The cyberman.

If you ask William Melton, starting a company is a lot like giving birth, with a few minor differences. "It's usually a two- to three-year gestation period as opposed to nine months. But in every case, I generally gain 50 pounds, of which 10 pounds I can't get rid of - and there's usually a lot of shouting and hollering in the process," quips the chief executive of Reston, VA-based CyberCash, Inc., one of only a few contenders in the Internet micropayment technology game.

Bill Melton should know. For more than two decades, this 55-year-old entrepreneur has been building companies around the application of technology in financial services, growing them into successes, and leaving to begin anew when the dust settles. His list of start-ups includes Real-Share, a database and telecommunications company founded in 1971; VeriFone, a transaction automation company founded in 1981 (now a wholly-owned subsidiary of H-P) that had 1996 net revenues of $472.5 million; and Transaction Network Systems, a network founded in 1991 for transportation of financial transactions, of which it currently handles more than 3 million.

Of those, it was particularly Melton's experience at VeriFone that trained him to think like his bank customers, to focus on their strategic business needs rather than on the technology's bells and whistles - a skill especially critical for a company like CyberCash, given its highly uncertain market. "That's being generous. There basically is no market right now," says Youssef Squall, technology research vp at Laidlaw & Co. "We have the prospect of what might become a huge market, but now there's none." Indeed, while business-to-business commerce and financial electronic data interchange have taken off to some degree, on-line retail commerce, particularly for microtransactions, has been slow out of the starting gate - despite last year's furious hype. That means there's only so much any CEO can do.

But the industry might do well not to underestimate this Gothenberg, NE-born trooper, never one to play strictly by the rules. "We were one of the first companies, if not the first, to go public, not only with no profits but no revenues," he says. A company with no revenues that manages to garner roughly a $500 million valuation is a tribute to its chief executive, says Squall. "It just tells you how smart Bill Melton is."

Of course, in a market as underdeveloped as Internet micropayment technology, being smart is at the very least a full-time job. Melton has little time for outside interests, like riding his BMW motorcycle - which has been sitting idle in the garage for the last year and a haft - or traveling with his partner of six years, Patricia Smith, who was also his college sweetheart twenty-some years ago.

The harried pace will likely continue as Melton works overtime to gain competitive advantage in an increasingly crowded playing field. But CyberCash has a distinct advantage over larger companies, he says, in that it caters only to banks and can afford to spend more time servicing individual customer needs. The strategy is to play middleman, or services broker, integrating technology through strategic partnerships with such industry powerhouses as Netscape, Oracle, Microsoft, and Sun, and selling the total package to the customer. "So [banks] can look at us and say, 'Geez, dealing with all these guys us a real challenge. Why don't you just do that for us?'"

The slew of strategic alliances has inspired confidence on the Street, despite the company's having posted a net loss of $15 million for the six months ending June 30, which CyberCash says was actually better than anticipated. And CyberCash's partnerships with banks - trusted authorities in the consumer community - may help give retail on-line commerce the boost it needs.

In the meantime, Melton is enjoying his work. "I've never had as much fun at any time in my business life," he says. It is clearly this period, the company's stage of uncertain infancy, that he most enjoys. "In all cases, the companies were started as a bit of a laboratory to test some idea," he says. "Frankly, my value add is in the early stages of these companies... As the company gets bigger, ideas to drive the innovation and growth have to percolate up from within the ranks and the CEO becomes much more of a filter and culler of ideas, while in the beginning, an entrepreneur needs to see through the amorphous fog and see the outlines of the initial ideas himself." Melton gives himself between a C- and a C+ for his managerial skills, but "hopefully close to an A- when it comes to seeing through amorphous fogs."

For now, he's dreaming of taking a six-month vacation "where I'm just totally bored." And he guarantees that when CyberCash has reached annual revenues of $500 million, he won't be its CEO. Will he move on to start a new venture when CyberCash grows up? "Hopefully I've learned enough not to do this again," he jokes. But then again, maybe not. After all, how many new parents have said the very same in the delivery room - only to change their tune when their babes have begun to walk?

PROFILE

WILLIAM MELTON President and CEO CYBERCASH, INC.

Age: 55

Birthplace: Gothenberg, NE - "Population of maybe 600 on a wet day."

Family: Divorced; three children: Mark, 24, Kristina, 15, Christian, 6.

Education: BA, psychology, University of Iowa; MA, Asian studies and Chinese philosophy, University of Hawaii.

Drives: 1994 Acura, BMW motorcycle. "They're mostly there to remind me of my days of youth."

Leisure time: Reading, traveling, and "understanding the human animal."

Personal philosophy: Survival in the face of panic.

Boards: Transaction Network Systems, America Online.