“I wanted to explore how time travel might actually work within the laws of physics, and the implications of changing events in the past.”
Michael Gorton
Entrepreneur and author
… on his new sci-fi sequel “Tachyon Tunnel 2,” released March 10.
Few entrepreneurs can claim to have revolutionized healthcare, pioneered internet technology, and authored bestselling books across multiple genres. Michael Gorton has done all three.
For Gorton, a venture into science fiction is just an extension of his innovative thinking—and his lifelong fascination with space.
The founder of more than 15 companies, including the multibillion-dollar telehealth giant Teladoc—an idea he brainstormed with Co-Founder Dr. George Byron Brooks while climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro—Gorton has a track record of turning ideas into companies that reshape industries.
It’s how he’s wired. “After engineering school, I worked for the power company. It was the only job I ever had where I did not start the company,” the author and entrepreneur has said.
Gorton’s entrepreneurial path spans multiple industries from Internet Global, one of the earliest companies to deploy DSL networks in Texas, to Principal Solar, a leader in advancing solar energy, to Recuro Health, a Dallas-based digital health company focused on virtual care. Most recently, he served as chief strategy officer at Phantom Space, a launch vehicle company founded by early SpaceX founding team member Jim Cantrell and Michael D’Angelo.
Now, science fiction gives him another way to explore big ideas—and his love of space. “The Tachyon Tunnel series is all about storytelling, adventure, romantasy, and science,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “Isn’t that what entrepreneurs are all about?”
Building companies and writing science fiction come from the same place for Gorton—using imagination and sharp thinking to figure out how things could work. In “Tachyon Tunnel 2,” released March 10, he picks up the saga of the Tranquility team—space explorers facing the Daklin Empire, rulers of the galaxy for 50 million years. The novel lets him explore scientific ideas that have fascinated him since he was a kid, while telling a story about humans and what drives them.
“When I was 12 years old, I decided I wanted to be the first man on Mars,” he tells Dallas Innovates. While he hasn’t been to Mars (yet), his fascination with space has never faded, showing up instead in both his ventures and his writing.
Beyond science fiction, Gorton has written both fiction and nonfiction, including “Broken Handoff,” named the No. 1 M&A book by Book Authority, and “Forefathers & Founders,” which hit No. 1 on Amazon’s historical fiction chart, according to the author.
Across all his ventures—whether launching a company or a story—Gorton points to President Kennedy’s famous words as a guiding principle: “We choose to go to the Moon and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
“Tachyon Tunnel 2” is available on Amazon in print, digital, and audiobook formats.
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