Frank Mogavero, Founder, Data Systems Worldwide

The frigid and raw, rough-hewn neighborhood and the sting of poverty were a big influence in Mogavero&'s formative years. So was the indefatigable work ethic instilled in him early by Italian immigrant parents. Mogavero&'s father, Joe, would rise at 2 a.m. each day to work at the wholesale produce market, pulling down 200-pound lettuce crates from giant trucks.

In the summer, Joe would buy his own produce and resell it from a small cart he would wheel down the streets of the tight-knit Italian neighborhood. Frank remembers accompanying his Dad, who would shout out the specials of the day, drawing Italian housewives in their housedresses swarming to the cart. “I always liked working,” says Mogavero, who as a high-school student was bused from a housing project to an affluent school district.

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Those humble beginnings and early entrepreneurial lessons have stayed with Mogavero, now 75. The experience taught him to be self-reliant, to never give up, no matter the odds. And it has served this serial entrepreneur well in the rags-to-riches-to-rags-and-back-again world of technology and the reseller channel.

Mogavero founded the solution provider business where he is still chairman emeritus, now dubbed Data Systems Worldwide, or DSW, in 1971 as a reseller of used accounting machines from the likes of Burroughs and NCR. Since that time, he has survived the many twists and turns of the business and built what has become one of the most respected providers of technology solutions in the country.

In his 49 years in high tech, Mogavero has navigated every treacherous turn. With an initial investment of $300, he has taken DSW from selling accounting machines with rudimentary computing capabilities to selling minicomputers to large corporations to reselling PCs at the dawn of the microprocessor age with three computer stores, frequented by Hollywood royalty like Bob Newhart, Jack Jones and Morgan Fairchild. Later, he would close those stores to focus solely on technology solutions for businesses. That was when DSW pulled off one of the first multimillion-dollar contract wins by a regional player against industry giant Electronic Data Systems. The deal led to a period of skyrocketing growth for DSW, although it was forced to retrench after the dot-com meltdown. But today, DSW is a $15 million company with a thriving consulting and managed services business that is recognized as a leader in outsourced IT solutions for small and midsize businesses.

“It has always been very tough,” says Mogavero, who celebrated his 75th birthday the same week he was inducted into the CRN Industry Hall of Fame last month. “I always say I felt like a broken field runner. You always have to keep ahead of technology. And before you can make a profit, you have to go up the technology curve. It costs money to be a pioneer. If we did not pioneer new technology, we would not have survived.” Aptly, Mogavero often cites the &'70s superhit by Gloria Gaynor, “I Will Survive,” as his theme song.

Mogavero does indeed have a knack for survival, not only in business, but in the messy business of life. Stricken with rheumatoid arthritis in his early 30s, Mogavero was stunned by the prognosis of a doctor who told him he would be forced into a permanent standing or sitting position. With the support of his new wife, Bea, who was caring for their first son, Frank, at the time, Mogavero underwent a series of experimental treatments by what some would call a “quack.” The treatments worked and Mogavero, the first member of his family to graduate from college, started his own business after being rejected for an executive training program by Connecticut General because of his health.

Later, with Bea by his side, Mogavero would undergo bypass surgery that was exacerbated by a sponge left in his chest. Eight years later he survived a heart attack, an episode that prompted his then-23-year-old son Phil to step in and run the company while his Dad recovered. In 2000, Phil, who was critical in bringing DSW into the technology solutions business, was named president and CEO. Son Mike, who joined the company in 1991 and led the development of the company&'s data center, is executive vice president of sales. Mogavero&'s eldest son, Frank, is a successful orthodontist.

“It&'s about conquering adversity,” says Phil, speaking about his father&'s success. “There was no silver spoon for him.”

Phil says his Dad had the vision “to understand where things need to go and how to get the most out of people.” That vision and his drive to tread into unchartered waters has been the foundation for an amazing series of entrepreneurial achievements: Mogavero led the development of one of the first minicomputers on the market through the first company he founded, called BMC, and he formed a company called Elections International to develop a computerized vote system that was used for eight years by Norway (a job that IBM refused to take on). “It&'s still better than most of the election systems today,” Frank boasts.

BMC would eventually go bankrupt, leaving the Mogaveros with little more than their house. But as Bea notes, Frank was always there to take on ventures that others deemed impossible or just too plain difficult to tackle.

Mogavero has also led the way for fellow solution providers, pulling them together to share information and ideas. He co-founded two national reseller organizations, the Accounting Machine Dealers Association (later renamed Association of Minicomputer Dealers) and APC Open, an organization of Unix resellers. He also developed the “Gold Book,” the first national book used by dealers for pricing used accounting machines and minicomputers.

Jeffrey Crotteau, vice president of operations at DTR Business Systems, a Walnut, Calif.-based solution provider, says Mogavero has always been a role model. “He was a mentor for many of us,” he says. “People would come to the AMDA meetings to enjoy his insight and what he thought about the industry. We all looked up to him.”

If his colleagues looked up to Frank, then Frank has always looked to his wife for support. “We have been through hell and high water together,” he says. “My wife, Bea, has always been with me. Whenever I am anyplace, people always ask, ‘Where is Bea?&' because she is part of me.”

Mogavero says one lesson he hopes his seven grandchildren (Zack, Shane, Chaparrelle, Trent, Cambria, Sean and 1-year-old Max, who resembles his grandfather) is to persevere even when you get knocked down. “You pick yourself up, dust yourself off and you start all over again,” he says. “I believe in that firmly. We all have it within us to succeed.”

Mogavero has led by this example all his life and, although small in stature, it&'s this quality that has made him a giant in the solution provider business. “He has struggled longer than most of us have been in business,” says Pat Walsh, owner of Computer Station of Orlando, Fla., one of the VARs rising to give Mogavero a standing ovation at the CRN Industry Hall of Fame ceremony in Santa Clara, Calif. “He has persevered and made it work. He was able to make the transitions in this industry. Rather than going to work for somebody, he stuck with it and figured it out. He is a little guy who has persevered and been successful.”