Dawna Stone, the president of Wet Dog Media and publisher of Her Sports, took her business from a mere idea in December 2002 to winning a Charlie Award for Best New Magazine in the span of 18 months. Her Sports was also recently recognized as one of the 30 Most Notable Launches of 2004 (out of over 1,000 magazine launches). This rapid start and ongoing success make an impressive case for the long-term staying power of the business.

Like other well-known business success stories, the Her Sports tale is about someone with a tremendous vision assembling a team of like-minded people and through dedication and sheer willpower overcoming incredible odds to create a company that has a clear impact on society.

The idea for a magazine targeting real women athletes was first discussed with Dawna over eight years ago. At a lunch in Hawaii, during the Ironman World Triathlon Championship, two industry heavyweights suggested that if anyone could successfully launch a women's sports magazine it would be Dawna and her creative guru Kristin Mayer. In the middle of a fast-track corporate career, Dawna appreciated the suggestion, but the timing was not right.

Fast forward six years, and Dawna, 33, was the chief marketing officer of a $700 million publicly traded company. Having achieved incredible success in the corporate world, she longed for the opportunity to prove herself as a true entrepreneur. After reading that Sports Illustrated Women, a 400,000 circulation women's sports magazine published by Time-Warner, was being shuttered, the conversations from Hawaii came flooding back.

Working during lunch and on weekends, Dawna began developing a business plan for a women's sports magazine to fill the void created by the demise of Sports Illustrated Women. Since Dawna had no publishing industry experience, she started by reading every how-to book about publishing a magazine she could find and interviewing publishers. The general consensus: Publishing is a very tough business, start-ups have a 90% failure rate, and instead of setting herself up for failure, she should remain where she is and keep moving up the corporate ladder.

But Dawna didn't listen to the pessimists and, instead, persevered. After five months of research, Dawna developed a 50-page business plan. Dawna also assembled the core of the start-up team: creative director Kristin Mayer, with more than 10 years of sports marketing experience, and Christina Gandolfo, the former editor in chief of Triathlete magazine, a successful sports vertical.

With a team tentatively in place and a decent business plan, in July 2003 Dawna left her $250,000-a-year job for her new unpaid position as publisher of Her Sports. Given the huge upfront investment and the historically high failure rate, Dawna created a series of milestones or go/no-go points at which she would reassess the viability of the fledgling publishing venture.

The first task was to confirm that the market did indeed want and need a women's sports magazine. The start-up team conducted a series of focus groups on both the U.S. West and East coasts. While there was mixed opinion about the name and look of the magazine, the focus group participants were near unanimous in their approval of the editorial content and direction of the magazine. Further meetings allowed refinement of the look and feel. After considering over two dozen potential names, the team settled on Her Sports magazine. It was the clearest, most succinct way to convey the essence of the magazine.

Now that it had proved a market existed, the team needed to see if the key revenue source of the business, consumer products advertisers, supported the magazine. The team put together a 32-page "mock" magazine containing sample stories and advertisements. Dawna then took the mock book to some of the biggest names in advertising, such as Coca-Cola, Ford, Kraft and Nike. The advertisers were all extremely impressed with the quality of the magazine. In fact the Senior Media Manager of Quaker Oats remarked, "This is the best launch I've seen. I can't believe you're not part of a large publishing company". Feeling more confident, the team crossed the final go/no-go point and committed to publishing the first issue of Her Sports in late February 2003.

Since the first issue hit newsstands, Her Sports has continued to defy the experts with its unprecedented success. The magazine has rapidly gained acceptance and has put together a roster of top-tier national advertisers that is the envy of many of other magazines, both similar size and even larger ones. Some of the companies advertising in Her Sports include: 2005 has seen the continual expansion of Her Sports. In January, Trudy Robinson, former publisher of Shape en Espanol and Muscle & Fitness Hers magazines joined Her Sports as vice president and partner. In mid-summer, the company released a training DVD entitled The Her Sports Guide to Running a 5K targeted at first-time and intermediate runners. The DVD contains two detailed training plans, nutrition advice and race tips.

The Her Sports Triathlon Team debuted in 2005. Featuring 16 female triathletes, the team, which is also sponsored by Zoot Sports, Asics, Canari Cyclewear, GU, Polar and Headsweats, has posted a plethora of podium placements.

In two short years, Her Sports has shown it will be an industry player for a long time.