3-20-2017, Forbes -- On Episode 37 of The Limit Does Not Exist we sit down with Janett Martinez, who has held a singular mantra throughout her zig-zag career: "it's all about scrappy resourcefulness." The CEO of fashion-tech startup Loomia got her start in technical theater while still a teenager at the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City. (Fun fact: that's the public arts high school FAME is based on.)
Martinez studied theatrical scenic, lighting, and sound design and construction and worked at Lincoln Center as a scenic charge before matriculating at Emerson College to study design technology. She liked the intersection of technology and performing arts, and she was doing well in her program. But in her sophomore year both of her parents had health issues that prevented them working. So she took a leave of absence and returned to New York, where she got a job as a concierge at the Bryant Park Hotel to help support her family.
She built a binder several hundred pages thick with notes on menus, maître d's, and special events as she hustled to build relationships across the city. It paid off, and after a very successful year in the role was able to go back to school. But her interests had changed since she left Emerson, so Martinez decided to stay in New York and complete a certificate in audio engineering. She had been acting (including an appearance on Law and Order, a veritable rite of passage for professional actors) and singing original songs during her year as a concierge, and wanted to learn the technology and craft behind recording engineering.
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