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Justin Gilmore, who grew up so poor he had to heat water on a stove and share baths with his siblings, has revealed how he became a self-made millionaire that supports his entire family.
The self-proclaimed “ATM King” rakes in more than $240,000 a month running cash machines nationwide — and now he’s got his sights set on the controversial Bitcoin market.
Gilmore, 38, was raised by his single mother in Atlanta with his two siblings.
He remembers nights when the power went out, his family lived off cereal and sandwiches and visited their grandparents to be fed as his mom Sandra — who passed away in 2019 — struggled to keep up with the bills.
“Don’t get me wrong, my mom was a saint — but times were tough,” Gilmore told Jam Press. “One thing that stands out for me is how my mum used a portable stove to heat water on whenever the power would go out, and we’d then pour it into the bathtub. Then I would get into the tub first because I was the eldest, followed by my younger brother and sister.”
“As a kid I just thought it was magic,” he said.
But he remembers watching his mother being burdened by bills throughout his childhood and his school life wasn’t much of an escape. He felt that he was “written off” by teachers when he was expelled at 15, but it pushed him to begin building his wealth at a young age.
“It was a very difficult time but it has absolutely motivated me to do well in life,” Gilmore noted.
After being kicked out of school, Justin took a $4.75-an-hour job at his local grocery store, where he was promoted to become the night manager just two years later.
He eventually left his grocery gig to begin his first entrepreneurial venture bartering pizzas out of the back of his car. The bartering business became so successful he was sometimes dishing out up to 100 pizzas a day.
In 2004, Gilmore became a parent when his first son Justin Jr. was born. The birth of his son pushed him to seek a more profitable endeavor.
As one does when needing some cash, Gilmore turned to ATMs.
He began scouting locations that needed ATMs, offered free installation and then negotiated a split and terms under contract with the merchant.
“In the simplest terms, we process transactions for companies who have our ATMs, connect the customer using it to their bank and we earn an ‘interchange fee’ for providing this service,” Gilmore explained.
“This fee never comes out of our customer’s pocket — their banks pay us.”
The entrepreneur now has 600 ATMs and processes more than 2,000 ATMs for customers nationwide, but he isn’t done yet.
Gilmore is looking toward the future and is already planning to keep his business going with Bitcoin ATMs. He began investing in ISO20022 tokens in 2017 and aims to be a leader at turning real cash into cryptocurrency and vice versa via his website BTMmachines.com.
“There’s no two ways about it, cryptocurrency is the future,” he said. “And with my business, people will cut out the costs involved in getting their Bitcoin out of the blockchain and exchanging it.”
The ATM King has worked hard to earn multiple luxury homes, a garage full of sports cars and plenty of fun tech toys, but he is most proud of the simple act of providing for this family.
“I’m really proud of how far I’ve come, but I also feel blessed that I was able to take care of my mom financially from 2011 until she passed away,” Gilmore said.
“My uncle and brother both work for me full-time, and my brother has his own route of ATMs too. My family not only formed a part in making this happen, but now it’s part of their lives.”
He continued: “None of them will ever have to worry about heating or food ever again,.”
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