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What This Entrepreneur Learned After Selling His Company For Over $10 Million A 2006 article on CNNMoney covered the details of the intense negotiation and eventual sell of Carder's company, Client Shop, to Internet Brands for a reported $10 million.

By Vinil Ramdev

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Jon Carder, Co-founder, CEO, Empyr

At age 27, Jon Carder officially retired. Or so he thought. A 2006 article on CNNMoney covered the details of the intense negotiation and eventual sell of Carder's company, Client Shop, to Internet Brands for a reported $10 million. The negotiation to sell his company had a rocky ending the day before the deal was supposed to close, Internet Brands dropped a bombshell: they were only willing to pay 50 per cent of what was originally offered.

After a long standoff, the two companies were able to come to an agreement for 90 per cent of the original agreed upon amount.

At just 27 years old, Carder was a multimillionaire. Being a California native, he was an avid surfer. So with his newfound fortune, he set off for retirement at the surfers paradise of Indonesia. He flew all of his friends out to join him for a two week trip but eventually they all had to return to the "real world."

He realized then that his initial happiness was going to be short-lived. He had more money than he would ever need, more time than ever before but he lacked purpose. Carder had been an entrepreneur since launching his first venture, Baby's Heaven, while a sophomore at Point Loma Nazarene University which he sold before launching Client Shop.

For most of his adult life, he had woken up every day solving problems, leading teams and growing companies. Every day, he had one sole purpose - make money. But now, he found himself in a situation where he achieved that goal and he didn't know what to do with his time.

After just three weeks, Carder called off his retirement. Discussing his failed retirement, Carder stated "It was then that I realized that as an entrepreneur, it's not just about making money. It's about having purpose, doing the impossible and solving problems that have an impact on the world."

From a small hut in Indonesia, Carder bought the domain MojoPages.com and set out to launch his next venture, a platform where people could find and review small local businesses. What he didn't realize was that Yelp had just launched and shortly after that had raised $10,000,000 in venture funding.

Realizing he was too far behind to catch up, he began to formulate a new plan.

After reading about the hunger-crisis facing the United States where 1 in 6 people are considered food insecure, Carder decided to use his entrepreneurial skills for the greater good and launched Mogl, a restaurant rewards app that uses card-linked offer technology to give users cash back for eating at local restaurants but most importantly, donates meals to local food banks for every meal purchased through the app.

With over $40 million in funding, Mogl is well on their way to make a dent in the hunger crisis. Today, they've donated millions of meals to various food banks across the United States. About their success, Carder says "the game of business changes when you stop focusing on just money and start focusing on bringing value to the world. My short-lived retirement was one of the most impactful things that ever happened to me. It allowed me to learn that entrepreneurship is much more than money."

Today, at age 36, Carder is the CEO of Mogl and their subsidiary Empyr which is on their own unique mission to bridge the trillion dollar gap between online and offline commerce with their card-linked offer technology. His life experiences as an entrepreneur have motivated him to actively work with other young entrepreneurs and he regularly speaks at local conferences and universities preaching the key lesson he's learned - Entrepreneurship is not all about the money. It's about purpose.

Vinil Ramdev

Entrepreneur and Business Writer

Vinil Ramdev is an entrepreneur, business writer and marketer. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in Marketing in 2004. Since then, Vinil has been involved in starting and growing several businesses predominantly in retail, marketing, media, advertising and on the internet. His skill for seeing the big picture, and identifying trends and patterns have made him a sort-after consultant for companies who want to grow their business and make their products more discoverable. 

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