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Q: How is your incubator different from the scores of others that have popped up in the last year? A: There seem to be two angles people are taking with incubators: There are those who see it as an easy way to invest money and get a big payoff, and then there are people who are really passionate about entrepreneurs. I think I'm the latter. I give all the companies in my incubator $2 million to start, but ultimately I plan to have a minority stake in all of them -- typically under 30%. I want my entrepreneurs to make money. Q: Are you concerned the dot-com shakeout will hamper your ability to raise funding for ThinkTank companies? A: No. I love the shakeout -- there was too much of a gold rush. People who were not qualified were getting money to start companies. This forces all entrepreneurs to make sure they have a good company with a good plan. No matter if you're starting up in a good market or a bad market, that's a valuable process to have to go through. Q: Did you ever come up with an idea for a business that you ended up abandoning? A: A few years ago, I thought about putting together a men's apparel line to be sold over the Internet. Most clothes made today are for the Old Economy -- they have pockets for pens. Instead, mine would have pockets for cell phones and PDAs [personal digital assistants]. But when we started surveying people in the clothing industry, we got the feeling that it just wasn't the right time. I launched buy.com instead. Now I think it might be the right time for that apparel company, so we're working on it at ThinkTank. Q: Who is your business hero? A: Don Kendall, co-founder and former CEO of PepsiCo. From a global perspective, he has made a tremendous difference. He broke down the Iron Curtain in Russia, and led the way to India and China when no one else wanted to go there. I met him at the Mangy Moose lodge in Jackson Hole, Wyo., during a family vacation and he became my mentor. Q: We hear you helped design your home. What are some of the features you're most proud of? A: The design is Zen-like: simple and modern. There's a river that starts as a waterfall in the front, and runs through the house and into a backyard lap pool. There's a digital art gallery with three 21-inch LCD screens that display changeable art masterpieces. And there's a car stacker in the garage, which has a see-through wall so you can see the cars from the house. |
