The way entrepreneur David Moyal tells it, he grew up as something of an Israeli version of David Copperfield, with a sickly mother and a father who put him to work as a small child. "My father was a baker and chef at catering halls, so I did dishwashing with him," Moyal recalls. His father used to warn him that people who went into the military at 18 often did not come back and told him: "Live now because you may not live later," he recalls. Moyal started particularly early, in fact. By age 11, he had moved out of the family's cramped one-bedroom apartment and was working in construction. At 17, he got his mother's permission to join the Israeli army early and ended up not only surviving it but thriving afterward, when he moved to the U.S. and went into business.
Moyal, who lives in Manhattan and Newport, R.I., has had his hand in restaurants, fitness centers, and real estate, among other ventures over the last two decades. Today he owns three New York-based businesses. There's Next, a lifestyle magazine for gay readers; NYC Data Group, a data center storage company scheduled to begin operating in 2011; and 1800 Postcards, a commercial printer he acquired in 1999. Next had $2.5 million in gross revenue in 2009, while 1800 Postcards took in $16.9 million. He's getting ready to launch Postcard.com, which will allow consumers to call in orders for physical post cards to be sent anywhere in the world for 99¢ apiece.
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