My best friend and I built a multimillion-dollar business. We travel the world together and live in the same building.

Yahoo

08-03-2025

Salim Elhila founded a crypto company with his friend, Tan Gera.
Last year, the business made $13 million in revenue, and Elhila is now a multimillionaire.
He and Tan spend most days together and travel together with their families.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Salim Elhila, cofounder of Decentralized Masters. It has been edited for length and clarity.
When I was in my early 20s, I quit my job and rented a van. I had been living in Australia at the time for that job and spent three months traveling the country from south to north. It was the ultimate freedom. I could just park the van and sleep wherever I wanted. I realized I desired a life with the freedom to go anywhere, anytime.
Before living van life, I was on track for a traditional finance career. I grew up in France and later Morocco. I studied math and engineering in France and started working in predictive finance after graduation. For six years, I moved up in corporate positions around the globe until I got that job in Australia.
It came with good pay and a nice lifestyle, but the work was making me miserable. I realized that the corporate world, with its strict frameworks, wasn't for me.
After traveling around Australia, I went to Bali. There, I spotted a guy working on his laptop on the beach. He explained to me that he had an e-commerce company and was able to make about $1,000 a month working from anywhere. That was amazing to me because, with that amount of money, you could live anywhere in Southeast Asia.
Meanwhile, I was running out of money. I returned to my parents' home in Morocco and asked them to borrow €2,000 (about $2,100) to start an e-commerce company. Within a few weeks, I made $10,000 selling phone cases that looked like Gameboys.
The money was good, but e-commerce wasn't fulfilling to me. I became very interested in cryptocurrencies and asked my networks if anyone knew a crypto expert. That's how I met Tan.
Tan was also running his own successful business at the time. We were both in our mid-20s and spent time exchanging information about business and crypto. Like typical young men, we also partied together. We could vibe personally and professionally, and by the end of the year, we knew we wanted to launch a business.
Our company, Decentralized Masters, came to life in 2022. We teach investors — most of whom have pretty traditional portfolios — about crypto investing. It took off quickly, and last year, we earned more than $13 million in revenue. I'm now a multimillionaire.
Tan and I have become incredibly close over the past few years. We spend almost all our time together. I think I see him more than his mom does at this point. Our families have become close, too, and I call his mom my second mother. Last year, we took both of our families on a holiday to Japan.
Life is mystical sometimes, and meeting Tan felt that way. Our business has been so successful because we're opposites. Anything I'm lacking, he has plenty of, and vice versa. Our employees call us Yin and Yang. I'm creative, whereas Tan is the epitome of structure. He has an uncanny ability to make order out of chaos.
When you achieve financial success like ours at such a young age, it can be difficult to stay connected to reality. Sometimes, you forget you're living a really special life.
Tan and I live in the same apartment building in Dubai, in units with the same layout, just a few floors apart. We didn't plan for that — it just happened.
We have about 10 people who help us optimize our lives. That includes executive assistants, chefs, personal trainers, and stretching coaches. We try to make sure that every aspect of our day is optimized in all aspects.
We even plan our fun. At the beginning of the year, we list the places we want to go and the experiences we want to have. We travel together frequently, whether it's to the US to meet other people in crypto or to the island of Mykonos for some sun. We make sure to have time in our schedule to date, because we don't want any aspect of our lives to be neglected. This year, we're also planning to attend more spiritual retreats.
Tan and I are business partners, and hope to be for life. We're intentional about living at a pace that we'll be able to sustain for the next 40 to 60 years.
Read the original article on Business Insider