Finalists.

Elliot Sainer Aspen Education Group 

The genesis of Aspen Education Group began in 1989, shortly after Elliot Sainer joined College Health Enterprises (CHE) as CEO. It was evident to him then that there should be other alternatives for helping troubled youth besides placing them in the most restrictive environments, which were hospitals. Elliot wrote a business plan in 1994 that culminated in the creation of a youth services division of CHE, and as that division grew, Elliot realized that it had the potential to become a business in its own right. In 1998, the Youth Division of CHE was spun out to create what is now Aspen Education Group.

Because of the nature of the business, dealing with troubled youth, there were a number of challenges that could have brought the company down in its early years. Elliot's strong leadership and the trust and support of the referral community enabled Aspen to weather the storms. Elliot's character and behavior convinced these constituents that he was passionately committed to providing the best possible services to the young people they were working to help.

Aspen has evolved over the years as Elliot took the risk of moving away from the safety of public sector funding--which is typically how youth programs get financing--to focus exclusively on private funding via parents paying for time services. This proved to be a turning point for Aspen, and by 2006 almost 97% of revenue came from private sources. Aspen's business model is unique to its industry, and would not be successful without the extraordinary attention to service quality achieved by the company.

Aspen's services are so much in demand that the company has never needed a public relations agency. Approximately 50% of their lead generation is done directly to consumers via former alumni, the Internet and free media publicity. The remaining 50% is referrals from educational consultants and clinical professionals who are familiar with the programs Aspen offers.

From 2000 to 2006, the Aspen management team opened 15 new programs and acquired 12, so that by the end of 2006 the company operated a total of 33 programs in 12 states as well as the United Kingdom, and assisted over 4,500 young people. Aspen is the leading private sector provider of therapeutic and education programs for struggling and underachieving youth.

Joseph Badame Martha de la Torre El Clasificado

In the 1980s, Martha de la Torre and Joe Badame observed both the growth of the Latino market and how few organizations were catering to it. They wrote a business plan for a free, Spanish-language, home-delivered publication. The idea was for a "Pennysaver" type paper with consumer tips on parenting, health and education. They received an offer of funding and went forward to make the paper a reality.

Martha and Joe were to be the sweat equity investors, but time cash investors went bankrupt days before the launch, their investment check bounced, the recession began early in the Hispanic market, and Martha and Joe found themselves with an undercapitalized company. For most people it would have seemed like a good time to fold up shop. But Martha and Joe were true entrepreneurs. They sold their car, their home, temporarily moved in with parents, and El Clasificado was launched in 1988.

Martha and Joe did not take a salary for more than ten years, as they struggled to build the company. In the early 1990s, they implemented the strategy that would eventually take El Clasificado to new heights: they changed the publication's distribution method from home delivery to bulk-drop. Joe also computerized the distribution system and implemented an aggressive street rack installation plan.

In 2001, El Clasificado acquired Al Borde, a publication directed at a niche audience: edgy, bilingual bi-cultural Hispanics who are fans of Latin Alternative music. Not only has Al Borde introduced El Clasificado to a greater number of national clients, it has led to innovative web communities such as albordemobile.com and myspace. com/alborde. The last year has also seen the emergence of a variety of free grassroots community events hosted by El Clasificado. Each event caters to a particular segment of the Hispanic community: potential small business entrepreneurs, families preparing for quinceaneras, and first-time home buyers.

Built with sheer will, and grown through innovation, El Clasificado currently has a weekly circulation of over 250,000 and is distributed in more than 140 cities around greater Los Angeles, making it the nation's largest free, Spanish-language classifieds weekly. El Clasificado is listed as one of Inc Magazine's "100 Fastest Growing Inner City Companies."

Mark Stagen Emerald Health Services 

When Mark Stagen was 12, his father told him that he would be responsible for his financial future and college tuition, should he choose to attend. Mark began earning money washing cars in his local neighborhood, and at 15, he started his own comic book store. The comic book business was successful enough to put him through Yale University.

