Can You Reinvent Yourself by Launching a Startup?

Before going out on his own and launching

, an application for processing payments, co-founder Erick Bzovi held a lot of different positions. “I was born and raised in Southeast Michigan and will always consider it home,” the young entrepreneur told Benzinga during a recent interview. “While at Michigan State, I studied finance and learned how to trade stocks with Ameritrade

. During the summers, I worked at Scottrade in Okemos and vividly remember the day of Google's

IPO. The masses were scared of the stock when it was priced at $100/share! If Benzinga were around in the mid-2000s, it would have been my textbook.” Immediately after college, Bzovi took a position at a commercial real estate company. “While there, one of the owners invited me to join ‘a competitive hunting tour' he had been working on,” said Bzovi. “The idea was extreme, but the notion of creating something out of nothing excited me. I took a position in Business Development and never looked back.” Months and millions of dollars later, Bzovi said that he and the company owners “dead-pooled the company but brilliantly managed to launch a new company from the ashes.” “Outside Hub Media was formed and over the next three years we built an ad network of 350 publishers, 15 employees and $5 million in revenue,” said Bzovi, pointing to a 2007 article form the

on the growth of ad networks. “At the time, vertical ad networks were the new dot-coms and trading impressions on ad exchanges was Wall Street 2.0. I was Chief Operating Officer at 25 and had learned a lot about entrepreneurship – but most importantly, leadership. What a ride.” After leaving Outside Hub, Bzovi said that it was time to reinvent himself. “Out with the old, in with the new,” he proclaimed. “I networked with entrepreneurs and dabbled with other startup ideas. That's when I met my future co-founder, Lancelot Carlson.” Bzovi said that he and Carlson worked on several endeavors, “including a debt marketplace and even got licensed to operate our own collection agency.” “We spent a lot of time meeting with government officials and researching the ways municipalities collected money,” said Bzovi. “How often do you get a parking ticket and realize you have to drive to the courthouse to drop off a check? It's mind-boggling to think that many municipalities don't process payments online. Even the more sophisticated muni's make you wait 24 hours until the data is uploaded to their servers to make payment online.” Ultimately, that's what inspired Bzovi and Carlson to launch

. “We wanted to improve the process of collections,” Bzovi concluded.