Dan Izydorek followed his Polish grandfather’s example of initiative and work ethic.
Today, Dan is the chief revenue officer at Intelligent Technical Solutions, an IT-managed services provider that brings enterprise-level solutions to the small business market.
When Poland became part of the Soviet bloc in the 1950s after WWII, a wave of 200,000 Polish immigrants moved to the United States. Over 38,000 Polish immigrants settled in Michigan, often starting from scratch.
Language barriers or a lack of resources made it difficult for them to find work. Many Polish immigrants worked in factories like Detroit’s General Motors, in copper mines, or on farms. However, the Izydorek family was a proud, hardworking family.
“My grandfather, Dziadzia, came from Poland because he wanted to be free,” says Dan Izydorek, a first-generation Polish American.
Dan’s grandfather worked hard for other people as manager of a vodka distillery in Poland. When he moved with his family to America, he earned a living as a carpenter and eventually started his own company, building residential homes. As an entrepreneur and business owner, he retired with a few million in assets. “He came here with nothing and died a multimillionaire,” Dan says. “He’s the American story.”
Dan has always been inspired by his grandfather’s story; his grandfather taught him about work ethic, integrity and how to control his destiny. Likewise, Dziadzia saw in Dan a reflection of himself: a driven young man who took initiative. Though as a kid, Dan didn’t think about it that way. He followed his interest in computers and started selling websites at 16 years old.
From the roots of that small business, Dan grew his trade into the Channel Futures #1 ranked MSP in Michigan, PC Miracles. After 27 years of success as CEO of PC Miracles, Dan continues to build upon his dream as part of a three-way merger with partners Intivix and ITS. It’s a new era for Dan, his partners and their clients. Each company brings its best to ITS, and together they are raising the bar of customer service in the IT industry.
One Generous Grandma
Like most 10-year-olds, Dan wasn’t thinking about his destiny or work ethic when he started his job – riding his bike and tossing newspapers on doorsteps. He just wanted to buy more candy and CDs. Still, he learned from the only example he knew – that of his entrepreneurial Polish and Irish relatives. Eventually, his goals grew bigger than his appetite for gumballs, and he set his sights on something new– a computer.
His mother noted his inclination toward electronics and convinced Dan’s grandmother to buy the family a computer, a Club 286. “My grandmother spent $2,400,” Dan says. “To this day, I’m not sure how my mom convinced my grandmother to buy it.”
A few years later, Dan was eager to get his hands on the new Pentium 90, the first Windows computer he would own. He started working for a local bike shop, and after he’d stayed his money away in his bank account for one year, Dan’s parents surprised him with a Pentium Gateway. Immediately, Dan says, he started taking it apart. When pieces broke, Gateway sent him new ones.
“A new modem, new RAM or whatever it might be, and that was the first time I really got to understand how computer hardware worked,” he says. Dan stayed up late reading manuals and joining bulletin boards to teach himself HTML code and how to create websites, soon earning himself a small revenue selling websites to local businesses. “My family has owned their own businesses; I think I was just intrigued with it. You only think of the fun sides of owning a business as a kid,” Dan says.
With a loan from his mom and the money he’d saved up, he bought an NEC laptop and pedaled his bike down the streets of Rochester, selling custom-designed websites for $200. He called his business AdNet. Powered by bike pedals and a PC, AdNet would become the foundation for Dan’s greatest venture.
He Made His Own American Dream
Dan continued to sell websites as a college student, but he picked up a job at a break-fix business called Bold Technologies. AdNet continued to grow, and eventually, Dan added more services to his scope and changed the name to PC Miracles. Then his grandmother passed. It was a devastating loss to the family.
Dan asked his boss at Bold Technologies for some time off to be with his family. Unfortunately, his boss was less concerned with condolences and more upset that PC Miracles had become competition. He found out Dan’s business wasn’t just websites anymore, and he gave Dan an ultimatum: “It’s either your job with me or PC Miracles,” he said to Dan. “He didn’t even acknowledge my grandmother’s passing,” recalls Dan. “He just wanted me to make a business decision right then. I couldn’t work for a company that treated its employees that way, so I left.”
The silver lining was that PC Miracles quickly landed big clients like Gumro & Associates and Auburn Hills-based Acme Manufacturing, a venerable century-old company that once buffed the headlights on the Ford Model T. “These clients put their trust in a 19-year-old kid, and I never treated their trust lightly,” Dan says. Such clients afforded him a baseline of income that allowed him to focus on PC Miracles full-time. “My parents were upset when I quit college,” Dan says. “But as the years have shown, I’ve done just fine, and they are proud of me.”
Dan’s parents wanted to give him new opportunities, like college. But they gave him something more: the passion and fervor of a first-generation American to create his own American dream, a dream that continuously evolves as he finds new ways to bring greater value to his clients.
A New Era For ITS
In 2022, PC Miracles and Intivix combined forces with ITS, adding greater value for clients. The merger of three world-class MSPs will positively impact client services and experience, Dan says. “Our clients will gain the benefits of additional cyber security, 24/7 service, and more expertise in different areas of IT across the team,” he adds. “Some of our clients will also benefit because they have multiple locations. And sometimes, when they expand to other areas, we’ll already have offices in those markets.”
The three companies complement each other at ITS, offering strengths in acquisitions, sales, cyber security, automation and workflows. With any merger, there will be changes. Dan says most of the differences will happen behind the scenes. Still, clients can expect to see the best parts of each company, like vCIO and network compliance processes, duplicated across ITS. Most importantly, the core values Dan brings to the table continue to be at the center of ITS’s operations. “One of the driving forces to merge with Tom and Rob was the synergies and how well we fit together, not only in business but in personal core values,” Dan says.
Today, ITS has locations in Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Oakland, Olympia, Phoenix, Portland, Reno, San Francisco and Tempe, with more than 270 employees, and is one of the largest privately owned managed services providers in the country. It is safe to say, Dan’s grandfather would be proud of the legacy he left behind.
Continuing The Legacy
Like most immigrant descendants, Dan is many things. He is a first-generation Polish American, a second-generation Irish American, and he is a son and a business owner.
First and foremost, however, he is a husband and father. Like his father and grandfather before him, Dan gives his children the freedom to follow their own passions.
“I don’t want to force them to do anything they don’t want to do. It’s too important to enjoy what you do in life,” says Dan. “My son has some traits that suggest he’ll have a company one day, and I see the boss side of my daughter. If they want to start a company, I’ll do whatever I can to help them.”
Perhaps his kids will play a role in the growth of ITS, or maybe they will take paths that are uniquely theirs. It’s the freedom of choice and commitment to growth that is the Izydorek legacy.
For more information on ITS visit www.itsasap.com.
