- May 15, 2026
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From a fiery high school dropout to a cerebral computer engineer, and from a philosophical Russian immigrant to a courageous cancer survivor, the Business Observer 2026 Top Entrepreneur award winners share one common trait: guts.
There’s Joy Gendusa, founder of PostcardMania — a self-admitted “ne’er-do-well” who dropped out of high school at 17. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be a business owner, let alone a successful one,” she tells the Business Observer. Then there’s Natalia Levey, who, somewhat counterintuitively, built a budding restaurant empire, Hi Hospitality Group, with varied concepts instead of going the traditional way of specialization.
There’s also Roberta Beranek. Now 45, Beranek, owner of Naples Fashion Week, was diagnosed with skin cancer when she was 19. It spread to her bones and, she says, she nearly lost her left leg. Beranek had to learn to walk again. "It taught me that life is short,” she tells us, “and perseverance is everything.”
More guts come from Eric Foster, a fighter of cybersecurity hackers and criminals through Tenex; David Diamond, who has not only helped build one of the largest construction firms in the region, DeAngelis Diamond, but also has invested in multiple tech startups; and Mark Vengroff, who, with One Stop Housing, has done what many have thought impossible: create a profitable business in the workforce apartment sector.
These six business leaders represent more than a winning entrepreneurial mindset. They have an uncanny ability to spot market shifts and then go after it. They go against conventional wisdom. And, notably, they refuse to give up when things are going, or seemingly going, south.
Some other key points about the 2026 Top Entrepreneurs.
Numbers, of course, matter, a lot, when building a business from scratch. Several winners cite some version of “know your financials back and front” as the best advice they have either received or given to other entrepreneurs.
Yet, as the saying goes, no guts, no glory — and these winners are in this for more than a rapid rise in the financial ledger. While Foster, with Tenex, is talking specifically about cybersecurity, his thoughts on his “why” could be a stand-in for the other winners.
“We didn't start this just to build a big business — that’s not the objective,” Foster told us. “Have we actually done good in the world? Have we managed to make our customers more secure? Are we winning in this fight against evil? That's the part that I'm most celebrating.”
