About the Site

GivesMeHope.com was founded in May 2009 in response to the popular site, FMyLife.com (FML). On FML, people share stories explaining how their day was completely ruined. Here's one example from FML:

'Today, it was my friend's birthday. She's been having problems with most of her friends besides me lately, so I wanted to do something special. I brought her a cake. Me and her were the only ones to have any. It gave us both food poisoning. FML'

We love FML, but FML can be a downer. And we're completely exhausted by the negativity of the mainstream media.

We're tired of hearing about what's wrong in this world. That's why we created GivesMeHope.com.

GMH is where people share with the world their most hopeful, uplifting moments and allow others to draw strength from their experiences.

It's like Chicken Soup for the Soul - the 21st Century, Twitter-style version.

Because with all of the hurt and suffering in the world, who couldn't use a few more reasons to hope each day?

About the Staff

Gaby Montero Co-founder (Gaby's Twitter)

Gaby, 22, is originally from Quito, Ecuador and is currently living in Chicago with her fiance Emerson (see below) and Zoe, her fat pet chinchilla. A recent graduate from the University of Notre Dame (Go Irish!) she majored in Management and minored in International Business.

When she was 12, she learned HTML and created DailyCute, a hotspot for lovers of cute, fluffy animals. Her other nerdy crowning adolescent achievement was collecting all 150 Pokemon cards - even the shiny Charizard. Yeah.
After failing to find a 'real job' after graduation - her low point occurred when she dropped off her resume at 'Mike's Car Wash' and never received a response - she decided to put her nerdy skills to use and proposed to Emerson the idea of creating a site similar to FMyLife. Several brainstorming sessions later they came up with the idea for GMH, which launched May 31, 2009.
Gaby and Emerson's next venture was Givoogle, a charity search engine. It gained popularity rapidly but was eventually shut down. (Google's lawyers were not swayed by their plea to 'think of the children!') It re-opened as SavesWatts, an energy-saving search engine. Somehow, this very similar idea was acceptable to Google's lawyers, who the couple could only assume must be 'anti-children'.
Six months later, in January 2010, the duo launched the GMH-spinoff LoveGivesMeHope. Two months later they launched OMG Facts, and Gaby is now the host of the website's weekly video series. Then in May 2010 they founded Six Billion Secrets. The sites now receive a combined five million monthly unique visitors. Today, she couldn't be happier about not having found a 'real job'.

Emerson Spartz Co-founder (Emerson's Twitter)

Emerson, 23, is a spirited optimist who once unsuccessfully tried to eliminate the word 'boring' from his vocabulary. At age 14, he wore a fanny pack for three weeks on a school trip because 'it fit all [his] travel accessories.' His fiance Gaby would eventually work out his kinks.

At the age of 12, he began homeschooling. To cope with the soul-crushing boredom, he founded MuggleNet, which would become - and remains to this day - the most-visited Harry Potter site in the world. Emerson is the coauthor of the New York Times Bestseller MuggleNet.com's What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7 and MuggleNet.com's Harry Potter Should Have Died. In 2006, JK Rowling extended an invitation to him to interview her in her house in Scotland. Yes, she is awesome. So awesome that she gave him this, engraved by her personal jeweler, as a gift. (:o) His proudest moment was when Jimmy Kimmel ripped on him on national television. He took solace in the fact that Geraldo still likes him.
In 2009, he graduated from Notre Dame with a business degree. At Notre Dame, he met Gaby Montero and proposed to her at center court during a Chicago Bulls game. Aww.
With Gaby, he went on to co-create LoveGivesMeHope, OMG Facts, SavesWatts, and Six Billion Secrets. Since launching GivesMeHope, he can be seen gleefully conspiring with Gaby to write notes for waitresses telling them to smile because they are beautiful.

Contact Us

We'd love to hear from you! Email us at

givesmehope at gmail.com

GivesMeHope
1141 West 300 North
LaPorte, IN 46350

219.363.2461