Reminiscent of Xavier Niel [0], who started with "Minitel rose" services offering phone sex, peep shows and sex shops (was even arrested because one of his peep show businesses was a cover for a prostitution business)... then went on to found Free (and later Free Mobile), who truly disrupted telcos in France (and arguably everywhere else in Europe) with cheap broadband and mobile plans + acquired some of the largest French media, started a tech school in Paris, and recently opened the biggest startup campus in the world [1]. Now worth 9.6 billion USD.

[0] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/06/business/global/xavier-nie...

[1] https://stationf.co/