Bio for Timothy M Kirk

Raised in an extended family of several entrepreneurs and immigrants with 5 different languages, Tim was selling produce at a stand on the highway from his family farm before the age of ten years old. By eleven he began detailing cars and at twelve years of age he was hiring the neighborhood kids to do the work while he ran the business. Tim’s father was an entrepreneur who among many other ventures was involved in designing and using the equipment used for installing the first modular homes ever built onto concrete foundations. Entrepreneurism was in his family’s blood.

At fourteen he worked a summer framing homes in exchange for his first car. By eighteen he was buying and restoring cars to resell for a profit and owned 8 vehicles at one time. This provided enough money for him to go and study in Spain for a year.  Upon returning he decided he wanted to be one of the first graduates ever in Computer Science. During that time, Tim did an internship at IBM in Boca Raton where the very first PCs went into production and the department grew from 500 to 25,000 within a year! He was recruited before graduating to start as a computer engineer for Harris Publishing Systems (the original Harris Corporation which started 100 years earlier). There he worked on programming those early PCs to replace printing presses which completely disrupted that industry. Being multilingual he was sent out Internationally to work at major newspapers in Europe and Latin America.

During the time of his successful ten year corporate life at Harris Corp, he was involved with what was to become known as the Internet. Realizing that he was frustrated with the corporate environment and its slowness to react, he left and started the first search directory in Spanish. This quickly gave him international attention and he was then recruited by Microsoft to lead the effort to break into the worldwide Internet products market. With only two people between him and Bill Gates, Tim had a highly visible position where he became an expert in Branding and Marketing. After a couple of years, the intensity of the position was too much and he left to be able to start a family.

Next Tim was approached by some Wall Street investors to lead the technology effort in starting the first online bank: BancoInternet. Again he was in the limelight leading in innovative, industry disrupting technology. The company was set to go public just as the big dot com bust occurred. Sensing it was time for a change Tim and his Colombian wife moved to Costa Rica. While trying to purchase a home, he saw a huge need for an MLS type system for Costa Rica Real Estate. He joined with several well established international brokers and developed the software. Afterwards he decided to get more involved in the actual selling and became a Real Estate Broker. 

When his wife began to have problems during her first pregnancy, Tim and Sary made a decision to move back to the US for better medical treatment. This led to Tim’s next position with the Viera Company, a Master Plan Developer, which was a new concept at that time. He became the first ever to sell a million dollar property at the company and worked closely with planners to design the community and home plans. Over the years, what was a nice family organization turned into another corporate environment and Tim decided to start his own independent brokerage specializing in the international market and founded what is now known as International Advantage Realty.

About ten years ago, Tim felt a calling and was accepted at Calvary Chapel School of Ministry where he was trained to be a Pastor and graduated. After leading and teaching in the church for a season, he began feeling frustrated that he was unable to use his entrepreneurial and business skills. Through prayer Tim realized that his calling was not in the church, but rather in the marketplace. He was led to start Go Make Disciples, Inc with four other business people with the purpose of doing ministry work by using our God given talents. As a result, the group has been able to support underprivileged children and orphans in Colombia and even assist in adoptions. They have also helped prisoners and those who transition back out of jail, as well as opportunities in several other areas. It is the goal of the group now to be able to do construction projects through the non-profit organization with all net profits going to ministry projects. Of special interest is affordable housing.