Entrepreneurship is the riskiest endeavor in the world for as long as humans have lived. It revolves around creating a new innovative business and realizing their ideas. As any entrepreneur idea has never been tested and is mostly based on passion, dream, and vision. There is very little chance that even if the idea is good, it will get implemented and accepted by the customers. But still, some individuals take that risk and work hard even when the odds are against them and a few of them change the world with their vision.
One of those persistent visionaries is Ami Shafrir. Shafrir is an Israeli-born internet entrepreneur famous for his expertise and knowledge in telecommunications. Shafrir started his journey back in 1994 and started an internet hosting company called WorldSite networks Inc. Alongside providing Internet Hosting, WorldSite also provided internet payment processing and Website all from a 50,000 sq. ft. building in Beverly Hills which then was also the first building to have a high-speed fiber connection. WorldSite was a big name even before the people joined the internet frenzy and at that time was hosting sites for many high profile movies like Independence Day and major studios like Paramount and Warner Bros.
Shafrir didn’t stop his vision at WorldSite and just in a couple of years started ComBill which will become the first of a kind company that processes real-time credit card transactions on the internet. ComBill later became a subsidiary of WorldSite and started providing the best financial services and online payment systems to many organizations.
By the end of 1996, Shafrir’s vision that “World will be moving to online financial transactions and most of the payments will be done online” started becoming a reality and WorldSite started collaborating with the banks and providing the customers with an online payment platform. Even though many bankers laughed at Ami’s idea of payment platforms, it is very well evident by the trillion-dollar size of the e-commerce and internet banking industry.
Since his childhood, Shafrir had a keen interest in technology and started learning about electronic gadgets before he was even 10 yrs. Old, by the time he was 15, Shafrir was mass-producing electronic gadgets for people’s personal use. During his 4 years of training in the Israeli military, he specialized in telecommunications and afterward became an entrepreneur to work on his ideas.
Ami Shafrir with his sheer will and determination created a tech behemoth conglomerate comprising of WorldSite, ComBill & FTT (A B2B billing company) that was provided internet hosting and payment services to the major companies in the country. Even though a series of White-collar Crimes by the Nicherie Brothers destroyed that empire. Shafrir finally got his justice when both brothers were sentenced to jail for their crimes. As the spirit of an entrepreneur can never die, Ami Shafrir after settling all the lawsuits is now working on blockchain technology to realize his next vision and idea. Shafrir’s life is a great example for entrepreneurs to never give up even if face failures and hardships. Shafrir believes that if you never give up, you will never fail.
