Milind Bharvirkar, CEO of the Tampa prize-based digital advertising company Priatek, gave an inspiring speech about his rise and fall as an entrepreneur and businessman, as well as how he was able to reverse the trend on his way to becoming CEO of one of the most prominent companies in the Tampa Bay area.
Bharvirkar talked about first getting his start in San Jose, California where he created and eventually sold his first company for seven figures by the young age of 23, sounds like a dream right? Besides the hefty seven figure sum he left with, the only other thing Bharvirkar had left after selling the company was anger.  Later Bharvirkar decided to move to Tampa and started a company locally but then the recession hit hard and eventually had to file for corporate and personal bankruptcy, had his fiancé at the time leave him, and even had his $400,000 house in Lutz taken by the bank.  As you can see Bharvirkar has endured the highest of highs and lowest of lows in the business world. But if you thought that was going to stop him then you thought wrong. Milind lived on the road for two full years following his failures, going door to door with a prototype for a product he had in the back of his car, looking for investors for his new company Priatek. It wasn’t exactly the easiest way to live but Bharvirkar was finally happy because he found his purpose and found what he is passionate about. After persevering through it all he now sits atop one of the most successful businesses in Tampa, and gets to share his story and passions with young and up and coming entrepreneurs.
When asked about what changed for him and allowed him to bounce back from his unfortunate failures he said “I decided to find my passion. Be passionate about what you do, find your purpose, even when times are tough you will be happy and that’s the most important thing.†It’s safe to say that Milind Bharvirkar has finally found his purpose here in Tampa Bay.