HOW I GOT STARTED
By Steve Yablonski
VICTORIA USHERWOOD GAILINAS
Owner of website iHeartOswego.com celebrates 10 years in business; she explains how it all started and announces she is selling the business Q: Have you ever done anything like this before? A: Starting new organizations is kind
of our thing. We established the first women’s flat track roller derby leagues in Manchester in 2007 and Peterborough, New Hampshire, in 2008. We also organized the Oz Roller Girls in 2010 roller derby here in Oswego while we were still in New Hampshire. We created our website development and marketing company in 2005. Overall, we have created more than eight businesses and organizations in the last 20 years. But never have we produced or found another media organization quite like or even close to iHeartOswego.com. It is one of a kind — truly unique.
Q: How much did you invest to start? Have you invested more over the years? A: For us, money is really never
Q: When was iHeart Oswego launched? A: Nov. 3, 2012. So this is our 10th
anniversary coming up and that’s exciting!
Q: Why did you start this kind of business? A: Coming back to Oswego from having
been gone for 27 years, I asked friends, “Where do you find events happening here?” The answer was: ‘There is nothing to do here, Oswego sucks.’ I thought, that’s absolutely impossible; of course there are things happening here every single day. Oswego is a wonderful place to grow up, to raise
your own family and to retire to. So I contacted the chamber of commerce, Oswego County Tourism and the city of Oswego. They all confirmed that no, there was no central place to find all events, online or in the local newspaper. I felt an overwhelming need to help Oswego move forward. My husband, Phil Gailinas, and I had just relocated from a very progressive and successful small city in New Hampshire where we owned a website development, event creation and marketing company: iHeart Corp. We could help Oswego.
22 OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2022
a consideration when we are in developing community projects like iHeartOswego or roller derby. We started with zero dollars in and had to generate funds through the website advertising to cover all expenses. We have never taken any loans to help fund iHeartOswego or any other volunteer organization we have created. These organizations are run by volunteers, myself included. We already have the in-house talent to create what we need to start. The website, revenue streams, graphic design or marketing plans. Our company iHeart Corp would fund it. We created advertising spaces on the iHeartOswego.com website. The ads pay for the overhead; but have the potential and ability to fully fund iHeartOswego as an entity, unto itself. Q: What does the business do? How has it evolved? A: iHeartOswego.com website and the
iHeartOswego (social media) were developed to be an online ‘good news’ city-zine and volunteer organization. If the events or stories were happy, fun and positive, we wanted to publish it. We also wanted and Oswego needed, a comprehensive online calendar that carried all events in Oswego. From bingo to Harborfest, we would let people know what was happening
