Posted Under: Entrepreneurship, Our Heroes

Today under the “Our Heroes” series we are talking with Joel Gross who broke out of the 9 to 5 jail. After graduating the University of Washington with a degree in Business Administration, he worked in online branding assisting a start-up company in becoming one of the fastest growing companies in the region. After a year of gathering resources and earning a viable skill-set, Joel launched Intellitutoring which offers math and science tutors to a diverse set of students. Let’s talk to Joel and find out more…

DD: Who are you and what kind of corporate job were you at?

JG: I am 26 years old and grew up in Washington State.  When I was 17 I started a landscaping business and made good money at it over the summer, but had to quit in order to go back to school.  The entrepreneurship bug stayed with me, although I was unable to run my own business again until six months ago.  I attended the University of Washington in Seattle and obtained a degree in Business Administration (Finance).  After school, I left to work at a startup company named Visible Technologies which had only 10 employees at the time.  Visible Technologies employed about 100 people at the time I left and had been named the 7^th fastest growing company in the region.  While working there I learned how to build and market websites.  I was there for three and a half years and helped come up with the idea and build one of their online tools, trureputationscore

DD: What made you leave the job? When did you realize that you wanted to be an entrepreneur & why?

JG: I didn’t agree with many of the business decisions that they made regarding the product and it grew more and more frustrating to me to see things being done in an insufficient manner (in my opinion).  Finally it struck me that I should really go and start my own company! Then I could do everything exactly as I saw fit and the success or failure of my company would ride on my own decisions and on nothing else.

DD: How did you prepare yourself for the employee to entrepreneur transition?

JG: It took me about a year to save up enough money and gain the skills and confidence needed to make the decision to leave.  At first I switched to part-time status, working 20 hours a week (Visible was really great about giving me leeway to figure things out for myself).  I thought I could make my business work while still staying at Visible part-time, but it soon became clear that I needed to entirely cut the cord.

I moved to LA at the end of September of 2009 and have lived in Venice Beach, California since then.  My roommate and I are half a block from the beach and it’s a really great lifestyle.  I am far happier working for myself and building my own dreams than I was trying to build someone else’s.

My business is still borderline profitable and I have to live very frugally. I have the lowest rent of anyone I know in Los Angeles and am careful about my spending.  I am also rapidly iterating my business models, trying to find out what makes me the most money.  I am working as a primary designer and consultant and I am building my own projects, all at the same time.

DD: What are your Top 5 (or more) tips for employees who want to be entrepreneurs but are hung up on something?

JG: My advice to other people who currently are stuck in the corporate grind is that you will never feel 100% comfortable about starting out on your own, so if you don’t take a leap of faith, you will never leave.  I would recommend having enough savings that you can live off of for a year without additional income (include any investments your business will require in this amount).  I would also recommend testing your business ideas before you quit your current job- you can usually do this and find out if your idea will work or not BEFORE leaving.

DD: How are you now? Are you still in the same business, and how do you feel?

JG: Today I am continuing to test out business models and create different deals with companies.  I recently built a math & science tutoring website to generate leads for my business partner and I am really excited about the traction that it is already gaining on the internet.

DD: Thank you so much Joel for sharing your story with me! I am so happy to hear that you have made the decision to escape the 9 to 5 jail and it is my pleasure to quote you: “I am far happier working for myself and building my own dreams than I was trying to build someone else’s.” Well said, and well done Joel.

JG: Thank you, Devesh, for believing in entrepreneurs and for having an interest in my story. It really is a great feeling to wake up every morning and know that I am going to work, but to a workplace that I enjoy and take pride in. I wish you the best of luck in the future.

DD: Good luck to you too, Joel! There you have it folks, Joel Gross, startup business employee turned entrepreneur. It is great to hear about another successful entrepreneur who excelled in their 9 to 5 role but decided to take a risk and go out on their own. Thanks Joel, for your inspiring words and for sharing your entrepreneurial experience with us.

Success to all!