Eight years ago, Ziver Berg founded ZIVELO, which manufactures high quality touchscreen computer kiosks that are used by some of the most prominent businesses in the country, from Boeing to Whole Foods. Even the White House relies on them to produce information kiosks for tourists. Coca-Cola IT Manager Ray Ramcharitar has called them “the Apple of the Kiosk Industry”. So, how has Berg done all this and made Inc. Magazine’s 30 Under 30 list?

One key to his success has to be the quality of the product he turns out. ZIVELO kiosks are made of aluminum, instead of plastic and steel, and they feature clean designs which project an image of refined taste, both for ZIVELO and the user. At a Las Vegas trade show, instead of filling the booth with products, they featured one kiosk… and a $225,000 Bentley Continental GT automobile. Instead of focusing on sale pitches, they allowed prospective customers to look up information about Bentley automobiles, demonstrating their product while associating it with an emblem of quality and status. But beyond the product, Berg has built his business by focus and being able to pivot from one product to another. He got his start as a teen, working with his brother making pay-per-use internet access stations, which he describes as “pay phones for the internet”. As his business evolved, he became a reseller of other kiosks, before finally entering the market in his own right with ZIVELO, building his products at a plant in Marion, Indiana. Today they are billed as the world’s largest kiosk manufacturer and offer over 100,000 configurations.

Berg states his goal is to get 25 hours of productivity out of a 12 hour day, six days a week. He averages responding to 100 emails, 20 phone calls and attending three or four meetings every day. One suggestion he threw out for other entrepreneurs in an IdeaMensch interview is to aim for 90% completion, instead of seeking perfection. Obviously this doesn’t apply to major issues, but for the little day-to-day things, focusing on ‘good enough’ can reduce the danger of being bogged down. Two more tips: Be up before the sun rises and “Follow trends, merge ideas, add value and create a niche”.

Follow trends, merge ideas, add value and create a niche.- Ziver Berg

One more thing? Here is a business idea he was willing to make public: a service for restaurants and stores that would give customers free internet access, if the customer liked the business on Facebook. Elevator Pitch anybody?