Portal Languages was created for language teachers with an entrepreneurial spirit. We began as a privately operated tutoring service by our founders from their apartment in Costa Mesa, California. The spark that launched the company came from a continuous demand for their language tutoring service. In January 2009, the founder, Maria Laura and her husband Reynaldo D'Angelo, decided to establish Portal Languages – Costa Mesa in a 400 sq./ft. office space. With the help of our IT Director, Reynaldo D’Angelo Jr. and his Interior Designer wife Elisabeth Soto D’Angelo a website and a functional space was then created for the school. Maria and Reynaldo then decided to adopt the Language Teaching Methodology Series “The Natural Approach Language Acquisition” developed by Stephen D. Krashen and Tracy D Terrell. What followed were several years of quick expansion as internet marketing campaigns, student referrals and a sound business principle began to pay off. Remarkably, in less than 5 years, Portal Languages went from a fledgling start-up to the premier language school in Orange County, California. Wishing to expand this success beyond our local market due to constant requests by students to open a school in their local market, Portal Languages chose franchising as the next step.