After working in real estate development and later founding and selling a broadband professional services and contract staffing firm, Mark set his sights on creating a new company. Before determining a business arena, Mark researched different industries, finally settling on the health care field. He deliberately chose the issue of nurse staffing because he thought it would both produce good business results and have a positive impact on society.

In the course of his research, Mark had learned that there was a serious shortage of nurses nationwide. Mark founded Emerald Health Services with the idea of helping health care facilities by providing skilled nurses, and helping traveling nurses fulfill their career goals by placing them on long-term assignments in premiere locations. With a lack of nursing schools and an aging population, it was unlikely the shortage would be improving in the near future. The greatest nursing shortage exists in California, which is where Mark established the company in 2002. Mark leveraged his limited financial resources, put the entire company on his credit cards and started recruiting nurses and hospitals on his own before hiring a second employee.

Emerald Health Services identifies nurses in areas of the country where there is no shortage, or the shortage is minimal, and recruits them to come work at hospitals in California where there is a significant shortage. Travel expenses are paid for, and the nurses' compensation is competitive. The nurses represented by Emerald live rent-free and are able to decide what their next assignment will be.

Today, the company employs approximately 600 Travel Nurses on long-term assignments at over 250 hospitals. Profitable for five consecutive years, Emerald has become a dominant player in the health care services industry, and continues to grow at a remarkable 50% year-over-year.

Markham Goldstein Entertainment Partners

Entertainment Partners was founded in 1977 with five employees. The original idea was to provide accounting systems for the entertainment industry with a standalone combination hardware/software system. As the company gained more clients, it entered the payroll service business in Los Angeles and opened a New York office. An Orlando office soon followed, along with the acquisition of a background actors casting agency. Just as Mark Goldstein was joining the company in 2002, budget and scheduling productivity software and an online document management system were added, fully cementing EP's position as a services and solutions provider to the entertainment industry.

Mark had been at the company about a year and a half, when the current owners announced their intention to retire. The timing was perfect, coming at a point when Mark was familiar with the inner workings of the company and also had determined to head out on his own. Mark borrowed money and launched an attempt to purchase the company and convert it to a 100% employee-owned organization. That attempt ultimately failed, but Mark helped design an innovative proposition that allowed the sale to go forward.

The post-transition time was intensely challenging. Mark faced empowering employees in a company that had remained essentially the same for 25 years. Though he knew change would cause unrest, he also knew that if the company was going to succeed and grow he had to start EP's employee-owners on the road to thinking differently and embracing progress that would move the company forward. In the first two years, the employees were extremely resistant to change, clients were unhappy with past business issues that had been left unresolved, and a very large client was lost simply because it did not know Mark.

Despite the succession of obstacles, Mark guided the company through the first years of transition and adjustment, and it achieved a renewed focus. The employee-owners took the lead in the development of an ownership culture, and Mark credits their hard work and dedication as the main reason for the company's 250% share price increase in three years. Transitioned by Mark and the employee-owners from a static entity into a dynamic organization, Entertainment Partners is currently the largest provider of production management services in the entertainment industry.

Philip Asherian ESI Enterprises

ESI was founded over 50 years ago in Iran as a consumer electronics trading company. During the 1970s, when religious turmoil began, Ehsan Asherian sent his children to the United States for an American education. Ehsan's son, Philip, arrived in the U.S, with no family or friends. He faced an unfamiliar culture that spoke a language he did not know. And on his shoulders rested the responsibility of his entire family's future.

Philip was determined to learn English, and worked at it until he was fluent. He attended school with the goal of acquiring an education that would help move the Asherian family into the 21st century. At 20, Philip worked by day and attended school by night. Over the next few years he helped bring his entire family to the United States and became the driving force behind their success in America.

With his father's help, in the early 1980s, Philip established ESI in the U.S. Philip, his father, his brother Farshad, and his new brother-in law Michael walked the streets of downtown L.A. selling to gift shops the line of shavers that his father had sold in Iran. Philip persevered and learned much about sales from the experience.

