Background
Greetings!
Hello and welcome. I’m Ben Behrouzi, serial entrepreneur from the San Francisco Bay Area.
I was born in Tehran Iran on January 23 1981 as a Bahai. My parents, Ahdieh and Anush, were brave enough to initiate the smuggling of our family out of the country through the desert, at night, by jeep and camel into Pakistan. I was 4.5 years old, when we were forced to escape the country where we were born due to the vast and rapid murdering, execution and intense persecution of the Bahai’s of Iran.
We lived in Lahore Pakistan for 18 months before we attained our Visa into the US and into Alaska. After 18 months in Saint Petersburg Alaska, my parents moved us to Central Valley California, where I grew up. I studied philosophy at the University of California at Davis and founded my first novel business while in high school at the age of 15.
I’ve have been thinking, dreaming and executing business concepts since then and in my time thus far I have been fortunate enough to be a part of building several muli-million dollar companies from the ground up, including LeapFish.com, Reply.com, iMotors, AgentConnect, iCastle and others. Our companies have produced hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, several million dollars in profits, served hundreds of thousands of clients & customers nationwide and given thousands back to communities and charities.
In 2001 I co-founded Reply.com at the age of 20 and lead the full detailed architecture and engineering of Reply.com’s service products and state-of-the-art technology infrastructure. We produced over 20 multi-million dollar profitable products, services and technology platforms including Reply.com, iMotors.com, AgentConnect.com, CarClub.com, OpenAuto.com, RealtyNow.com, iCastle.com and others to grow the company to multi-million annual revenues and $17M in funding prior to my leaving in 2006.
In 2006 I founded DotNext, a venture firm dedicated to creating and operating a variety of Internet companies that challenge the status quo. With nearly 100 employees and multi-million annual revenues, we own and operate brands including LeapFish.com, iHype.com, Ziddler and others currently growing inside of DotNext.
I’ve had several failures in my life with some lessons that have left their marks, and have even been victim to online lies and a shocking smear campaign executed by the many that are motivated by the basest of human qualities. I am a strong proponent of change and justice and strive to contribute to the sweeping change that will slowly tip us over into becoming better citizens of our planet.
This is my personal blog and I welcome your comments, feedback and interactions.
Best,
Ben Behrouzi
