056: Side Gigs and Survival Building Tech Business at 13

The power of necessity as a driver of innovation shines in this remarkable conversation with a tech entrepreneur who turned childhood hardship into business success.

Growing up in foster care and group homes without parents, he faced challenges most of us can’t imagine—where government assistance covered only the bare essentials and violence and negativity were daily realities.

School became his sanctuary. While many of his peers from similar backgrounds tragically ended up incarcerated, addicted, or lost to suicide, he found refuge in computer labs. Compassionate teachers, who stayed hours after closing time, gave him access to technology he couldn’t afford at home. This opportunity sparked not only technical skills but also an entrepreneurial spirit. By age thirteen, he was coding, repairing computers, and finding ways to generate income—sometimes just enough for a t-shirt he otherwise couldn’t buy.

What began as survival tactics evolved into strategic business moves. From swapping computer repairs for home-cooked meals to creating shareware security tools that helped pay for college, every step led to greater success. He pioneered managed services before "MSP" became standard industry language, built custom VoIP platforms before the technology was mainstream, and eventually expanded into cybersecurity and cloud services.

His journey is a powerful reminder that resilience, talent, and determination can turn adversity into achievement—and that innovation often begins with necessity.

Want more stories of transformation and innovation? Subscribe to our podcast and join the conversation about how entrepreneurs are reshaping the tech landscape through resilience and vision.

Chapters

• 0:00 Childhood Hustle for Basic Needs
• 3:39 Growing Up Without Parents
• 6:43 School as an Escape
• 10:07 Building a Tech Business at 13
• 13:36 Developing Software and Finding Recurring Revenue

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

I was learning how to write software. At that time, I was doing kids' homework for money so that they could pass their classes. I had hustles like that where I would use it.

Speaker 2: 0:11

Literally.

Speaker 1: 0:11

I would get that money, and that was the difference between me being able to buy a t-shirt or not. It was always something like that to make side money just to get by, and I did it regularly.

Speaker 2: 0:26

so now you're putting in perspective that your children have never got to experience the hardships sounds like and going without. You know they've had everything they've needed growing up. Um you, on the other hand, my understanding, is had a little bit different story of going maybe without, and it allows you to appreciate a lot more. Can you take me on that journey and lighten me a little bit on how appreciative you are of that and why?

Speaker 1: 1:01

Well, I mean, when we take a look at my kids, they have two parents that have been in their life their entire time and so that's why they always have whatever they need. If they need a ride somewhere, they need new clothes, they need I mean basic, basic things like your dinner cooked Like they had that. So they don't really have that experience. I grew up without any parents. I didn't have a mom or a father that did any of those things for me ever, and so living off of you know government funds that you get as part of being in these group homes and foster homes, it's, it's. There's nothing there. It's like bare basics, bare, bare everything. There's not a lot there. So even things like going to school, where they, you know you could get like pizza day lunches and stuff like that are all things that I never had when I was in school, but my kids have always had.

Speaker 1: 2:00

So the difference for them is they don't have that really context, and I'm glad they don't. I would never want them to. I wouldn't want anyone's kids to have that type of context. So I can't really have the expectation of them that they're going to see and appreciate things in the same way that I did, my wife did have. You know her parents were in the picture for her, so her experience is even different than what mine was. But you know, still, if you don't have that experience of growing up really, really poor and not having anything at all, it's really hard to have the same kind of appreciation that you know when you just have everything that you ever need. So I don't know if I answered your question.

Speaker 2: 2:46

No, no no, no, you're fine that you just have everything that you ever need. So I don't know if I answered your question or I remember. No, no, no, no, you're you're, you're fine, that you're fine. Yes, I mean that does shed some light a little bit of how and why you would appreciate it more than your children. And, yes, same same with my own right. I get it.

Speaker 2: 2:57

You know, um, going without means going without something that they really don't need anyways, right, like. But in your, in your past and your history, you know raising with uh, being raised without parents. You said it sounds like foster care, group homes, um, wow, I mean, I can't imagine. Uh, obviously I had parents growing up though maybe divorced, right, and separate households do these things but I still had, you know, um, immediate family, um and um wasn't living in a sense in the system as what you're kind of explaining. Yeah, so you talk about 13 as being the age of going into business and we also talk about your childhood and 13,. You're still a child, teenage, but you're a child, right, so you get into that. Where were you in life that you going from these group homes and foster care in the system to 13,? You got into business. What was going on? How did that happen?

