Merrick Entrepreneur Lives the American Dream

Val Katayev was born to work.

The successful entrepreneur from Merrick by way of Uzbekistan wouldn't have it any other way.

As living proof that the American dream is alive and well, Katayev has taken his innate sense of hustle, his entrepreneurial spirit and his internet savvy to heights rarely experienced by people of his young age (he's 28) and challenging background.

Yet, as CEO of ToneFuse, a leading internet marketing company, Katayev is on top of the world and smart enough to know what it takes to stay there.

"I was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (formerly part of the Soviet Union). I can remember back to age 8 when I would make something out of nothing and try to sell it to kids on the streets," Katayev said. "After the Soviet Union fell and commerce became legal, my friend and I found a company that needed people to assemble and package some closet locking pieces, and we got paid per piece. We would get a ton of them, bring them home. I remember working throughout the day non-stop to earn money."

Katayev's family left Uzbekistan when he was 10 years old. He lived in Queens until 2004, when he and his wife bought a house in Merrick, where they now live with their two children.

As with any successful entrepreneur, Katayev has taken his knocks and learned to handle them with guts and humor.

"The financial markets intrigued me very early on," he said. "From my savings working at the jewelry store I started trading stocks in early teens. I even set-up a Roth IRA account for my parents when I was about 14. Of course since the 2008 crash, I am still getting blamed for putting their money into the stock market."

According to those who work with him, the secret to Katayev's success is no secret. It's just plain hard work.

"Even though Val is the CEO, no one works harder than Val," said Ken Harlan, his partner at ToneFuse. "He leads by example. Val does not waste time in debating decisions.  He spends most of his time on execution and running the company".

Katayev launched his first commercial website, an online video game magazine in 1999 at age 17 (it's still around today, www.psxextreme.com and visited by about a million readers monthly). 

"It was relatively great money at the time until the Internet bubble burst about nine months later," Katayev said. "The market conditions at the time taught me a lot of lessons and I learned how to get by and thrive in a bad market."

These early nuts and bolts business experiences, combined with his growing knowledge and fascination with Internet commerce led him to take his next big leap.

"A year or so later, I discovered the power of paid search marketing, but my first campaign was a big failure," Katayev said. "I turned it on and went to bed. By the time I woke up, I lost about $5,000 overnight. Luckily I figured out a way to make this campaign work and it went on to become probably the first mass scale paid search marketer before 'search marketing' was even an ad category and before anyone heard of Google."

For most entrepreneurs, this might be enough. But for Katayev, this was merely the beginning.

Today most of Katayev's time and energy is devoted to ToneFuse. ToneFuse focuses on providing marketing around internet music content. 

"We provide suites of products for advertisers to create awareness or generate sales by marketing to users that are interested in music related content," Katayev said. "What makes me proud of ToneFuse is that our small team can do this on global scale with our ads being viewed by an estimated 500 million people every month."

For Katayev, growth is the key. Not only growth of his companies, but of his style and approach.

"I think one of the keys to my success is that I know a little about a lot," he said. "It enables me to see the big picture. But I know I can always get better in all of these areas."

Harlan also recognizes this diversity in Katayev's game.

"Val's self-taught knowledge of all aspects of running a business is amazing... finance, technology, business development and sales," Harlan said. "It makes me think twice about how important a formal education is."

Above all, Katayev is simply wired to keep working. 

"I want to say I'll retire at 35," he said. "But I'll probably find myself working, building new products and companies until I'm 85."