It’s typically stated that entrepreneurs aren’t made; they’re born. Nevertheless, serial entrepreneurs are a fair rarer breed. The very fact is that it is not typically that you simply come throughout somebody with an actual ardour for innovating and beginning companies. Tomas Gorny is simply such an individual. From humble beginnings as a Polish expatriate attending a German enterprise faculty, he went on to discovered a number of profitable companies, together with his present enterprise, the unified expertise platform firm Nextiva.
In between, nevertheless, he grew to become a millionaire, misplaced all of it, and got here roaring again to the heights of success. His story is one in all resilience, intentionality, and steadfast dedication. In brief, it is an ideal mannequin for any would-be entrepreneur. Right here is Tomas Gorny’s story, in addition to his recommendation to different entrepreneurs, gained from years of expertise, trials, and tribulations.
From Enterprise College Dropout to Dot-Com Entrepreneur
Born in Communist Poland in 1975, Tomas Gorny’s youth gave him a front-row seat to the financial hardships confronted by residents throughout the Soviet bloc. It was an expertise that molded him into an financial risk-taker early in his entrepreneurial profession.
Whereas attending enterprise faculty in Germany, he began a pc supply enterprise—keen to place his ongoing enterprise classes to work. Nevertheless, simply earlier than commencement, 20-year-old Gorny determined to take an opportunity on himself by shifting to greener financial pastures. With nearly no cash and a restricted grasp of the English language, he dropped out of faculty and moved to America.
At first, he labored a number of jobs there to outlive. He first discovered work as a valet and even cleaned workplace carpets on weekends to make ends meet. On the time, making ends meet meant residing in a small condo in Los Angeles and scratching out a paycheck-to-paycheck existence. However that would not final lengthy, because the 90s dot-com bubble was simply beginning to inflate.
It wasn’t lengthy earlier than Gorny joined a small web-hosting firm referred to as Web Communications as one in all its earliest workers. Nevertheless, since cash was scarce on the fledgling agency, he agreed to work for an fairness stake within the enterprise in lieu of a wage. It was a call that may have profound penalties for his entrepreneurial profession.
Growth, Bust, and Growth Once more
Simply two years after going to work for Web Communications, Gorny had amassed a 20% stake within the enterprise. That stake—value little or no on the time—would quickly change every part for him. Shortly thereafter, rising public agency Interliant bought Web Communications, turning Gorny right into a newly minted millionaire in a single day.
It did not take lengthy for him to be taught his first exhausting entrepreneurial lesson, although.
Like many entrepreneurs on the time, Gorny leaped headfirst into an funding binge, wanting to pad his fast-growing web value. And like many others, the choice would come again to hang-out him. By the early 2000s, the dual blows of the Dot-Com crash and 9/11 decimated Gorny’s investments and left him with nothing however his automobile and little or no money within the financial institution. In different phrases—nearly again to sq. one.
It was an expertise that taught Gorny a precious lesson that is simply as relevant to right this moment’s entrepreneurs because it was then: solely a idiot chases cash. Of his sudden downfall, Gorny remarked, “I set my objectives round my web value and that was a mistake. Every thing immediately collapsed,” Fortuitously, he did not keep down for lengthy.
By late 2001, Gorny began over by launching one other SMB-focused web-hosting startup referred to as IPOWER. And earlier than lengthy, it was thriving. On the finish of 2007, IPOWER merged with a smaller web-hosting supplier Endurance Worldwide. 4 years after that, the mixed agency was acquired by Goldman Sachs and Warburg Pincus for practically $1 billion. As a major shareholder, Gorny was as soon as once more a multimillionaire.
Not like his final go-round with wealth, nevertheless, Gorny resolved to not make the identical errors once more. Reasonably than investing in different entrepreneurs, he as an alternative determined to guess on himself, utilizing his newfound riches to bootstrap a number of new, profitable ventures.
Studying From Failure and the Street Forward
Right now, Tomas Gorny is a fast-paced innovator and enterprise chief. He is the co-founder and CEO of Nextiva, and till lately, sat on the board of administrators of Endurance Worldwide Group. And in the midst of all of that, he even achieved one other profitable exit when SiteLock bought to ABRY Companions LLC. in 2018.
Within the course of, Gorny says that he is realized much more about what it takes to be a profitable entrepreneur. Based mostly on his experiences, his cardinal rule is rarely to construct a enterprise with an exit technique in thoughts. He insists that the trail to success lies in creating worth, not a highway to riches. “After I misplaced all my cash in 2001, I utterly deserted the view of specializing in web value. The success of a enterprise actually lies on the worth it offers,” says Gorny.
He additionally says that entrepreneurs should not fear about being underestimated, insisting that this solely makes it simpler to outmaneuver the competitors. He now believes that being underestimated has an influence all its personal, permitting you to try in your objectives with out would-be rivals seeing you as a risk.
Lastly, he is realized that one of the best guess you’ll be able to ever make is on your self. Because of this Gorny poured his personal sources into Nextiva. Nevertheless, that is a place that different entrepreneurs is probably not in on the outset, and that is simply part of the journey. As Gorny’s early ventures proved, it is at all times potential to get again up, mud your self off, and check out once more in the event you do not succeed immediately.
And if his journey—beginning as a brand new immigrant with nearly nothing in the way in which of property to being one in all America’s most profitable and celebrated entrepreneurs means something, it is that the sky is the restrict for any entrepreneur with good concepts, the need to succeed, and the desire to maintain shifting ahead.
