Premtim Gjonbalic Net Worth: Sources, Estimate Methods, Updates

As of June 2026, no major wealth-tracking platform has published a verified, consistently sourced personal net worth figure for Premtim Gjonbalic. Based on publicly available evidence about his company's funding rounds, valuation history, and ownership role, a reasonable working estimate places his personal net worth somewhere in the range of $1 million to $5 million, though this carries significant uncertainty given Butler Hospitality's dissolution in May 2022 and the absence of any post-dissolution asset disclosures. That range reflects equity dilution from over $20 million in outside funding, the company's $85 million valuation peak in 2020, and the reality that a dissolved startup rarely returns full paper value to its founder.

Who exactly is Premtim Gjonbalic?

The search query points to one specific person: Premtim Gjonbalic, also known publicly as Tim Gjonbalic, an Albanian-American entrepreneur born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He is the founder and former CEO of Butler Hospitality, a company he launched in 2016 that operated a ghost kitchen model delivering room service to hotel guests from leased restaurant spaces inside hotels. Forbes profiled him and included him in their 30 Under 30 list. He reportedly opened his first restaurant at age 19, giving him hospitality roots well before Butler.

One source of confusion is the spelling variant. Albanian-language media outlets including Bota Sot and KOHA.net refer to him as "Premtim Gjonbalaj" rather than "Gjonbalic." This is the same person described in the same Forbes 30 Under 30 context, with the same Brooklyn background and hotel ghost kitchen concept. The variation is a transliteration difference between Albanian and English spellings of the surname, not a separate individual. If you're cross-referencing Albanian-language sources, both spellings lead to the same entrepreneur.

There is no well-documented second public figure with this name in sports, politics, or entertainment that would create meaningful disambiguation confusion for this search. The Forbes profile, SEC filings, and federal court dockets all consistently identify this one person in connection with Butler Hospitality and its related corporate entities.

What "net worth" actually means here

Net worth is the difference between what someone owns (assets) and what they owe (liabilities). For private entrepreneurs like Gjonbalic, the biggest challenge is that most assets are private, meaning there are no mandatory public disclosures of personal balance sheets. What researchers and trackers work with instead are signals: company valuations, ownership stakes, funding rounds, real estate records, legal filings, and credible media reporting. These signals get assembled into an estimate, not a verified number.

For Gjonbalic specifically, the signals point almost entirely to his equity stake in Butler Hospitality. Unlike a salaried executive or a public-company founder with SEC-disclosed stock holdings, a private startup founder's personal wealth is largely illiquid until there is an exit event: a sale, an IPO, or a merger. Butler Hospitality dissolved in May 2022 without a documented public exit event of that kind, which makes the pre-dissolution paper valuation only partially useful. Any number circulating online without sourcing to one of those events should be treated skeptically.

The evidence that actually exists

The most credible, traceable evidence for estimating Gjonbalic's wealth comes from a small set of primary and secondary sources:

• SEC (EDGAR) filings related to the Fast Acquisition SPAC include background text on Premtim "Tim" Gjonbalic, confirming he founded Butler Hospitality in 2016 and that the company raised over $20 million in total funding. This is a federal filing with legal weight, making it one of the most reliable data points available.
• A Forbes article from July 14, 2020 reports a specific funding round: $15 million raised at an $85 million company valuation, with investors including the Kraft Group and &vest fund.
• The Forbes profile page for Gjonbalic lists over $20 million in cumulative funding and confirms his role as founder, located in Brooklyn.
• U.S. federal court dockets on Justia list Premtim Gjonbalic as a named defendant in cases involving Butler Hospitality corporate entities (including Paz v. Elio&Sons1 LLC and US Foods, Inc. v. B Hospitality Corp.). These confirm his direct ownership and executive role, but also document legal exposure.
• Florida corporate registry aggregators show B Hospitality Corp. listing Premtim Gjonbalic as President, consistent with his founder/CEO role.
• Promise Hospitality Group's public "About Us" page states Butler Hospitality was "founded by Premtim Gjonbalic" and dissolved in May 2022, providing a timeline endpoint for the original company.
• SWFI (Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute) documents Mousse Partners as an investor in Butler Hospitality, adding another verified institutional backer to the funding picture.
• PYMNTS and Travel Weekly both quote Tim Gjonbalic directly, with operational claims including 175,000 meals donated during COVID-era deployments and service to approximately 3,000 hotel rooms.

