Dean Guida

Tech entrepreneur and CEO Dean Guida knows there's a limit to what you can build with grit alone.

At sixteen, Dean bought the first IBM PC and fell in love with writing software. He went on to receive a bachelor of science degree in operation research from the University of Miami. After graduating, he was a freelance developer and wrote many systems for IBM and on Wall Street. At twenty-three, he started Infragistics to build UX/UI tools for professional software developers.

Seemingly overnight, Dean had to go from early internet coder to business operator--a feat that forced him to learn some of business's biggest lessons on the job. He immediately began navigating the nuances of scaling a company, hiring and growing teams, and becoming a leader, a manager, and a mentor.

Fast-forward thirty-five years, and Dean's tech company now has operations in six countries. More than two million developers use Infragistics software, and its client roster boasts 100 percent of the S&P 500, including Fidelity, Morgan Stanley, Exxon, Intuit, and Bank of America.