Boris Jerkunica is a co-owner of the Atlanta Silverbacks park, a two-time technology pioneer, and he’s currently chasing three new ventures. With a résumé like that, you might feel like you’re watching one of Dos Equis’ Most Interesting Man in the World commercials. The truth is, he’s one of Atlanta’s leading entrepreneurs who has strong feelings about his city. We recently caught up with him to find out more.
Born in Croatia, Boris moved to the Atlanta with his family when he was in elementary school. Both of his parents worked for Emory University and he began taking classes there while still in high school. He graduated with a BS & MS in Math and Computer Science, but Jerkunica wasn’t just a scholar. While playing soccer for the Eagles, he was an All-American and holds the school record for goals scored and assists still to this day.
Following college, Boris’ father highly encouraged him to join corporate America. At his father’s advice, he worked for IBM as a software architect. However, Jerkunica is not terribly fond of his corporate experience. “It took four years to unlearn the four years I spent at IBM,” he says. But unlearn he did and in 1992, he founded Software Builders International. In 1996, he co-founded NetZIP, which spearheaded zip folder technology and pioneered the download market. In 2003, he then co-founded Zivva, or Vocalocity (now Vonage Business Solutions), which spurred the VoIP hosted PBX market (telephone switching system).
As he looks back on his illustrious entrepreneurial career, Jerkunica has a “very personal” relationship with Georgia’s capital. Both his family and his wife’s family are here. “Atlanta has been great to me,” he commented. Having said that, he does have some criticism for the ATL’s tech scene. “The Atlanta Tech Community in the past has suffered with a lack of vision,” he laments. “However, with initiatives such as David Cumming’s Atlanta Tech Village, this is starting to change. With Georgia Tech’s world class engineering talent and Emory University’s world class biomedical expertise, there is a chance that an anchor company such as an Intel, Google, Apple, Microsoft, or Dell might arise. However, for an anchor company to succeed to that level, the founders and financial backers will have to change their past attitudes of selling early and become more ambitious in their goals. Until that happens, it will be hard to put Atlanta in the same sentence with some of the other technology hot spots around the world.”
How has Jerkunica become a pioneer again and again? “I build things that I need and can’t find,” he says. As you can imagine, he’s not the type to rest on his laurels. Today, Boris is working on three new companies. The first is an all-in-one communication tool that combines SMS, chat, and email. It’s currently a limited alpha, but the plan is to launch in the coming months. The next company aims to turn shipping containers into offices. Jerkunica has already created one office and is working on 4 more. And the final company? Well, that’s classified. Stay tuned as Boris Jerkunica continues to be one of the city’s leading entrepreneurs.
