An Amazon-Reseller Army, The Miami Herald

Though he has a J.D. from George Washington Law School, Gonzalez could never shake an entrepreneurial itch. His father had emigrated from Bolivia to Miami to take a job as a bank executive, and Gonzalez says he inherited a similar nose for new business opportunities .

The younger Gonzalez gained his first experience with e-commerce at the age of 35. It was 2009, and Amazon was still mostly known for selling books.

“eBay was it,” he said. “eBay and your own website.”

After successfully offloading a batch of electronics on the auction site, Gonzalez saw an opportunity: if he could sell computer parts, why could he not sell other items? Soon, he was buying toys, handmade funeral urns, and even prostate medicine from wholesalers and flipping them on eBay for a profit.

Gonzalez also decided he wanted to build a trusted e-commerce brand. He hired developers in Bolivia to create software that would pump ads out to eBay users to increase his company’s visibility. He called the company GOJA, a riff on his last name. He remains the sole owner.