When the core business of consumer electronics trading began to flourish for ESI, Philip knew that he needed to lead the business in new directions in order to overcome problems the industry was facing. He grew a variety of distribution and sales product divisions, including electronic security systems, sporting goods, hardware, appliances, toys and innovative cellular power supplies, as well as established branding with Akai, Viore and Cellboost.

Philip believes that relationships, in business and in personal life, are the most important factor in success. He has concentrated on building and maintaining strong relationships on behalf of ESI. He has earned the nickname, the "Prince of Arkansas" by virtue of the amount of time he has spent in that state, attending to the company's relationship with Wal-Mart.

With courage, determination and entrepreneurial skill, Philip has taken his family company from near-extinction to a global group of companies that has become a leader in the consumer electronics industry.

Matt Wagner First Community Bancorp

In 2000, Matt Wagner was asked to become CEO of a new bank holding company called First Community Bancorp (FCB). Matt had demonstrated his ability to successfully lead and build complex banking organizations in difficult times, but the scope of this new challenge was daunting.

From 2000 through 2006, Matt presided over the acquisition and integration of 18 community banks into First Community's wholly owned subsidiary, Pacific Western Bank. The seamless integration of these separate banks was a remarkable accomplishment guided by Matt's no-nonsense, crystal clear thinking. Roll-ups in any industry are difficult, but in banking this is especially so given the numerous customer relationships, regional differences and myriad of information systems.

The innovative approach Matt brings to the business is highlighted by its nonconformity in the age of mega-banks and intense competition among financial institutions. FCB does not advertise or hang banners touting interest rates, but generates business through true relationship based banking. Customers come away with results, and the bank has achieved one of the highest annual earnings growth rates in the country. By focusing on relationships and meeting the customers' needs, FCB has been able to expand significantly and achieve top- and bottom-line growth.

Matt has refused to run FCB based on how Wall Street will react to next quarter's earnings. Instead, he focuses on running the business for the long-term, confident that if customers are happy, earnings will follow and so too will shareholder value. Under Matt's leadership, FCB has become one of the best performing stocks in its sector. With a Southern California footprint that encompasses 62 branches, FCB is the 9th largest bank holding company headquartered in California and holds the largest community bank in San Diego County. FCB shareholders have enjoyed stellar returns on their investment: since 2000, FCB's common stock has increased 375%, almost 3 times the return of its peers, and 4.7 times that of the S&P 500 over the same period. FCB's success is a direct testament to Matt's management ability and the clarity of vision he has achieved across the organization, guiding the company to top-tier status among both customers and investors.

Loi Nguyen Inphi Corporation

Perhaps it is the struggles that some individuals face that make them incredible businesspeople, or perhaps it is because they have a fierce entrepreneurial resolve that they are able to survive in the first place. Raised in Viet Nam during the Viet Nam war, Loi Nguyen's family saved enough money to buy him passage to the U.S. for a new life. But the overloaded fishing boat that carried him was attacked, and the passengers captured and held on a remote island. Loi survived until a stroke of luck, or human kindness, arrived in the form of a "sponsorship" that brought him finally to the U.S.

Loi used the values his family had taught him, perseverance and belief in himself, to function in a world where he was a stranger in every way imaginable. He worked his way from one step to another, until he received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Cornell University.

Moving to California, Loi worked for Hughes Research Labs and came to believe a significant market existed for circuits that could perform at 40 Gbit/sec. He also believed he could design this class of devices using a volatile and unproven material--indium phosphide. In 2000, Loi partnered with Gopal Raghaven and Tim Semones to create Inphi Corporation.

Just as Inphi was about to come out of "stealth mode" and unveil its technology, the telecom and optical markets--Inphi's primary targets--began to bottom out. The events of Sept. 11, 2001 came exactly one month before Inphi's product launch.

Loi had met adversity before. Within weeks, Inphi was featured in a Wall Street Journal story and profile of Loi having set a new world standard with devices hitting 80 Gbit/sec. Realizing that the drastic market change made their original plan obsolete, Loi gathered his executive team and outlined potential new Inphi products that served markets unaffected by the tech slump. The company was living up to its tagline, Think Fast.

