Terry Kyle: Co-Founder, WPX.net (with Georgi Petrov, CEO) + Founder, Every Dog Matters.eu
What Is Your So-Called 'Day Job'?
I have 2 main day jobs:
[1] Co-founder (with Georgi Petrov, CEO) of WPX.net, allegedly the world’s fastest WordPress hosting company, and,
[2] Founder/Director of Every Dog Matters (EU) – a shelter/homeless/disabled dog welfare nonprofit NGO that is funded by WPX Hosting (feel free to make a generous donation to this massive project here!)
As seen on WebsitePlanet.com here:
Where do you live?
Though I grew up In Brisbane, Australia, I spent my last 10 years in Australia in Sydney, I then moved to London in 2004 for 8 years and then to Sofia, Bulgaria in 2012 where I still am today.
WPX Hosting is based in central Sofia where we have about 110 staff, including staff for my own dog welfare nonprofit NGO, Every Dog Matters.
Naturally, the WPX office is dog-friendly and my three dogs, Joey, Rina and Jorro are here next to my desk every working day – Rina and Jorro were homeless when I adopted them, wonderful characters who adore and demand human company:
Do you have any children?
No but I currently have 13 – yes THIRTEEN! – animals at home: 3 dogs – Joey, Rina and Jorro + 10 cats – Sasha (we lost her to cancer in January 2021), Misha, Gigi, Yana, Bella, Pancho, Suzi, Maya, Roshie, Julto (means golden) and Juji.
All of those except Joey (the Golden Retriever pictured above) were homeless when adopted, all of the cats were orphan kittens when we adopted them from the street.
Here are some of my cats:
Why do you help animals?
Because I can’t not help them.
To me, they’re all wonderful, funny, interesting, lovable, loving and unique characters.
And without ego or narcissism, I want to use the aspects of my life that I have been extremely fortunate and privileged to enjoy, to help them, hopefully in a massive, life-changing way to end this kind of barbaric treatment of shelter animals like this:
and instead build sanctuaries like this while we find their forever homes:
At 58 years of age now, what I am most proud of with my life is taking ‘written-off’, unwanted ‘aggressive’ dogs from horrific, medieval Eastern European dog shelters like this:
and seeing how they blossom with some human affection, patience and care (yes, this cuddly teddy bear of a dog below, Eddie, came from this hell-hole above, now rehomed):
You will not ever meet a sweeter dog than Eddie:
With so many dogs and cats at home, how on earth do they get along?
I will let the pictures do the talking here (Bella and Joey here first):
and Gigi loves nothing more than sleeping with the dogs (all our cats love Joey, the retriever too):
In my experience, the trick with co-habitating cats and dogs is to be VERY strict with your dogs about ANY excitement around the cats at home for about 3-4 weeks.
After that time, the dogs will be bored about the cats at home and not care any more about their running, jumping and playing, then they usually co-exist very well.
What is your best advice for fellow entrepreneurs?
Figure out what matters the most to you, then do as much as you can for as long as you can BUT start as early as you can.
There is no perfect time to start anything important so start right now and make an IMPACT.
What was your worst business mistake?
I have made loads of mistakes and the point is not to avoid them through inaction but instead to realize that life and business is pretty much all trial-and-error.
Every business is a gamble, same with relationships, new products etc.
Embrace that and recognize that you are only going to gather useful insights by living it, doing it and experiencing it, not reading about it and dreaming about it.
My worst business mistake back in the late 1990s was getting too attached to one particular product as ‘the one’ to be the ‘rocketship’.
When it failed by not succeeding on a sufficient scale, it crushed me for years. So stoopid.
Your loyalty should be to your success (within ethical boundaries), not a particular product.
What is your best life advice?
Make your life matter.
I see far too many people with a lot of potential living mediocre lives of unfulfilling underachievement, wasting their lives on digital distraction, blaming others for their lack of progress and general victimhood.
Be a creator not a consumer. Be an owner, not a renter. Be a protagonist, not an audience. Be a leader, not a follower. Make valuable end products, not just excuses for not doing that. Be an encourager, not a complainer. Be a lifelong student, not an ignorant apathist (not a word!).
Be a giver, not a taker.
(Sidenote: I also write all blog content for WPX and you can read those posts here and here).
What is your life mission now?
To grow WPX into a much bigger company but not simply for the usual cliched ‘grow-grow-grow’ mindset reasons.
Instead, such growth will fuel Every Dog Matters’ expansion to surrounding countries where dogs, cats, horses and donkeys are similarly mistreated as here.
Ultimately, my ambition is to build an organization that outlives me and continues to help vulnerable animals on a spectacular scale for decades after I am gone.
Few NGOs have achieved this, Britain’s National Trust – created in 1895 – is one and that’s the level of impact I’m aiming for with Every Dog Matters.