What is notably absent: no personal real estate disclosures, no post-dissolution asset sales on record, no IPO prospectus with equity stake details, and no credible net worth tracker with a sourced, methodology-backed figure as of June 2026. That absence matters and should be factored into how much confidence you place in any number you find.

How the estimate is built: the $1M to $5M range explained

Working backward from the available data: Butler Hospitality reached an $85 million valuation in mid-2020 after raising $15 million in that round alone, with total funding exceeding $20 million. A typical early-stage founder might retain 20 to 40 percent equity after two or three funding rounds, though dilution depends on deal terms, option pools, and co-founder arrangements. At a 25 percent founder stake and an $85 million valuation, the paper value of that stake would be roughly $21 million. But that is the ceiling scenario, and several factors compress it significantly.

Butler Hospitality dissolved in May 2022. Dissolution without a documented acquisition or IPO typically means investors and creditors are paid before founders see residual value. The federal court cases on record, including the FLSA wage judgment in the Paz case and the US Foods supplier dispute, suggest the company faced operational and financial pressure before winding down. There is no public record of a major exit payment to Gjonbalic. His involvement with successor entity Promise Hospitality Group (which claims roots in Butler's model) suggests entrepreneurial continuity rather than a liquidity event.

Taking those factors together: a realistic estimate accounts for partial equity recovery, possible personal savings from salary during the company's operational years, and any retained ownership or advisory roles post-dissolution. The $1 million to $5 million range reflects that the founder likely walked away with something, but probably not the full paper value of a peak-valuation stake. The midpoint of roughly $2 to $3 million is the most defensible single-figure estimate given current evidence, but it should be treated as a rough approximation, not a researched figure.

Where the money came from: income and asset sources

Founder equity in Butler Hospitality

This is almost certainly the largest single contributor to any estimate. Butler's $85 million valuation in 2020 was the high-water mark. Whether Gjonbalic converted any of that to cash through secondary share sales, partial buyouts, or the dissolution process is not publicly documented. Equity in a dissolved startup is not automatically worthless, but it requires an underlying asset sale or liquidity event to become real money.

CEO salary during operational years

As founder and CEO of a venture-backed hospitality tech company that raised over $20 million, Gjonbalic would have drawn a market-rate salary during the company's operational years (2016 to 2022). Typical founder CEO salaries at Series A/B-stage startups in NYC range from $150,000 to $300,000 annually. Over six years, that represents meaningful accumulated income, though New York City's high cost of living compresses net savings significantly.

Post-Butler ventures and Promise Hospitality Group

Promise Hospitality Group describes itself as tracing its roots to Butler Hospitality and claims to have served over 408 hotels across 10 major U.S. cities. If Gjonbalic holds an ownership stake or advisory role in this successor entity, that represents an ongoing income and equity stream. However, no specific financial details about Promise Hospitality Group's valuation, funding, or Gjonbalic's role are publicly available as of June 2026.

Early restaurant business

SEC filings note that Gjonbalic opened a restaurant at age 19. The corporate entity Elio&Sons1 LLC (named in the Paz v. Elio&Sons1 FLSA case) appears to be a related early restaurant business. This likely represents a smaller asset class than Butler Hospitality, and the FLSA judgment of $5,000 suggests limited ongoing value from that entity.

Conflicting claims you might encounter online

Generic net worth aggregator sites sometimes publish figures for entrepreneurs like Gjonbalic without disclosing any methodology. You may find numbers ranging from under $1 million to over $10 million depending on the site. These figures are usually reverse-engineered from company valuations without accounting for investor liquidation preferences, dilution, or dissolution outcomes. They are not verified and should not be treated as reliable.

