officer in two major corporate-identity firms, Anspach, Grossman and Portugal and Siegel & Gale.
big break: As a 25-year-old advertising agency vice president, Tynion was tapped to work on a "think-tank'' project with industry legend Mary Wells Lawrence, who became her role model. "She had a tremendous amount of capabilities, but also the ability to be a woman. I learned from her to be smart, have a presence about you, be loyal to clients and know your business.''
secret to her success: A"I always asked for more work, and I changed careers a couple of times to become well rounded. If you're going to do that, though, you have to have a road map so you don't get stuck somewhere where you're not learning.''
current challenge: "The biggest challenge is to develop a strategy and stick to it. Every day you say you could change this or that, but you have to resist that to move forward.''
the biz: Unicorn is a start-up loan company for the medical industry. Doctors contract with Unicorn to offer patients financing on medical services not covered by insurance, such as cosmetic surgery. Average credit charges to patients is about 10%, and Unicorn, not the doctor, assumes financial liability for late payments.
clients: The fast-growing company has signed up 300 doctors' offices as clients since December 1997, and financed 1,300 elective patient procedures in March 1998.
how she got there: After graduating from Georgetown, Tynion got her start at a New York advertising agency and skipped across several industries on her path to starting Unicorn in 1997. She was vice president of global marketing and brand management for Harley-Davidson Inc. and was a senior officer in two major corporate-identity firms, Anspach, Grossman and Portugal and Siegel & Gale.
big break: As a 25-year-old advertising agency vice president, Tynion was tapped to work on a "think-tank'' project with industry legend Mary Wells Lawrence, who became her role model. "She had a tremendous amount of capabilities, but also the ability to be a woman. I learned from her to be smart, have a presence about you, be loyal to clients and know your business.''
secret to her success: A"I always asked for more work, and I changed careers a couple of times to become well rounded. If you're going to do that, though, you have to have a road map so you don't get stuck somewhere where you're not learning.''
current challenge: "The biggest challenge is to develop a strategy and stick to it. Every day you say you could change this or that, but you have to resist that to move forward.''