BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : MAY 29, 2000 ISSUE
PEOPLE Changing the Image of the Inventor These teens don't let their businesses consume their lives Gabor Bernath, 16, never considered commercializing the 3-D scanner he invented -- until he met an Austrian broker with big feet. Richard Hollmann has trouble buying shoes that fit his large, narrow feet. As soon as he heard about Gabor's invention, which had won numerous science competitions, he said he knew it could be used for "all sorts of interesting products," including custom-made shoes. When Gabor, who lives in a Budapest suburb, first heard Hollmann's suggestion, he didn't know what to make of it. He talked it over with his reluctant father, and they decided to go for it. "Without his help, there was no way there would be a product," Gabor says. "We knew we couldn't do it alone." So he sold the 30-year-old Hollmann 60% of the company in exchange for $50,000. The company is now valued at $400,000. (In Hungary, the average salary after taxes is about $6,000.) The company has a handful of programmers and engineers, including Gabor's father, an electrical engineer. Gabor contributes only when the company needs extra programming help, though he is consulted on all major business decisions. NO GEEK. "I don't have time to work in the company," says Gabor, who takes Latin dancing lessons three days a week and likes to hang out with friends in town. "People hear about a teenage inventor, and they picture a real geek. They think if I go to a party, I sit alone in the corner calculating the movement of the planets. But I don't." Like Gabor, many teens who invent products don't let their businesses consume their lives. For instance, Alex Rampell, 18, has more products than Gabor, but he still runs his software business from his Harvard University dorm room, spending only an hour or two a day on his venture. He also plays on the Harvard squash team, serves on the student council, and takes a full load of classes. FIRST PLACE. The Harvard freshman, who answers customer e-mails from his tiny desk cluttered with toiletries and high-tech gadgets, began writing software when he was 11. He focuses on "finding things that annoy people and fixing them." He has written 25 programs and sold them as Shareware, which people can try for free and then pay the author $15 if they like it. Gabor, who says he'll probably combine business and science, got interested in computers through games. But it didn't take long for the games to get boring, and he turned to programming. In December, 1996, he became interested in 3-D images and thought he could simplify the scanning of objects into three-dimensional computer images. Most 3-D scanning involves numerous cameras and laser beams, and the devices cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. But Gabor devised software that allows a single digital camera and laser device to create an image accurate to one millimeter -- within 90 seconds. It took him a year of solid work to write the program, and he wanted to give up, but he said his father kept encouraging him. Once he completed it, he entered it in various contests, winning first place last year in the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair as well as first prize in a contest sponsored by the U.S Patent & Trademark Office. The scanner will not be sold to shoe shops. Instead, shops will pay a fee to have the machine on site, and the scanned data will be sent via the Internet to the company. Gabor doesn't seem all that worried about whether his company makes money. "I just want it to work and for people to use it," he said. By Rochelle Sharpe in Boston and Christopher Condon in Budapest _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS Teen Internet Moguls RESUME: Michael Furdyk RESUME: Cameron Johnson RESUME: Brad Ogden RESUME: Angelo Sotira RESUME: Paul Dinin RESUME: Rishi Bhat ONLINE ORIGINAL: Microsoft Puts Teens under the Microscope ONLINE ORIGINAL: Girl Geeks Start to Breach the Wired World ONLINE ORIGINAL: From High-Tech Hobby to Big Bucks ONLINE ORIGINAL: Changing the Image of the Inventor ONLINE ORIGINAL: The Legal Pitfalls of Doing Business with Teens INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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