His first entrepreneurial opportunity came when a banker friend asked if he was interested in buying a bankrupt motorcycle shop. He bought the inventory of crated up dirt bikes, promptly hired a friend to put them together, and sold them all for his first profitable venture. He then bought a Corvette.
He moved to Minneapolis, and cofounded a lettering machine company. “I was the one who said that small labeling devices would never sell.” Still, Varitronics did alright, selling its lettering machines to architects and engineers, even going public. With his winnings, he started another company that also went public, Insignia Systems.
“I had a goal to retire at 50, but soon realized that what I love is starting companies, “ he says. Soon a venture capitalist brought him JobDig, which now has a broad range of products in the employment space, including Job-Hunt Sponsor, LinkUp.com, a job search engine focused on aggregating jobs from employer Websites. “I am excited about what the team is building,” he says. “LinkUp is a job searching tool that helps job seekers find jobs, but only off company
websites.
GL likes to mentor young entrepreneurs and is almost always incubating new ideas.
He is currently chairman of LinkUp.com, the fastest growing job search engine. GL sometimes writes for US NEWS and World Report and FastCompany on entrepreneurship as well as careers. His popular blog is WhatWouldDadSay.com, and he can be followed on Twitter (@GLHoffman). His latest book is StartUp, 100 Tips to Get Your Business Going, available in print at www.startup100tips.com or ebook at www.wiseandwiser.com. Don't think he'll be retiring at 50!