Today, Inphi designs and produces integrated circuits that provide the world's fastest data transfer rates for networks, while maintaining the best signal integrity and lowest power. Inphi's ingenuity has resulted in 11 patents, and the company operates offices in Korea, Japan and Europe.

Eric Kurtzman Jonathan Carson Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC 

Eric Kurtzman and Jonathan Carson started Kurtzman Carson Consultants (KCC) in 2001 in a 2,000 square foot facility in Marina Del Rey. The company was founded to provide improved solutions for companies dealing with bankruptcy and corporate restructuring.

Recognizing that the industry was lagging in technological innovation, Jonathan and Eric used superior technology and client service to improve the bankruptcy administration process. A proprietary document management system ensures all data is secure and information is readily available in one location: Each client is provided with a public access website as well as a client-specific website. All documents are bar coded and tracked using document capture software to minimize data loss.

The contraction of the corporate restructuring industry might have been the destruction of KCC, if not for the vision and forward thinking of its founders. In 2006, the market essentially collapsed, seeing only 79 public company bankruptcy cases, in contrast to 220 just four years before. Yet of that diminished pool, KCC took 32 new cases, which was more than 25% of the national market for claims agent services--a number one market position. This is all the more remarkable in light of the fact that KCC is only six years old and competing against companies with decades of operating experience.

Superior service has not been KCC's only weapon against the market decline. Two years ago, when Eric and Jonathan identified the shrinking market they developed a strategy to diversify KCC's portfolio of services. In exploring ways in which KCC's flexible technology could support other legal and financial processes, market dynamics paved the way to KCC's outgrowth of offerings. The corporate restructuring market is counter-cyclical to the M&A market. KCC was a great fit for supporting that traditionally paper-laden industry. In customizing its technology platform to serve the needs of the M&A market, KCC won four client engagements in the very first months of launching the new service line.

Despite an adverse market and formidable competition, Eric and Jonathan have grown KCC from two employees to over 100. Revenue growth from 2003 to 2006 expanded over 130%, resulting in Inc Magazine rating KCC as #42 on the 2006 Inc. 500 list.

Matt Coffin LowerMyBills.com

Matt Coffin conceived and launched LowerMyBills. com in 1999, in response to the frustrations he encountered when comparison shopping for low mortgage rates for his first home. LowerMyBills. com was started with venture financing, but Matt still managed to raise funds later, after the Internet bubble burst--an incredibly tough endeavor given the struggling funding environment. He successfully bootstrapped during the lean years while others failed, and later scaled the company to compete against Goliath competitors.

LowerMyBills.com was one of the early proponents of the "shared lead model," which sends one consumer inquiry to multiple service providers, thus offering the consumer numerous choices. A compelling economic proposition that is integral to sustainable advantage and scale, this model has become widely adopted in the lead-generation space.

Matt realized the power of the Internet and invested heavily in online advertising. By 2004, 80% of the company's business came from popup ads. During this time, Microsoft Internet Explorer announced a popup blocker as part of its browser. Under Matt's direction, LowerMyBills. com quickly shifted its marketing model, successfully transitioning away from pop-ups and continuing to flourish. The company has efficiently managed internal products and systems in such a way as to remain nimble and flexible despite its size. Matt has emphasized business agility, rapid decision making and new product development.

Under Matt's leadership, LowerMyBills.com has grown into a 200-person company that is the largest bill-lowering site on the Internet, enjoying relationships with more than 500 service providers spanning more than 20 categories. The company is one of the top five online financial service advertisers and has helped more than 5 million consumers save money.

Demonstrating an incredible return on investment, from 2000 to 2005 LowerMyBills.com experienced 30,900% growth, making it one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States. In 2005, LowerMyBills. com was sold to Experian for 25 times the amount of venture capital that had been invested in it. Looking forward, Matt plans to focus increased attention on LowerMyBills.com's home loans segment, while broadening the company's reach to realty, auto loans and other categories.

