Joshua Dziabiak

Last updated

Joshua Dziabiak
Joshua Dziabiak picture.png
Born1987 (age 36–37)
Freedom, Pennsylvania, United States
Occupation(s)Businessman, Founder
Known for
The Zebra
ShowClix
Gawq

Joshua Dziabiak (born 1987) is an American entrepreneur and business executive. He is the Founder of Gawq, ShowClix, MediaCatch and Co-Founder of The Zebra.

Contents

Joshua started his first company MediaCatch at the age of 14 and sold the company three years later, making him a millionaire before the age of 18. [1] Joshua served as The Zebra's Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer from 2012 to 2020, when he stepped down and started Gawq. He remains on The Zebra's Board of Directors. [2] [3] [4] He is a "mentor" with AlphaLab, a seed-accelerator program for startup companies. [5] [6]

Early life and education

Dziabiak was born in Freedom, Pennsylvania, in 1987. [7] He lived on a 20-acre farm from where his parents ran their own septic-cleaning business. [7]

The family purchased a computer when Dziabiak was 12 years old and he begged them to get Internet access after one of his friends asked him if he had a website. [7]

He left school in the ninth grade during the height of his first business venture, turning to home schooling where he taught himself using CD ROMs. [7]

He eventually moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after selling his first company before the age of 18. [7]

Career

Dziabiak began his entrepreneurial career at the age of 14. [1] [8] He used a dial-up connection to surf the Internet and designed his own personal website. [1] This was during the time that most companies did not have an Internet presence, and Dziabiak began designing websites for local businesses. Dziabiak charged a couple hundred dollars for each design, also selling the businesses hosting services. [1] He turned his venture into a company, Media Catch, with 14 full-time employees before he turned 16 years old. [1] [8] He sold the company the following year to a Canadian executive, making Dziabiak a millionaire prior to turning 18 years of age. [9] [8]

Dziabiak used the proceeds from the sale of Media Catch to launch Next In Line Records, an online record label. [10] His plan was to distribute music online, but the company did not work out. [10] Dziabiak had a roster of recording artists that played small- and medium-size venues. [9] He noticed how costly it was for these artists to manage ticket sales for these venues without paying expensive fees to Ticketmaster. [10]

In 2006, he launched ShowClix, a company that helped artists and event organizers with online ticket sales, on-site event operations and promotions, as well as box-office management. [11] Dziabiak was the company's chief executive officer, growing it to 60 employees and $100 million in annual sales in seven years. The company was recognized as one of the “Best Places to Work in Pittsburgh” by the Pittsburgh Business Times . [12]

Dziabiak stepped down as ShowClix's Chief Executive Officer in 2013 to join as Co-founder of The Zebra. [13] The company initially offered quotes from 33 different insurers (approximately 90 percent of the market), requiring only a zip code and vehicle information to obtain a quote. [14] After co-founding The Zebra and serving 8 years as its Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer, Joshua stepped-down to start Gawq in March of 2020. [15]

Awards and recognition

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Yang</span> Computer programmer and co-founder of Yahoo!

Jerry Chih-Yuan Yang is a Taiwanese-American billionaire computer programmer, internet entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc., which he started with classmate David Filo in 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Andreessen</span> American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer (born 1971)

Marc Lowell Andreessen is an American businessman and software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser with a graphical user interface; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He co-founded and later sold the software company Opsware to Hewlett-Packard. Andreessen is also a co-founder of Ning, a company that provides a platform for social networking websites and an inductee in the World Wide Web Hall of Fame. Andreessen's net-worth is estimated at $1.7 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Pincus</span> American Internet entrepreneur

Mark Jonathan Pincus is an American Internet entrepreneur known as the founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company. Pincus also founded the startups Freeloader, Inc., Tribe Networks, and Support.com. Pincus served as the CEO of Zynga until July 2013, then again from 2015 to 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Way</span>

Ben Way is a serial entrepreneur and best selling author best known for his appearance on Secret Millionaire, The Startup Kids and as a cast member on Start-Ups: Silicon Valley, he started his first company at the age of 15. He went on to raise £25 million in his teens making him one of the first dot com millionaires.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Tull</span> American film producer

Thomas Tull is an American billionaire businessman, entrepreneur, and film producer. He is the former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Legendary Entertainment. Tull is the founder of Tulco LLC, an investment holding company that uses artificial intelligence and other technologies to guide investing.

Joshua Kushner is an American businessman, heir, and investor. He is the founder and managing partner of the venture capital firm Thrive Capital, co-founder of Oscar Health, and the son of real estate developer Charles Kushner. He is the brother of Jared Kushner, son-in-law and former senior advisor to former U.S. President Donald Trump. He is a minority owner of the Memphis Grizzlies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garrett Camp</span> Canadian billionaire entrepreneur (born 1978)

Garrett Camp is a Canadian businessman, investor, and software engineer. He helped build the search engine StumbleUpon and is a co-founder of Uber. He lives in Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yishan Wong</span> Businessperson

Yishan Wong is an American engineer and entrepreneur who was CEO of Reddit from March 2012 until his resignation in November 2014. With Niniane Wang he is also co-founder of the Mountain View coworking space Sunfire Offices, and was an advisor at Quora. Wong was briefly a contributing blogger to Forbes magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Wong</span> Canadian entrepreneur (born 1991)

Brian Wong is a Canadian Internet entrepreneur. In 2010, Wong co-founded Kiip, a company offering a mobile app rewards platform through which computer game players would receive real-world rewards from brands and companies for in-game achievements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlie Shrem</span> American entrepreneur

Charles Shrem IV is an American entrepreneur and bitcoin advocate. He co-founded the now-defunct startup company BitInstant, and is a founding member of the Bitcoin Foundation. In 2014 he was sentenced to two years in prison for aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money-transmitting business related to the Silk Road marketplace. He was released from prison in 2016. In 2017, he joined Jaxx and served as its chief operating officer, and founded cryptocurrency advisory CryptoIQ.

