'It's still about the people'.

What distinguishes CapitalEngine.com from infinite other dot-coms out there?

Plenty -- just ask CEO Jeffrey Gault.

"This business might involve technology but when it comes down to it," says Gault authoritatively, "it is about people. We are salesmen and we never forget that."

And Gault himself may be the ultimate salesman, hawking himself and his ideas tirelessly. But his product is anything but snake oil.

His company is an Internet-based real estate investment bank that connects commercial real estate principals with sources of debt and equity capital in a more efficient manner than ever considered possible. Gault -- a sturdy 55years-old -- brings a wealth of real estate experience to bear on this latest endeavor. A man of energy, Gault is not the conventional dot-coin denizen. His hell-for-leather attitude belies a hardened outlook of the industry and, most importantly, his hard-won place in it.

Only four months ago, Gault was enjoying the tail end of a four-year vacation that was spent, naturally, building something. "I built myself a Hinckley motorboat," says Gault. "Among other things. I was always working on something."

Judging by Gault's restlessness, it's a stretch to picture him idle. When a colleague of his entered the room to join the discussion, Gault left and never returned -- but one felt instinctively that Gault went to work on something, somewhere. He was seen later conducting a staff meeting two doors down the hall.

"What brought me back from the vacation was twofold," says Gault, referring to his return last summer. "The technology was interesting and I wanted to build an organization from the ground up.

Prior to 1996, Gault was the Managing Partner of Minotaur Ltd., a partnership affiliated with the Pritzker family of Chicago. He managed commercial property portfolios with assets of approximately $200 million. Before Minotaur, he was the Managing Officer of Solus/Sun America Partnerships, a commercial real estate owner and developer.

Gault is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in architecture. He also holds a Master's Degree in environmental design from Yale.

"We know the business because we've all been in it for years," says Gault. He prides CapitalEngine for supplying the real estate industry with reliable information.

"The real estate industry has very poor information," says Gault. Not anymore, since the inception of CapitalEngine.com. The company was founded on Oct. 15, 1999. The company's primary partner is Greenwich Group International (GGI), a global real estate investment bank that has completed over $8 billion of property dispositions, financing and recapitalizations since 1995.

The concept behind CapitalEngine is simple enough. The Internet can improve productivity, improve access to debt and equity capital sources and expedite the closing process. One-stop shopping in the age of the Internet. Gault's company deals directly with commercial real estate principals on an exclusive basis and provides its clients with a more organized and efficient method to raise debt and equity capital than traditionally possible.

CapitalEngine deals directly with commercial real estate principals on an exclusive basis and provides its clients with a more organized and efficient method to raise capital -- both debt and equity.

It sounds new -- which it might be -- but the attraction for Gault lies in the traditional approach.

"It is the marriage of cutting edge technology and traditional real estate dealings that attracted me to this job," says Gault.

By recruiting top real estate talent, Gault is using an age-old formula in a new way -- brick and mortar specialists applying their talents to the web. Instead of hiring random twenty-somethings with a technical bent and a willingness to work 24-7, Gault looked to his colleagues when this opportunity arose. Thus, CapitalEngine is one of the most lucrative and exciting and unconventional dotcoms to emerge from the summer 2000 incubation stretch.

Bear in mind that this is a dot-com, however, so one demographic holds firm. A twenty-something happens to be the founder of the company.

Ben Milde, 28 years younger than Gault, provides a stark contrast to the CEO from Chicago, and looks younger than his 27 years. He is much more reserved and mild-mannered than Gault, who seems apt to say whatever crosses his mind.

Milde, in fact, recruited Gault. The Chairman and CEO of CapitalEngine's parent company, Simon Milde, is Ben Milde's father.

"Gault thought about it for a while," says Milde, glancing at Gault. He refers to Gault as "Gault."

Milde previously worked for Bear Steams in commercial mortgages. He credits a "vision that we had from the start" as guiding both he and Gault to this advantageous moment

"Jeff knew that the technology would never replace the relationship," says Milde with a nod to Gault's influence. "It will only make us more efficient." The goal, he adds, is to raise capital more effectively.

The future of the dot-coins is uncertain, but CapitalEngine seems poised to make its mark, one way or another. They have admitted that the traditional methods work and that the Internet is only a way to increase efficiency, instead of assuming -- like many doomed entrepeneurs -- that the Internet is a silver bullet.

"It is still about people. You cannot forget that, ever," says Gault.