Born in the former Yugoslavia, my childhood was upended when my family fled the Balkan wars and arrived in the United States having lost nearly everything.
Starting Over
My parents didn't have the luxury of planning. They had to rebuild from nothing in a country where they didn't speak the language. That kind of starting point changes how you see risk forever.
Rather than pursue formal higher education, I went straight to work — long shifts in restaurants and hotels — while teaching myself technology and launching a series of early ventures that failed before they taught me what entrepreneurs actually need.
The Inc. 5000
I built the company I founded to two consecutive appearances on the Inc. 5000 list, climbing to #35 nationally in 2024 on the strength of a 7,191% three-year growth rate, after debuting at #418.
Resilience isn't about bouncing back — it's about bouncing forward.
Every overnight success story has a decade of failure behind it. Mine certainly did. The key is that each failure left me with something I didn't have before: a lesson, a contact, a skill, or just the knowledge of what not to do next time.