It’s typically stated that entrepreneurs aren’t made; they’re born. Nevertheless, serial entrepreneurs are a fair rarer breed. The very fact is that it is not typically that you simply come throughout somebody with an actual ardour for innovating and beginning companies. Tomas Gorny is simply such an individual. From humble beginnings as a Polish expatriate attending a German enterprise faculty, he went on to discovered a number of profitable companies, together with his present enterprise, the unified expertise platform firm Nextiva.
In between, nevertheless, he grew to become a millionaire, misplaced all of it, and got here roaring again to the heights of success. His story is one in all resilience, intentionality, and steadfast dedication. In brief, it is an ideal mannequin for any would-be entrepreneur. Right here is Tomas Gorny’s story, in addition to his recommendation to different entrepreneurs, gained from years of expertise, trials, and tribulations.
From Enterprise College Dropout to Dot-Com Entrepreneur
Born in Communist Poland in 1975, Tomas Gorny’s youth gave him a front-row seat to the financial hardships confronted by residents throughout the Soviet bloc. It was an expertise that molded him into an financial risk-taker early in his entrepreneurial profession.
Whereas attending enterprise faculty in Germany, he began a pc supply enterprise—keen to place his ongoing enterprise classes to work. Nevertheless, simply earlier than commencement, 20-year-old Gorny determined to take an opportunity on himself by shifting to greener financial pastures. With nearly no cash and a restricted grasp of the English language, he dropped out of faculty and moved to America.
At first, he labored a number of jobs there to outlive. He first discovered work as a valet and even cleaned workplace carpets on weekends to make ends meet. On the time, making ends meet meant residing in a small condo in Los Angeles and scratching out a paycheck-to-paycheck existence. However that would not final lengthy, because the 90s dot-com bubble was simply beginning to inflate.
It wasn’t lengthy earlier than Gorny joined a small web-hosting firm referred to as Web Communications as one in all its earliest workers. Nevertheless, since cash was scarce on the fledgling agency, he agreed to work for an fairness stake within the enterprise in lieu of a wage. It was a call that may have profound penalties for his entrepreneurial profession.
Growth, Bust, and Growth Once more
Simply two years after going to work for Web Communications, Gorny had amassed a 20% stake within the enterprise. That stake—value little or no on the time—would quickly change every part for him. Shortly thereafter, rising public agency Interliant bought Web Communications, turning Gorny right into a newly minted millionaire in a single day.
It did not take lengthy for him to be taught his first exhausting entrepreneurial lesson, although.
Like many entrepreneurs on the time, Gorny leaped headfirst into an funding binge, wanting to pad his fast-growing web value. And like many others, the choice would come again to hang-out him. By the early 2000s, the dual blows of the Dot-Com crash and 9/11 decimated Gorny’s investments and left him with nothing however his automobile and little or no money within the financial institution. In different phrases—nearly again to sq. one.
It was an expertise that taught Gorny a precious lesson that is simply as relevant to right this moment’s entrepreneurs because it was then: solely a idiot chases cash. Of his sudden downfall, Gorny remarked, “I set my objectives round my web value and that was a mistake. Every thing immediately collapsed,” Fortuitously, he did not keep down for lengthy.
By late 2001, Gorny began over by launching one other SMB-focused web-hosting startup referred to as IPOWER. And earlier than lengthy, it was thriving. On the finish of 2007, IPOWER merged with a smaller web-hosting supplier Endurance Worldwide. 4 years after that, the mixed agency was acquired by Goldman Sachs and Warburg Pincus for practically $1 billion. As a major shareholder, Gorny was as soon as once more a multimillionaire.
Not like his final go-round with wealth, nevertheless, Gorny resolved to not make the identical errors once more. Reasonably than investing in different entrepreneurs, he as an alternative determined to guess on himself, utilizing his newfound riches to bootstrap a number of new, profitable ventures.
Studying From Failure and the Street Forward
Right now, Tomas Gorny is a fast-paced innovator and enterprise chief. He is the co-founder and CEO of Nextiva, and till lately, sat on the board of administrators of Endurance Worldwide Group. And in the midst of all of that, he even achieved one other profitable exit when SiteLock bought to ABRY Companions LLC. in 2018.
Within the course of, Gorny says that he is realized much more about what it takes to be a profitable entrepreneur. Based mostly on his experiences, his cardinal rule is rarely to construct a enterprise with an exit technique in thoughts. He insists that the trail to success lies in creating worth, not a highway to riches. “After I misplaced all my cash in 2001, I utterly deserted the view of specializing in web value. The success of a enterprise actually lies on the worth it offers,” says Gorny.
He additionally says that entrepreneurs should not fear about being underestimated, insisting that this solely makes it simpler to outmaneuver the competitors. He now believes that being underestimated has an influence all its personal, permitting you to try in your objectives with out would-be rivals seeing you as a risk.
Lastly, he is realized that one of the best guess you’ll be able to ever make is on your self. Because of this Gorny poured his personal sources into Nextiva. Nevertheless, that is a place that different entrepreneurs is probably not in on the outset, and that is simply part of the journey. As Gorny’s early ventures proved, it is at all times potential to get again up, mud your self off, and check out once more in the event you do not succeed immediately.
And if his journey—beginning as a brand new immigrant with nearly nothing in the way in which of property to being one in all America’s most profitable and celebrated entrepreneurs means something, it is that the sky is the restrict for any entrepreneur with good concepts, the need to succeed, and the desire to maintain shifting ahead.