James Montgomery Michael Montgomery Montgomery & Co., LLC

Montgomery & Co. was formed in 1986 by James Montgomery and his father, Richard. The company functioned initially as a provider of strategic advisory services for global media, technology, communications and defense companies. The firm advised global clients such as IBM, Siemens, Boeing, Lockheed and Sprint on growth strategies, new market development and related strategic issues.

In 1994, Montgomery & Co. brought their expertise in high technology to a joint venture that expanded them into investment banking. While maintaining the consulting business, the company then entered merger & acquisition advisory, and established its first private equity partnership in 1996. Two years later, James co-founded Palomar Ventures, and Montgomery & Co remains a General Partner in that company.

Montgomery & Co.'s first major expansion outside its core technology practice was to recruit a health care team and open an office in San Francisco around that team. Within a year-and-a-half the group had established itself as a leader in biotechnology private placements. in 1999, James' brother Michael joined the firm, bringing expertise in finance and the entertainment industry. Michael led a new media practice that leveraged the firm's position in technology with his contacts in the media world. This new practice became profitable and significantly raised the profile of the bank with the same 18 months. For the past several years, the media and health care practices have contributed over 50% of the revenues of the firm.

Montgomery & Co. faced a crisis in 2000, with the deterioration of the capital markets. Rather than simply trying to survive the period, Montgomery & Co. attacked the situation, using adversity as an opportunity to lay the foundation for the next great growth bank.

The mission of Montgomery & Co. is to provide the most expert advice and services to clients. To accomplish this, the highest quality individuals are recruited and retained for all levels of the organization. The results are clear, as the firm's compounded average growth rate from 2002 to 2006 was 55%, and revenue is expected to grow 55% in 2007.

Robert Howard-Anderson Occam Networks

The founders of Occam Networks believed that the stability and flexibility of Ethernet technology could be beneficially applied to telephony networks. They envisioned a single network that could transport voice, data and video, and give telcos a significant edge over the other types of information service providers. While Occam enjoyed early success, its founders recognized the need for world-class entrepreneurial guidance. In 2002, they persuaded Bob Howard-Anderson to join the company.

While "experts" claimed that Active Ethernet would never take off, Bob saw it as a superior solution in terms of network architecture flexibility, stability and return on investment. It was a disruptive technology that would be a critical market differentiator for Occam. Occam was the first telecom access equipment provider to utilize Ethernet telephony for telecommunications services and took a significant risk by pursuing the strategy. However, the risk paid off handsomely, and many competitive access equipment companies that once doubted the potential of Active Ethernet are racing to try to catch up.

Bob and his management team decided to focus on Tier 2 and Tier 3 phone companies and provide them with a new, innovative platform for delivering broadband services. These companies are typically located in suburban and rural markets and are often willing to deploy new technologies with the goal of attracting both new subscribers and gaining incremental business from existing subscribers.

Occam has experienced supercharged growth, and Bob has shaped it into a leading supplier of innovative Ethernet and IP-based loop carrier equipment to telecommunications companies. Occam Networks' innovative telecommunications products and solutions are changing the way service providers deliver communications services. Currently, Occam equipment enables approximately 1,200 independent telecommunications companies in the U.S. to upgrade their networks to offer new and advanced telecom services, such as VoIP, IPTV and the combination of voice, high-speed data and video known as Triple Play. Occam surpassed the 200 customer mark in 2006, and Bob is targeting the remaining 1,000 Tier 2 and Tier 3 phone companies as potential customers as he looks to expand Occam internationally.

Lawrence Ng Oversee. net

It was the beginning of the dot-com bust, and the venture capital world was unwilling to participate in companies that were basing their future on the Internet. Despite the inability of others to see, Lawrence Ng envisioned how the Internet could change the advertising market and add performance metrics to a field considered art as much as science. Lawrence and his partner, Fred Hsu, founded Oversee.net in 2000 with money from their modest savings. The company launched without any outside funding in a small office located near the Skid Row section of downtown Los Angeles.

