Gutsol started learning to write software at the age of 9, after receiving a
ZX Spectrum computer as a birthday gift. In 2000, he became interested in website design and development. In 2003 he launched GSM Toronto, a company specializing in distributing, modifying and unlocking GSM phones and development of mobile games for Nokia
Series 40,
Series 60 and
Symbian platforms. In late 2007 he joined Evgeny Tchebotarev to create
500px out of a
LiveJournal community that Evgeny was curating at that time. While working on 500px, Gutsol also took a software development contract with Filemobile, SaaS video platform. 500px went live on Halloween 2009, launched from Gutsol's apartment in downtown
Toronto. The company saw exponential growth for the inception and raised a seed round from ffVC and other early stage NYC venture funds in May 2011. The company raised additional $8.8M in August 2013 in Series A funding, led by
Andreessen Horowitz, and $13M Series B in July 2015, led by
Visual China Group. Beta Kit reported that currently, 500px is used by over 4 million photographers and has over 50 million images on its site. In September 2014 Gutsol was ousted from 500px, following a disagreement within the leadership team about the direction 500px should take. In May 2015, together with his wife, he launched Pickapaw, a global community for responsible animal breeders. In addition to building software companies, Gutsol works with early stage companies through their partnership, O2 Ventures. In 2019, Consensus launched a blockchain-based feedback tool for the government of South Burlington, Vermont. ==Awards==