David Gorodyansky

Early life

Gorodyansky was born in Moscow, Russia and moved to Palo Alto, California with his parents and sister when he was 9 years old. His parents were computer engineers. His grandfather was a member of the Red Army during World War II, during which he conducted aerial reconnaissance and helped to liberate German concentration camps.

While attending a local Palo Alto school, Gorodyansky met Eugene Malobrodsky. Malobrodksy had a similar background and the two became close friends. The two would later found multiple companies together.

Career

In 2002, while still in college, Gorodyansky founded Intelligent Buying with Malobrodsky. Intelligent Buying was a company that resold high-end computer equipment. They exited the company in 2005 in order to "invest in something that would have a real impact in the world."

Gorodyansky and his friend launched AnchorFree in 2005. AnchorFree is the creator of Hotspot Shield, a virtual private network provider that is commonly used for Wi-Fi security, Internet privacy and circumventing censorship.

In 2011, AnchorFree's Hotspot Shield was used extensively by protesters during the Arab Spring when Middle Eastern governments began blocking access to video sharing and social media websites. It was used by more than one million users during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. In 2012, Gorodyansky received an award from the Academy of Achievement and met with justices of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Gorodyansky was selected as one of Inc Magazine's 30 CEOs under 30 years old in 2011. He was selected as one of America's Most Promising CEOs Under 35 in 2013 by Forbes magazine. Gorodyansky was also a member of the city of San Francisco's Technology Expert Council, where he served a technology adviser to former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom.

In 2014, Gorodyansky received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He was named one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs by Goldman Sachs.

Investments

Gorodyansky is an investor in GlobeIn, an online exotic arts and crafts marketplace, and job matching site Venturerocket. He has also invested in Modern Meadow, a company that aims to grow leather and meat from primary cells. In 2013, Gorodyansky served as investor and executive producer of #chicagoGirl, a documentary that follows a Syria-born college student that coordinated a social media campaign to help protesters during the Syrian Civil War.

Influence and Internet Philosophy

Businessman Bert Roberts and social entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus have been the two main influences on Gorodyansky's business philosophy. Bert Roberts, a former chief executive officer for MCI Communications, is credited for helping to develop AnchorFree's freemium revenue model and shaping Gorodyansky's views on Internet security and privacy issues. Muhammad Yunus' work on microcredit initiatives and social entrepreneurship have inspired Gorodyansky to focus on global initiatives that have a social impact. A frequent commentator on the interface of social unrest and technology, Gorodyansky noted a tenfold increase in the use of AnchorFree's HotSpot Shield in the 2014 Hong Kong protests.