In competing with the giants in his industry, Lawrence has been both opportunistic and innovative. He quickly realized that quality Internet traffic would be the foundation of Oversee's future, and focused on driving search-based traffic to advertisers while generating additional revenue streams for small to medium web publishers. With his experience in search optimization, Lawrence developed technology that removed inherent inefficiencies in online transactions. This technology enabled interactivity as well as delivered advanced tracking and performance analysis to customers.

Oversee has a significant competitive advantage because of its highly sophisticated technology tools for monetizing domains and delivering high-quality Internet traffic. Web site content is a science at Oversee. The company utilizes semantic technology and optimization to determine how to make a search more concise and direct people to a specific action. Unlike other companies that rely on a sales arm and keywords, Oversee uses multi-variable testing and algorithms to categorize a domain name very quickly and make that category relevant.

Oversee.net has been profitable since its beginning, seven years ago, and the majority of its growth has been organic. After organically launching marketing services, Oversee has become one of the top five mortgage leadgen companies on the Internet. Oversee's DomainSponsor is the world's leading domain monetization service, monetizing more than 2 million names. With more than 600,000 owned domains, it is also one of the largest owners of domain portfolios. With over 40 domain acquisitions and two marketing service acquisitions completed, 2007 will mark Oversee's move to a new company headquarters in downtown L.A. to accommodate the company's growth.

Li Yu Preferred Bank 

Every day that Li Yu works to uphold the high standards that make Preferred Bank thrive, he remembers the family and associates who believed in him enough to invest in his dream. While serving as chairman of the board of the former California Pacific Bank, Li had noted both the growth of the Chinese-American population in Southern California and the under-served commercial banking market for small and mid-sized businesses. He believed that the Chinese-American market could function as a base from which a new bank could then expand to serve the mainstream market. He foresaw that the Southern California economy would begin to emerge from its economic recession, and that there would be an increase in demand for commercial banking activity going forward. It was with this vision that Li founded Preferred Bank in December of 1991.

It was not the easiest time to start a commercial bank. The banking industry was consolidating, and general economic conditions were not good. The Southern California region had been among the hardest hit by the recession of the 1990s. Despite these adversities, under Li's management, Preferred Bank reached profitability during its tenth month of operation and has been profitable every year since.

The past 15 years have seen many competing banks come and go, in many cases because they tried to be everything to everyone. Li resisted these temptations and maintained Preferred's focus. Along with superior customer service, creating a successful commercial bank is about operating execution and efficiency. Li outsourced all back-office support functions, which enabled the bank to significantly streamline its cost structure.

Preferred Bank completed a successful IPO in 2005, and by the end of 2006, share price had risen by nearly 60%, far outpacing the 4% increase of the SNL stock index comprised of U.S. banks with comparable assets. From 2003 to 2006, loans and leases grew at a compounded annual rate of 26%, while deposits grew at a compounded annual rate in excess of 20%, both ranking in the first quartile of all regional banks in the U.S.

Li Yu's entrepreneurial expertise has grown Preferred Bank from a single branch to 11 locations. In his daily practice of excellence, Li not only repays the trust of those who put their faith in him, but also of those who come to do business with Preferred Bank.

Carlton Calvin Razor USA LLC

After reading a brief Los Angeles Times article about the popularity of kick scooters in Japan, Carlton Calvin became intrigued with them. He got his hands on a kick scooter, rode it around his warehouse and fell in Jove. Being a serial entrepreneur, it didn't take long for Carlton to translate his own fascination into a business concept. And from a concept, Carlton moved quickly to action.

Already established in the toy business, Carlton began to distribute Razor kick scooters to some of his toy customers. As sales of the scooters took off, Carlton knew that to fully maximize their market potential, the Razor brand needed an American operation. He joined forces with the Taiwan-based company that developed and manufactured the Razor, as well as with Robert Chen, his Taiwanese partner, who had a background in Asian patents and trademarks. Razor USA was born in June 2000.

Although the company had a name and a product, it had no employees and no office space. Carlton went to work, and within two weeks the company had warehouse and office space, a web site, a logo, and all the necessary legal arrangements. It even had employees. At the same time Carlton arranged all this, he was single-handedly serving as the senior sales, marketing, shipping, customer service and operations guy.