A few specific things to watch for and verify before trusting any claim:

• Claims that Butler Hospitality's $85 million valuation translates directly to Gjonbalic's personal wealth ignore investor liquidation preferences and equity dilution. Valuation is not founder net worth.
• Some sites conflate total company funding raised ($20 million plus) with the founder's personal net worth, which is incorrect. Raised capital belongs to the company and its investors, not the founder personally.
• The $5,000 FLSA judgment in Paz v. Elio&Sons1 is sometimes cited out of context to imply financial trouble. The docket shows the case was ultimately settled and dismissed, which is a normal resolution for labor claims in the hospitality industry.
• Spelling variants (Gjonbalic vs. Gjonbalaj) occasionally lead to separate, duplicate profile pages on aggregator sites with different numbers. Both names refer to the same person, so cross-reference by company name (Butler Hospitality) to confirm you are looking at the right profile.
• Any claims about Gjonbalic's wealth tied to Forbes 30 Under 30 recognition should be clear: that list is about achievement and potential, not verified wealth. Forbes did not publish a personal net worth figure for him as part of that recognition.

How to check for updates and sharpen the estimate

Because the current evidence base is incomplete, the estimate above will improve as new information surfaces. Here are the most productive places to look and what to look for:

1. SEC EDGAR full-text search: Search for "Gjonbalic" or "Butler Hospitality" to find any new registration statements, proxy filings, or SPAC disclosures that mention equity stakes or compensation. The Fast Acquisition SPAC filing is already on record; any future corporate activity involving Gjonbalic would likely appear here first.
2. State corporate registry filings: Check New York, Florida, and California secretary of state databases directly (not aggregator sites) for new entity registrations under Gjonbalic's name. New LLC or corporation filings would signal new business activity and potential new asset streams.
3. Federal court dockets via PACER or Justia: New litigation involving Gjonbalic or Butler-related entities could reveal asset disclosures or settlement amounts that inform wealth estimates.
4. Promise Hospitality Group public communications: Watch for press releases, funding announcements, or media profiles that quantify the company's valuation or Gjonbalic's stake. A funding announcement with a named valuation would be the most useful single data point.
5. LinkedIn and professional profiles: Gjonbalic's current role disclosures can indicate whether he is drawing income as a founder, advisor, or executive, which helps calibrate the salary component of the estimate.
6. Albanian and Balkan media (KOHA, Bota Sot, Zëri): Regional outlets that covered his Forbes recognition have occasionally published more detailed interviews. An interview with direct quotes about company performance or personal milestones can surface details that U.S. business media miss.

When you do find a new number on a net worth tracker site, apply a quick credibility check: does the site explain how it arrived at the number? Does it cite specific funding rounds, equity percentages, or salary benchmarks? If it just states a figure without any reasoning, it is almost certainly an unsourced guess. Sites that show their work, even imperfectly, are more useful starting points than those that present estimates as facts.

How Gjonbalic compares to similar Balkan-origin entrepreneurs and athletes

For context, this site also covers figures like Goran Pandev, the North Macedonian footballer whose career earnings reflect a very different wealth-building path: long-term club contracts, transfer fees, and endorsements rather than startup equity. Online discussions also mention Pandev net worth, but footballers’ wealth estimates usually rely on contracts, transfers, and endorsements rather than private-equity exits. The comparison is useful because it highlights how different the evidence base is. A footballer's career income is largely traceable through publicly reported transfer fees and contract lengths. A startup founder's wealth is almost entirely private until an exit event. That asymmetry explains why the confidence level on a figure like Gjonbalic's is lower than for professional athletes from the same region, even when the headline estimates might be in a similar ballpark.

The bottom line is this: Premtim Gjonbalic is a real, documented public figure with a traceable business history and credible media coverage. A rough personal net worth estimate in the $1 million to $5 million range is supportable from public evidence as of June 2026, but it carries significant uncertainty because the company dissolved before any documented liquidity event. Treat that range as a reasonable working hypothesis, not a confirmed figure, and revisit it if new information about Promise Hospitality Group or other Gjonbalic-linked ventures becomes publicly available.