Wil Schroter is a serial entrepreneur.
At age 19, while a still a student at the Ohio State University, he began his first company, Blue Diesel, an interactive marketing agency serving clients such as Best Buy, BMW, and Eli Lilly. As CEO of the company, Wil grew Blue Diesel from his dorm room beginnings to over $60 million in capitalized billings in just over 5 years. Wil sold Blue Diesel to inChord Communications which was then sold to Ventiv Health, a publicly traded company.
In 1997, while still leading Blue Diesel’s growth, Wil also co-founded Kelltech Internet Services, a technology consulting company based in Cleveland, Ohio. Kelltech was sold three years later to GTCR, a venture capital company, at a valuation of over $10 million.
In 2002, Wil and a number of internationally recognized artists formed Atomica, a non-profit organization dedicated to the education and exhibition of digital art. Today Wil serves as the Executive Director of the organization.
In 2003, Wil became the CEO of Swapalease.com, an on-line marketplace for automotive leasing. Within just three years Wil grew the company from a pure startup to the world’s largest automotive finance marketplace, with over $2 billion in vehicles listed on its service.
Today Wil is the Founder & CEO of the Go BIG Network, the largest on-line community of startup companies and entrepreneurs. Go BIG connects startup companies and entrepreneurs with the resources they need to grow, including investors, employees, and service providers. Go BIG is Wil’s fastest growing company yet, having reached a run rate of over $1 million in less than 9 months from it’s launch.
In addition to starting companies, Wil also writes about them. He is a nationally syndicated columnist for American City Business Journals where his column appears in over 40 major markets on a weekly basis. He is also the author of three books, including “Go BIG or Go HOME” which details how to grow startup companies as quickly as possible.
Wil has been named Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Association and is has also been recognized by the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year program. He has also been named the Ohio Businessperson of the Year as well as Business First’s Top 40 Under 40. He is frequently featured in national media including NBC, The Wall Street Journal and Red Herring.