The world of information technology doesn't necessarily offer bigger and better opportunities than old-fashioned games like fast food. But IT is spawning more opportunities faster than any other business - and technological whiz-kids aren't the only ones making millions.
You can't control a twinge of envy when a company like Maid, previously little known, sees its shares double in a week - thanks to a deal to provide Microsoft's Internet services with business information. But envy's the wrong response. Try emulation instead.
The world of information technology doesn't necessarily offer bigger and better opportunities than old-fashioned games like fast food. But for small firms IT is spawning more business opportunities faster than any other industry - and technological whiz-kids aren't the only ones making millions.
To join them, though, the best route is to work for an existing IT company or join forces with someone who does. Time and again, the large employer either ignores an employee's bright idea or, even worse, alienates key workers by putting a stop to their key work.
IBM, for spectacular example, decided that its Mannheim unit in Germany should stop work on software that organises tasks across large corporations. Furious at losing their baby to another part of IBM, five engineers stomped out and started SAP. It has sold $4 billion of software since 1972, and leads the US market.
As for turning up noses at bright ideas, an established mainframe software company wasn't at all interested in Dave Duffield's plan to make 'client-server' networks (which link PCs) easy to use for basic business functions. After going public in 1992, five years after foundation, PeopleSoft has made Duffield worth more than $400 million.
The first rule for joining the hi-tech race, then, is the same as for any entrepreneurial venture. Back your own judgment. The next best course is to back somebody else who has that faith. One businessman who wisely joined a whiz-kid is now worth $29 million - although the company, UUNet, lost $7 million in its latest year.
Like SAP and PeopleSoft, UUNet features in a fascinating Fortune survey of up-and-coming (sometimes just arrived) IT companies with gee-whiz names like Tenth Planet and Humongous Entertainment (educational software), Digital Domain (special effects for films) and On Ramp. The last, founded by another big company escapee, designs Internet content - and the Internet (see Maid) is the hottest current scene.
The heat won' t last, though; money-losing companies won't go on making 23 millionaires overnight through dizzy stock market ratings. The Internet is attracting over-excited attention because the potential market is immense. Yet other markets are just as large which aren't in cyberspace, but down to earth: like management meetings.
The estimated 45 million meetings held every week matches the Net for potential users. So a company, Proxima, which makes overhead projectors fed straight from a PC, has the right idea. Look for very large markets where technology can provide an advantage that you would value highly yourself. The best entrepreneurs are their own greatest fans.
In high-tech, though, it helps if the next greatest fans are very large, rich companies. The Microsoft connection which made Maid is an example. Look through the ranks of IT stars, and other giants like IBM and AT&T crop up as early customers or even backers. Knocking on big company doors is therefore another wise move.
In fact, their doors may open more readily than those of the venture capitalists who are popularly supposed to support start-ups. The venturers, however, mostly pulled back after some bitter losses. That's a constant fear with new technologies - that promised wonders will never materialise, or will disappoint.
The fear is never shared by IT entrepreneurs, which is the right attitude. It needs to be tempered by realism. That's why taking in a partner with wide business experience is an excellent idea. These firms can grow so fast - doubling every year, say - that there isn't time to learn management on the job.
But you also need to keep the system free-and-easy, like one Internet entrepreneur who has only three rules for his 80 employees: Do what you're hired for. Do some personal development. Do some office task. The idea is to keep an adaptable culture so that your people won't join the breakaway ranks. The biggest single source of new whiz-companies seems to be Apple - which was once a whizzing breakaway itself.
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