The Zebra is an insurance comparison site with headquarters in Austin, Texas. It compares rates from over 200 insurance carriers.

Nik Bonaddio is an American Internet entrepreneur best known for founding and serving as the CEO of the popular sports analytics site numberFire. In 2017, he was named Chief Product Officer at FanDuel, who acquired numberFire in September 2015.

ShowClix is an online event technology company for live and virtual events headquartered in Wexford, Pennsylvania that handles ticket sales, marketing, and on-site operations for fandom conventions, museums, attractions, festivals, consumer shows, and music and comedy venues. New York Comic Con, Candytopia, and Rick Bronson's House of Comedy are among ShowClix's clients.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gusto (company)</span> American payroll and benefits company

Gusto, Inc. is a company that provides a cloud-based payroll, benefits, and human resource management software for businesses based in the United States. Gusto handles payments to employees, and contractors and also handles electronically the paperwork necessary to help client companies comply with tax, labor, and immigration laws. Gusto is operational in all 50 US states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Lyons</span> American entrepreneur

Adam Lyons is an American entrepreneur and businessman. He is the founder of The Zebra, an insurance comparison website.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evan Sharp</span> American Internet entrepreneur

Evan Sharp is an American billionaire Internet entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and chief design and creative officer of Pinterest, a visual discovery engine. He joined the company's board of directors in March 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Njoku</span> British entrepreneur (born 1980)

Jason Chukwuma Njoku is a British businessman. He is the co-founder and CEO of iROKOtv, a video-on-demand service for Nigerian movies.

Oscar Health, Inc. is an American health insurance company, founded in 2012 by Joshua Kushner, Kevin Nazemi and Mario Schlosser, and is headquartered in New York City. The company focuses on the health insurance industry through telemedicine, healthcare focused technological interfaces, and transparent claims pricing systems which would make it easier for patients to navigate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mahbod Moghadam</span> American internet entrepreneur

Mahbod Moghadam is an American internet entrepreneur. In 2009 he, Tom Lehman and Ilan Zechory co-founded Rap Genius, a website on which users can submit annotations and interpretations of song lyrics and other content. In 2015 he, Sam Kazemian and Theodor Forselius co-founded Everipedia, a wiki-based online encyclopedia, where he worked as the Chief Community Officer for several years. After leaving Everipedia, he became an entrepreneur-in-residence at the venture capital firm Mucker Capital, then worked on HellaDoge, a cryptocurrency-based social network.

AlphaLab is an American technology startup accelerator based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 2008 by Jim Jen. AlphaLab has two subsidiaries, AlphaLab Gear and AlphaLab Health, catering to companies in the hardware and medical fields, respectively.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Sandel, Adam (May 31, 2014). "Joshua Dziabiak: To Be Young, Gifted, and Gay". The Advocate . Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  2. ↑ Chowdhury, Rishi (September 11, 2010). "Millionaire by the Age of 18 – Josh Dziabiak Founder of ShowClix". YHP Online. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  3. ↑ Smith, Jacquelyn (April 14, 2014). "Startup Founder: Always Listen to Your Gut in These 2 Situations". Business Insider . Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  4. ↑ "ShowClix CEO departing for Austin to join Insurance Zebra" . Retrieved February 6, 2020.
  5. ↑ "Mentors – AlphaLab". AlphaLab official website. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  6. ↑ Perez, Sarah (January 27, 2016). "The Zebra, A "Kayak For Auto Insurance," Grabs $17 Million To Better Educate Drivers About Rates & Coverage". Tech Crunch. Retrieved March 14, 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Josh Dziabiak and Lynsie Camuso: Showclix". New Venturist. June 21, 2011. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  8. 1 2 3 "The Story of Joshua Dziabiak: Founder of Media Catch :: millennialentrepreneurs.com" . Retrieved October 3, 2023.
  9. 1 2 Chowdhury, Rishi (September 11, 2010). "Millionaire by the Age of 18 – Josh Dziabiak Founder of ShowClix". YHP Online. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  10. 1 2 3 Todd, Deborah M. (September 20, 2011). "Pittsburgh-Based Showclix Allows Ticket Purchases from Smartphones". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  11. ↑ "How to Make $1 Million Before You Graduate". Forbes . March 11, 2011. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Here Are Best Places to Work (Small Companies) Winners". Pittsburgh Business Times . October 29, 2013. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  13. ↑ Spencer, Malia (January 4, 2013). "ShowClix CEO Department for Austin to Join Insurance Zebra". Pittsburgh Business Times . Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  14. ↑ Perez, Sarah (September 5, 2013). "Insurance Zebra Launches A Kayak For Auto Insurance". TechCrunch . Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Gawq wants to burst your 'echo chamber' with its smarter news app". TechCrunch. December 17, 2020. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
  16. ↑ Joyner, April (July 19, 2010). "Joshua Dziabiak, Founder of ShowClix". Inc. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  17. ↑ "Pennsylvania Future Business Leaders of America". PAFBLA.org. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  18. ↑ "Young Rich List – 30 Under 30 Internet Millionaires". Income Diary. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  19. ↑ "CNN Visits ShowClix". ShowClix official website. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  20. ↑ Spencer, Malia (August 10, 2011). "ShowClix Headed Downtown". Pittsburgh Business Times . Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Six Austin Entrepreneurs Make the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 List". Silicon Hills. January 5, 2017. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
  22. ↑ "The Zebra Co-Founders Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 2017 List". The Zebra. January 4, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.