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Laura Groppe is 35, but she'll freely use the word"terminal" to describe her ever-present teenagementality. So it's pretty lucky for her--and for girlseverywhere--that she's the conceptual force behindentertainment company Girl Games Inc. in Austin, Texas, a workplacewhere blow-up furniture is standard and achieving "absolutechaos" is encouraged.
But this freedom didn't always reign: Before starting GirlGames in 1994, the former film and video producer/director(who's won Academy, MTV and Sundance Film Festival awards) grewweary of Hollywood and of following directions when shecouldn't be boss. You didn't read it here, but she even gotcanned a couple of times.
Seeking a new direction, Groppe returned to her native Texas andbegan researching a business idea that would, as she puts it,"get girls to be more effective in the evolution oftechnology." She knew the dynamics of producing entertainmentbut wasn't proficient in software, so she attended computerconferences to enlighten herself. She also teamed up withHouston's Rice University in a National ScienceFoundation-funded study to research how sixth- to 12th-grade girlsfelt about different computer products.
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