A billionaire tech CEO was once a 49-year-old who lived on $3 a day when he first moved to the U.S.

Over 25 years ago, Tomas Gorny arrived in the U.S. as a Polish immigrant surviving on $3 a day, after accounting for rent and transportation expenses. He worked up to 100 hours per week at three different jobs to make ends meet, he recalls.

Gorny, a 49-year-old entrepreneur, founded multiple tech businesses, including Nextiva, a cloud-based business communications company valued at $2.7 billion. As the CEO of Nextiva, Gorny's net worth exceeds $1 billion, according to a spokesperson.

Gorny, who was studying in Germany, dreamed of starting a tech business in the U.S. When a friend invited him to Los Angeles to help build a website-hosting startup in 1996, he took the chance and dropped out of college a few months before graduating, bringing his life savings of around $15,000.

Gorny tells CNBC Make It that the money he earned disappeared "super quickly" due to expenses on housing, legal fees for a work visa, and a "piece of crap" car that broke down within months.

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Gorny's startup, Internet Communications, was not generating any revenue, so he worked as a parking valet and commercial carpet cleaner on weekends and nights to make ends meet. He had only a few dollars left after paying for rent and transportation, which he used for food and other essentials.

"Gorny recalls that he used to live off McDonald's. He would go to Sizzler once a week with his friend and get all-you-can-eat for $7.99. Despite knowing he should not overeat, he would always indulge in the meal because it was a rare treat."

He went from earning $3 per day to having a net worth of over $1 million in two years. Then, three years later, he almost lost it all before regaining it and eventually becoming a billionaire.

Making, and losing, millions

Gorny's first startup may have started slowly, but the internet boom meant that every business in the world needed help building a website. As a result, early-stage web-hosting companies were ripe for acquisition, says Gorny.

In 1998, Interliant acquired Internet Communications for approximately $6 million in cash and stock, according to Gorny. As a minority owner, he received over $1 million and when Interliant went public in 1999, the stock he earned was worth several million dollars, he claims.

"Gorny recounts how he went from living on $3 a day to becoming a millionaire. He spent $40,000 on a car and put a mortgage loan payment on a house. The remaining proceeds he reinvested in a new internet advertising startup."

In 2001, when the dot-com bubble burst, Gorny's newer startup failed, leading to Interliant's bankruptcy and causing his stock value to plummet to $6,000.

Gorny says that three years after the sale, he didn't know how to pay his next mortgage.

He was distraught and financially struggling, but he decided to use the experience as motivation. He notes that he loves the idea of being an underdog and it's just in his DNA.

'I just wanted to make $5,000 a month to survive'

Gorny sold his undervalued stock and used the thousands of dollars to purchase two internet servers for a new venture called Ipower, which developed software tools for individuals to create their own websites with minimal technical expertise.

Despite the tech industry's financial struggles, people and businesses were still joining the internet for the first time, Gorny notes. In just a few months, Ipower experienced explosive growth, becoming one of the country's fastest-growing web-hosting companies, he adds.

In 2006, Gorny founded Nextiva, which has since become a billion-dollar company with a client base of 100,000 businesses and $200 million in recent funding from Goldman Sachs. In 2007, he sold Ipower to Endurance International for $100 million.

Gorny's primary motivation was to tackle a common problem deeply enough to make customers pay for his solution, rather than accumulating wealth. He states, "I just needed to earn $5,000 a month to survive and pay my mortgage."

He could easily adhere to his beliefs because of his past experience of living on $3 a day, which made him less inclined to pursue short-sighted ventures. He adds, "I could always sleep on someone's couch if necessary."

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