BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : JULY 10, 2000 ISSUE
FRONTIER -- FEATURES Give 'em Hell, Jane Wayne Math whiz and sales-compensation-expert Liz Cobb has a passion for numbers. For example, ten. That's the percentage of revenue businesses typically spend in sales incentives. Or 1,500. That's the number of dollars they can save per sales rep by better managing their compensation plans. And that brings Cobb to her favorite number: 36.3 million. That's the number of dollars she has raised from investors. But the 46-year-old chairman and founder of 70-employee Incentive Systems Inc. in Bedford, Mass., hasn't always been right on the money. Although she contacted 15 to 20 venture capitalists, got in to see 10, and initially focused on 5, they all turned her down. Some VCs questioned whether a woman could be a good CEO, she says, bristling. ''What do they expect, John Wayne? Well, here comes Jane Wayne.'' In truth, Cobb's impressive career spanned more than 20 years in high tech, including co-founding software publisher ViComp Management Inc. But she had only run one company, ViComp, for several months, before forming Incentive Systems in 1997. Undaunted, Cobb recruited two impressive board members, Avid Technology Inc. founder Bill Warner and Polaris Venture Partners general partner Thomas Herring. Cobb and the two men kicked in $250,000, and soon thereafter--with Cobb as CEO--Incentive Systems closed on $2 million in financing. Did her investors' gender help woo the VCs? ''I can't honestly say that them being men was a deciding factor,'' says Cobb. ''They were just looking for highly successful people.'' Cobb has since appointed a man as CEO. ''I didn't consciously choose a male CEO,'' she's quick to say, ''just someone who is well connected in the financial market.'' That leaves one unknown number, says Cobb: the initial share price when Incentive Systems finally goes public. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS Nothing Ventured TABLE: You've Come a Long Way, Maybe CHART: Gender Gap CHART: Who's Calling the Shots Give `em Hell, Jane Wayne This Raven Really Flies Resources: For Women Only INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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