Speaker 1: 4:02

I always had some kind of a business hustle of some sort or another, since as far back as I can remember, it would anything that I could do to make any kind of money. I can remember like having candy stands and selling candy whenever I get access to candy. But as I got older and I started to get into high school, I always, for some surprising reason, I did really well in school. I always did really well in school. I wasn't always the best in every subject. I had subjects that I was really really great at and I had subjects that I was terrible at.

Speaker 1: 4:41

I always had a natural ability to understand technology. I don't know why it's always come naturally to me. I don't struggle with it. I pick up new concepts when it comes to IT like just second nature for me. I don't struggle to do it, I just get it, and it's always been that way for me, which is, you know, I guess, why I ended up in this field. But I can remember being in the computer classes and being 13. And I was learning how to write software. At that time I was doing kids' homework for money so that they could pass their classes. Like I had hustles like that where I would use it Literally. I would get that money, and that was the difference between me being able to buy a T-shirt or not.

Speaker 2: 5:25

You know like it's so.

Speaker 1: 5:27

It was always something like that to make side money just to get by, and I did it regularly. So once I started to get 13 and 14 and get some more coding experience behind me, I was starting to do things like write batch files, fix people's computers for them tutoring. I did a lot of tutoring too. Even all the way through post-secondary education I did a lot of tutoring for side money, just to be able to pay the bills and stuff. So it's always been something like that and I've always been business oriented and finding ways to make money. As far back as I can remember 13 and probably even earlier than that, Wow, so would you.

Speaker 2: 6:10

would you kind of say that in a sense, the side hustles was part of your survival, right?

Speaker 2: 6:15

Oh yeah, I mean, that's a year, he said, to make an extra money to buy a shirt or whatever, right, I mean, you were so, you know, and and that survival mechanism, those things you did to survive, obviously pushed you in the direction of of the business at the age of 13. And then, you know, in the school. I'm wondering too you know you did so well in the school, which you know I'm so happy for you. Right, in that sense that you did well in school, because I'd imagine someone else in that position might not do so well. Right, but you did, and I don't know if that was. Was that maybe a coping mechanism for you or an outlet for you? The school was something that you took pride in or kind of invested in. I just trying to grasp that right like, because I wouldn't think that if I was in those shoes in which I couldn't even imagine being those shoes, um, that I don't know that I would care much about anything. Right like?

Speaker 1: 7:07

it's interesting that you mentioned that I'm still actually really good friends with one of the case workers that was involved with me through the program, since I was, I think, 14 or 13 when I when I met her. We're still close friends and you know, when I do talk to her, you know she goes through her entire case history of the kids that I lived with and grew up with that were in these places and many of them have taken their lives. A lot of them are in jail. A lot of them are addicted to some sort of anything that prevents them from being productive.

Speaker 1: 7:45

So I am one of the few, very, very, very few that go through and actually have something on the opposite side of it. It's not, it's not commonplace and it's certainly not of common of anything I ever saw when I was growing up. But to your specific question of was school an outlet, it certainly was an outlet. School was positive for me because I was. I was there doing things that I liked. I took every single computer course that was ever available, any time and every time, and I had some really good teachers too that would allow me to stay at school late after hours.

Speaker 1: 8:22

I didn't have a computer of my own at that time, so staying in the computer lab I could write code, I could do things that I enjoy, versus being at some of these places where I was living, where it's nothing but negativity, it's violence, it's drugs, it's smoking, it's drinking, it's it's not, it's not a nice, fun place to be. So when I could get away and be at school and actually be in the computer labs and areas doing stuff that I like, I stayed there until they kicked me out Like they would have. But I had some great teachers like sometimes they stayed there seven, eight o'clock at night and they let me stay there, like they were way past when they should have gone home, and they let me stay there. They stayed there with me. So, yeah, it made a big difference, for sure.

Speaker 2: 9:09

Wow, that you know, I tell you. I know that, um, it wasn't an easy story necessarily to live, but you know, um, it's an amazing story to hear, right, and especially knowing how you came out of that Right. I know you today and I see your successes and obviously you were succeeding then, right and and for whatever reason even was staying late at school and doing those things to get away from something. You turn that into something positive and I know it wasn't an easy road for you to travel and I'm sure it was full of nothing but struggles, but you overcame those and you're an amazing individual. So at 13, you got into the IT space and said and said, hey, I'm going to start doing it as a business, so kind of take us along that. Um, what did you start doing? And you know how did how did people take you serious at age of 13 doing computer work you know they?