Consumer and retailer demand hit fast and furious. As the company worked to satisfy the market's hunger, new hurdles arose: from counterfeiting and gray market goods to patent and trademark violations and charges that scooter riding was unsafe. Carlton handled each issue in turn. One by one, he obtained key patents and defended them successfully to protect the brand and ensure future growth.

As the scooter market began to saturate, Carlton pushed Razor products beyond traditional toy and mass distribution channels and into automotive aftermarket channels, such as Pep Boys and Kragen Auto Parts, and licensed a Razor Concept car to Dodge. Razor continues to grow with Carlton's product innovations, such as the RipStick Caster Board. During its remarkable journey, Razor has won numerous awards, including the Toy Industry Association's "Toy of the Year," and "Toy of the Year" honors from Time Magazine.

Barry Levin Snak King

The story of Barry Levin and Snak King is a description of entrepreneurship at its finest. Formed in 1978, Snak King produced pork rinds in a cramped, 1,200 square foot facility with two employees. Only a year after its inception the company had run up a huge loss, and Barry, just out of college, was asked to take over.

Barry made sales calls, ran the fryer, operated the forklift and, at night, kept the books. He figured out more efficient ways to run the small plant, and within a year had increased sales and turned a losing proposition into a profitable one. Over the next five years he bought out the company.

Initially, Barry avoided competing with industry giants by operating as a co-packer and private-label producer. But when consolidations reduced co-packing opportunities, he expanded into branded products, concentrating on niche market segments. Barry poured profits back into the company, gradually adding to the product line.

In 1994, Snak King purchased and expanded into a 179,000 square foot facility. The expenses of the new building happened to coincide with the loss of a major co-packing contract. Snak King suffered a serious financial loss just as Barry and his young family lost their home in the Northridge earthquake. For most of 1995, Barry and his team drove themselves to win new customers, and Snak King was soon in the black.

That hardship was only a prelude to the disaster that struck in 2004, when torrential rains collapsed a 12,000 square foot section of the company's plant. Friends and advisors told Barry to take the insurance and walk away. For Barry, that was never an option. In hours he was at the plant, and he and his 300 employees worked 24-hour days, seven days a week to get the plant back in operation. Competitors called and offered the use of their factories. An equipment manufacturer shipped seven enormously expensive new machines on the basis of a phone call from Barry. Areas of the plant were back in operation in days, and they were at 60% capacity within three weeks.

After two and a half years, the recovery is finished. With new equipment, Snak King's capacity is twice what it was prior to the roof collapse, and sales have been climbing at double-digit rates.

Mark Dipaola Vantage Media

After watching two previous employers fall on hard times for lack of customers, Mark DiPaola set out to master search engine advertising, and in the process created a model that revolutionized the space. The company he achieved this with is called Vantage Media. As an early customer of both Google and Yahoo, Vantage gained unique insight into the inner workings of these search engines and how to harness them to benefit its clients. Ever since Yahoo and Google first started accepting advertising, most ads have been sold on a cost-per-view basis. Simply put, the advertiser paid for just having their message shown to a viewer, rather than eliciting a particular response from that consumer. And when advertisers paid on a purely per-click model, they often found themselves paying for invalid clicks from fraudsters and automated bots.

Mark turned the existing model on its head by bringing cost per action marketing to search engines. Rather than paying for a view, Vantage's customers pay only for leads that have expressed a bona fide interest in their product or service. This means that common issues such as unqualified visitors or click fraud are no longer a concern. Vantage guarantees success: there is no cost to clients until customers are delivered according to their specifications. The success-based approach meant that finding willing clients was easy, but it also meant that Mark's personal savings were at risk until results were achieved. It also meant the need to educate potential customers on the advantages of both search engine marketing and Vantage's novel approach.

The key to Vantage's success is SKY, a groundbreaking keyword bidding system Mark created that manages over 40 million keywords like stocks in a 24/7 marketplace. Each word or phrase is managed in penny increments, and directed toward the client predicted to receive the most benefit from that visit.

