Mandy Ginsberg, CEO of Tutor.com, knows students get frustrated with homework. She sees it in her own home with her two children. That’s just one of the reasons she believes in the possibilities of Tutor.com.

Another reason to believe in the potential of Tutor.com is Ginsberg’s resume. Before Ginsberg joined the team at Tutor.com in 2013, she served as CEO of Match.com. Ginsberg took over Match.com, then named Chemistry.com, after 19 months of decline. With her deep understanding of consumer marketing and brand strategy, Ginsberg led some of the company's most successful campaigns.

Last Wednesday, Ginsberg spoke before a large group of entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts at Startup Grind Dallas. Her presentation included the staples of each Startup Grind discussion: hiring the best employees, reenergizing a business, changing corporate culture. However, the highlights of Ginsberg’s discussion focused on her passion for education technology and experience as a mother.

"Ed tech is so far behind the times. Educators in general are passionate about the experience, but don’t know how to create it for consumers,” Ginsberg said. “It’s all about that moment for teenagers: when kids are stuck on homework. It happens in thousands of homes across America. So that’s why I think it [Tutor.com] is going to be big.”

Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, Ginsberg says she has always been a self-starter. “I’ve always had this insanely ridiculous drive. I can’t stand losing. I want to win,” she said.

This determination led Ginsberg to play competitive soccer at the University of California at Berkley, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree. Her drive also allowed Ginsberg to finish her M.B.A. at The Wharton School of Business as a single mother.

Throughout her career, Ginsberg has sought wise counsel from her mentors, most notably designer icon Diane Von Furstenberg. “I’ve found that I had to work hard to be a mentee,” Ginsberg said. “Especially with Diane, but it was always with it.”

Ginsberg’s career has included 15 years in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she worked for Microsoft when the company bought Hotmail, and time in New York. She never saw herself returning to Dallas, until a family illness brought her back to her hometown.  

“My mother died of ovarian cancer,” Ginsberg told the Dallas Business Journal. “She tested positive for a genetic defect called BRCA1, which causes a very high incidence of breast cancer (more than 90 percent) and ovarian cancer (more than 60 percent). A few weeks following her death, I also tested positive. I felt like a cancer time bomb. When faced with mortality, decisions become pretty clear. I wanted a more fulfilling job (that is when I got the job at Match.com), I married my husband, and I wanted to never have to worry about dying early of cancer.”

Years later, Ginsberg still keeps the scan from when she tested positive for BRCA1, reminding her what is most important in life. “Don’t take the people around you for granted," Ginsberg  said. “You don’t know what is going to happen in the future.”