Tomas Gorny: From Rags To Riches To Rags To Riches Again

At the age of 20, a young man named Tomas Gorny opened up a business on the side, delivering computers. He was a student in a German business school, after having moved from Poland as a teenager.

Just two months before he graduated from that school, however, he dropped out. He had an opportunity to move to America. The only problem was that he didn’t have much money and spoke extremely limited English.

Upon his arrival, he took on a few side jobs to pay for his small apartment in Los Angeles. He worked as a valet and, on weekends, cleaned office carpets for extra money.

However, he was also an early member of a small web-hosting company, Internet Communications, that eventually grew much larger. He agreed to work for no salary, instead receiving a small stake in the company that eventually grew to 20%.

Internet Communications was sold just a few years later, making Gorny a millionaire at the age of 22. He used this money to start investing in other companies during the 90's Tech Boom. Unfortunately for him, those investments ended up not panning out.

However, he told Business Insider that he had no regrets about the bad investments, because the lessons propelled him to excel.

In 2001, the "Dot-Com Bubble" of fledgling tech startups began to burst. Many of Gorny's investments began to fail. After the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, the market fell even further, wiping out most of the money Gorny had made from the sale of Internet Communications.

By the end of that year, he had lost his millions and had less than $10,000 to his name. He was barely able to pay the $2,500 mortgage on his home. He pulled out his credit cards and decided to do what he did best or, as he put it, "the only thing he knew how to do": create another business.

Similar to Internet Communications, his new venture IPOWER was a web-hosting business that gave users the ability to simply and quickly create websites to build, manage, and promote their online presence. Just over five years later, the company was one of the largest web hosting providers in the country when it merged with Endurance International Group.

Endurance International Group was later sold to Goldman Sachs and Warburg Pincus for over $900 million. As one of the company's top shareholders, Gorny received a large payout and was once again on top.

Not content to simply retire with his newfound money, Gorny immediately began work on his next idea. It was a business communications company called Nextiva.

Nextiva started small but grew rather quickly. In 2021, the company raised $200 million from Goldman Sachs Asset Management at a $2.7 billion valuation. At present, over 100,000 businesses use Nextiva as their communications provider.

Beyond Nextiva, Gorny has created two other successful companies: a website security firm called SiteLock, and a company that helps startups get off the ground called UnitedWeb.

All three of these companies were self-financed by Gorny and his business partner. Following his financial crisis in 2001, Gorny stated that he has become quite conservative about investing in other entrepreneurs and had instead chosen to invest that money into his own businesses. 

As to the secret to his success in creating multiple successful tech startups, Gorny has explained his philosophy in interviews. Although he sold several of his previous businesses, he says entrepreneurs should never have an exit strategy. 

"When I lost all my money in 2001, I completely abandoned the view of focusing on net worth. The success of a business really lies on the value it provides," he explained. He went on to explain that making money should never be the primary focus of a company. Instead, focusing on providing value to customers is more important and will bring money in the long run.

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