In a classic tale of rags to riches, ASU alumnus Joshua Elizetxe discovered a way to convert his passion into cash at a young age and has continued prospering since.
“I picked up my first book about web design when I was 13 years old,” Elizetxe said. “This intense curiosity, intense urge (was building up).”
Elizetxe’s family did not own a computer. Instead, he would go to the public library and work on the computers there.
He said the libraries gave him an hour a day. When his time ran out, he would pick up another book.
“I read probably 50-100 books in the span of six months,” he said.
This knowledge helped Elizetxe design his first blog when he was 14 years old. Eventually, he created an online digital marketing firm, Foresold.
It has expanded exponentially, with the company bringing in millions of dollars a year.
Elizetxe puts a lot of credit on his parents for helping him not only succeed in the business world, but for pushing him to become the first member of his family to attend college.
“I always (expected to attend college). That was something my parents really supported,” he said.
He said they taught him a good work ethic, but they also helped from a biological standpoint.
His mom is creative and speaks well, while his dad is logical and intelligent, Elizetxe said.
“Together, that made a really good mix for me,” he said.
He knew how to use his time. As a first-generation college student, he graduated from ASU in two years.
Elizetxe has kept in contact with professor Harriet Maccracken, who taught his introductory accounting class in his freshman year.
“He’s just a really amazing student,” Maccracken said. “He’s like a sponge. He just sort of absorbs everything around him.”
After graduating from Alhambra High School as valedictorian, Elizetxe took 20 credits his freshman year, followed by 21 or 22 in his sophomore year. He took summer school during each of the off seasons.
“I wasn’t going to let my business get in the way of my school, but I definitely wasn’t going to let my school get in the way of my business,” he said. “Somehow, it ended up working.”
It ended up working. While working toward graduation and expanding his company, Elizetxe talked to groups of children, teenagers and young adults at seminars.
“I try to do as many presentations and talks as I can. I speak to about 10,000-25,000 people a year,” he said. “I’m trying to break the stigma of what a CEO looks like, or what an entrepreneur looks like, or what success looks like even.”
He talks to children from his home of west Phoenix, which he said has a high drop-out rate. Elizetxe attempts to inspire them to take the college route instead of dropping out.
“Technically, where I grew up, I should be a drug dealer right now,” he said. “I should have like three kids and a prostitution ring, but that’s not the path I chose.”
He talks to more than just high school students. Elizetxe met computer information systems senior Johann Beishline when they worked on an assignment together.
Months later, they were reintroduced at a presentation where Elizetxe was speaking.
“I had always wanted to be an entrepreneur … but I thought you had to have like two Ph.D.s and 30 years of (experience) before you could be qualified to start your own company, but that simply wasn’t the case,” Beishline said.
Within days of the presentation, Beishline had started an amateur website of his own. A few months later, he founded Lezal Marketing, a digital marketing site of his own.
Elizetxe took notice.
“(Beishline) ended up building a company in a very similar industry as mine,” Elizetxe said. “Plus, I knew Johann’s work ethic and I knew his goals.”
Without revealing specifics of the deal, Elizetxe said he purchased Lezal from Beishline. This combined Lezal’s strong approach in local marketing and the paid-advertising approach of Foresold.
“I was more interested in bringing Johann and his team on,” Elizetxe said.
As a digital marketing site, the main goal is to help clients convince Google that their services are genuine.
“Google doesn’t want their users to be able to access spam,” Beishline said.
Elizetxe said the goal of Foresold is to place their clients in the top position in the organic listing, or the order in which links are listed on Google, and the top spot on the advertisement section on Google.
Their goals extend beyond Foresold. The two hope to inspire younger children and teens.
“Mark Zuckerberg, to me, is old. I want to see a 10-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, a billionaire,” Elizetxe said.
The young entrepreneurs are trying to stamp out the cookie-cutter appearance for a CEO.
“We’re breaking the stigma because technology, at its core, is what it does. Technology breaks those caps, those barriers, and that’s why I love technology,” Elizetxe said. “I could be a 13- or 14-year-old kid at the library, and I could make money."
Reach the reporter at lmnewma1@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @logan_newsman