Since inception, Vantage has focused on the education space, introducing over six million students to schools and colleges. Under Mark's guidance, the company expanded successfully into the entertainment vertical in 2006, and expects to add financial services in 2007. Vantage's results are unmatched in the industry: 21 consecutively profitable quarters, with over 95% customer retention since 2002.

Brent Reichard The Habit Restaurants

In 1976, Brent Reichard went to work at a little burger stand in Goleta called the Habit. The menu went all the way from chiliburgers to chilidogs, with fries and malts for variety. Brent had no idea that this job--his first job ever--would also be his last. Four years after starting work at the Habit, Brent and his brother borrowed and financed as much as they could and bought the restaurant. They made a menu addition they called the "charburger," which quickly became a local favorite.

In operating the Habit, Brent applied the standards that his father had taught him: always put quality before speed, and always expect the best. Brent set out on a mission to perfect the quick casual experience of burgers and American fare for the customer. Between 1980 and 1996, Brent opened a California Mexican quick casual in Goleta called Cal Taco that is still owned and operated by his brother, and went into the full service restaurant segment for a few years, while continuing to own and operate the immensely successful 800 square foot original Habit. During those years, Brent built up commercial real estate holdings as well.

In 1996, Brent decided that the Habit model was ready for expansion. He opened a second unit, and others soon followed. With little or no publicity, the quality of the restaurants made them instantly successful. Brent has followed a growth plan that emphasizes finding locations that meet the Habit's customer demographics at a pace that allows the business to stay one step ahead of the growth. Brent was able to keep the debt ratio low by utilizing his own personal financial resources and company cash flow.

It has been a lynchpin of Brent's career to focus on menu development. While the original charburger remains the same, over the years Brent has carefully developed new items such as the Santa Barbara Cobb Salad. He has concentrated on design elements that reflect a lifestyle feel of beach casual, with an exhibition kitchen and pop culture music that appeals to the Habit's wide demographic of 15 to 55 years old.

With a dedicated customer base, the Habit Burger Grill has become a habit. The success of Brent's strategies is apparent in the company's 20 successful locations and 30% per year growth.

Bill Phelps Rick Wetzel Wetzel's Pretzels 

While both working at Nestle, Bill Phelps and Rick Wetzel had taken note of the increase of fresh products in the market. An item particularly popular with consumers was pretzels: they were low in fat and easy to buy on impulse. From a retailer's perspective, they were simple to make, and early sales figures were strong. In 1994, Bill, Rick and another founding partner, Steve Phillips, joined forces to create Wetzel's Pretzels as a franchisor and retailer of fresh baked pretzel stores.

Steve, who had been trained at the Culinary Institute of America in New York, developed a delicious pretzel recipe, and then expanded on it to create unique flavors such as Cinnamon Sugar, Chocolate Chip, and Sun Dried Tomato. Despite an impressive array of products, Wetzel's faced an uphill battle, being a latecomer in the pretzel industry. Eight other companies were already doing business in the market before the first Wetzel's opened its doors.

Bill and Rick took substantial risk in their expansion strategy. While most of their small competitors refused to sign leases directly and accept liability for the properties they wanted, Wetzel's took a very aggressive posture and agreed on leases before selling stores to franchisees. Although Bill and Rick had to personally guarantee the leases of the first five stores, their strategy allowed Wetzel's to secure first-rate properties and grow faster than its competitors.

Over time, Bill and Rick have improved operations and innovated products. Wetzel's has developed an entire line of baked cheese pretzels and Wetzel Dogs that make their product offering unique. The company's marketing expertise and creativity ensure that the new products stand out against the competition. In the past two years, the average unit volume has grown by more than 20%.

The Walt Disney Company hand picked Wetzel's as one of only two fast food retailers for Downtown Disney, and Wetzel's is currently Downtown Disney's #1 retailer per square foot. Other key Wetzel's locations include Walt Disney World in Orlando, Staples Center in Los Angeles, Universal Studios, Dodger Stadium and UCLA. From just 17 locations in 1997, Wetzel's has grown to more than 200 locations distributed across 20 states and six countries.