Speaker 1: 10:07

I think they took me serious because a lot of the times I offered to do it for free.

Speaker 2: 10:12

Okay.

Speaker 1: 10:13

I think that was a good entry point into that. And then sometimes the problems that people were having me work on took a lot of time for me to resolve them, and so sometimes they would make a dinner for me while I was there and like can you imagine having a home cooked meal? Versus I was eating Kraft dinner or you know grilled cheese or something basic that Mr Noodles or you know like. So if I could have a home cooked meal for fixing someone's computer, that was payment enough for me back then.

Speaker 2: 10:47

Yeah, I bet.

Speaker 1: 10:49

But you know, I started to get people would talk to other people and oh no, daryl fixed my computer, he can help you with yours. And people would give me money for doing it. I wasn't asking for money, they were just they would give me money for doing it. I wasn't asking for money, they were just they would give me money. Some of them knew my living situation, some didn't. But then I would get referred to friends of friends of friends, and then the question would be like well, how much would you charge me to come in and do this? I kind of stumbled into making a recurring business in that way Once I started to get it out of the immediate people I knew and was getting referred to friends and friends and family members or whatever is the case. And so I mean I think I was working two jobs back then, just so that I could pay rent and buy groceries and go to school. I think minimum wage back then was $7 and something an hour, like it was. It was really really, really low for, you know, living in Canada, but, um, they would offer me sometimes $10 or $12 an hour or something. So for me that was like, yeah, that's, that's great. Um, so I was able to make some you know extra money doing that and side hustles doing that.

Speaker 1: 12:04

And as I got better at my software development skills, I was able to start writing software that I could sell. I don't you you'll probably remember this, but the younger generation not so much. There used to be really popular shareware websites where you could go and you could upload your software and people would get a 30-day evaluation of it that would time out after 30 days. They'd have to buy the software, put a code in and it would unlock the software. Sure, um, so I had written, uh, four different software packages that did different things. One of them was a security application that locked windows 95 again, I'm dating here, but if you think back to Windows 95, you could make it, put a password screen up, but all you had to do to get around that password screen was press escape, right, and then you're right into the Windows profile. So I wrote software that loaded with Windows that locked it when it was booted up and you had to have a username and password or this screen wouldn't go away and you couldn't get into windows.

Speaker 1: 13:04

Very cool, I started writing software like that and selling it and, you know, making money and I started getting. That was my first exposure to us currency as well, because the currency came in in us and oh my god, I love converting us currency to canadian because it's so much more. So every time I would make a sale on the, on the software, I was like, yes, because it's money and it's more money because they convert it to canadian. So you know, that was kind of fun. But I did a lot of that stuff and then side programming jobs for people that would need a printer, auto mapped when the computer loaded and stuff like that. Um, so I kind of just progressed out of that into my post-secondary education. Uh, I was able to finance a lot of my post-secondary education through the software sales that that I had made.

Speaker 2: 13:55

No doubt.

Speaker 1: 13:56

That I was doing Um wow, so I was able to graduate without debt and that I think that's what gave me the confidence to start doing this as a full time business. And I think back then I started looking at ways to make recurring revenue. So I was doing MSP before it was even called MSP. I would go on site, sit at customers computers, do updates, renew their antivirus, do the scans. I'd sit at every computer one by one. I would sit there Because there was no way to automate it. Back then we didn't have the tools that we have now, so I could only ever service a small handful of people, versus now we can do hundreds, thousands at a time because of you know how far technology has come in our tools and so forth.

Speaker 1: 14:45

But you know, web hosting was another one, making websites, anything that was recurring. And then in early 2000, I got into VoIP Back before VoIP was even popular and being used everywhere. I built our own VoIP platform, built the portals the customer portal, reseller portal, the 911 system, the fax, like I coded all of it and it was a way to make money recurring. And then, as I was doing that, I was also growing out the IT portion of the company to you know, it portion of the company to do all of this IT repair service be the IT department for companies. Before it was even called MSP and then gradually, as that grew and developed, I started to pivot the company into what we are doing now, which is cybersecurity and cloud. But that's kind of the journey to get there.

Speaker 2: 15:44

Hi, I'm Mark Thomas, founder and CEO of Current Tech Solutions and CyberGuardians. We know business owners like you want to focus on growing your company, not worrying about IT problems or security threats. That's where we come in. Our team uses AI to protect your business from cyber risks and keep everything running smoothly. If you're ready for peace of mind and a stronger future, reach out to us today. Let's secure and elevate your business together. Oh oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.