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It
seems like dot.coms are sprouting faster than weeds, and it’s
not just in Silicon Valley, but right here in our own backyard.
In the last few months, a host of St. Louis-based entrepreneurs
have founded Internet companies based on a hobby or life passion,
taking risks ranging from leaving a stable job to investing what
little money they have in a chancy venture. While 99 out of 100
Internet companies will ultimately sink into the mire of failed
dot.coms, local entrepreneurs are convinced that it’s their enthusiasm
for their subjects that will keep their companies afloat.
Matt Coen, president, CEO and co-founder of SportsHuddle.com,
feels that without a doubt, “the zeal and passion I had for sports,
and the positive experience I’ve had with high school sports in
particular, led me to come up with a great idea and be able to
turn it into a successful company.” SportsHuddle, founded in 1999,
is a Web site dedicated to covering and recognizing high school
sports and athletes.
Both Coen and co-founder Tom Ruwitch have coached high school
teams in addition to playing various sports. “I’ve always tried
to keep track of certain schools’ records, whether it’s my own
alma mater or a school where a niece or nephew plays. And high
school sports have never had a good medium—local television and
newspapers just didn’t do the students justice. But we can, with
the help of the Internet.” SportsHuddle will be in 50 markets
by fall, and plans to reach half of the country’s high schoolers
by this winter.
Another brand new dot.com is Campusdog, founded in 1999 by Mark
Green and Chris Carl, who were fraternity brothers at Southeast
Missouri State. “In college, especially going to a school in a
smaller city, we always wished that we’d had more awareness about
what was going on around town and in other cities,” Green says.
“I’ve always been an entertainment junkie,” Green continues. “I
love films and live music. As the Internet started changing the
way we get information, I began to come upon sites where I’d find
myself saying ‘wow-I wish they had this when I was in school!’
And at some point it hit me how to create the site that I would
have wanted and make it available it to college students all over
the country.” Campusdog plans to reach 1,300 schools this month.
Green, who is 27, feels that there’s no way he couldn’t have run
with his idea. “With the way business is going today, it amazes
me that there are people out there with great ideas who aren’t
willing to take a chance. Even if I walk away from this, if we
fold in a matter of months, the experience and knowledge that
I’ll have gained will be invaluable.”
And if you’ve got the passion and a great idea, you don’t have
to be a young male to make it in the Internet world, as Nancy
Hunot is proving. Hunot (pronounced who know), 45, left Thompson
Coburn LLP’s IT department earlier this year to run WhoKnowsMinis.com,
a retail miniature dollhouse furniture site.
“I’ve always loved doll houses, and have kept with the hobby my
whole life. And I had good luck when it came to professional choices.”
Hunot took a job sending telegrams with Western Union straight
out of high school, and has been in communications and technology
ever since.
“I haven’t taken a class since high school,” Hunot says. “I had
bosses who would let me borrow equipment and manuals at night,
so I could teach myself about new hardware and software.” Hunot
also taught herself HTML between jobs, and while working at Thompson
Coburn stumbled upon a bulk distributor of miniature furniture
on-line. “I had literally mistyped an address; I was looking for
a cheap price on recordable CDs for work, and instead came upon
a clearance house for all of this dollhouse furniture that I had
been looking for—and it was all half the price of the same pieces
in a store!” She bought an entire shipment—more than 500 pieces
of miniature furniture, and in her free time would auction off
sets on ebay at still greatly discounted rates—and made a killing.
“I realized that there was a real need for this service, and that
no one was taking advantage of the Internet to act as a middle-person,
while at the same time working to the benefit of the consumer.”
Within months she was making enough to quit Thompson Coburn completely
in order to found her own retail store on-line, and recently brought
on her sister Lucy Hunot Shaw as a second employee. “Thompson
Coburn’s going-away gift was a banner ad for my company at one
of the most popular miniature hobby sites on the Internet.”
Hunot thinks that her fascination with dollhouses was in part
due to the fact that she could create the ideal home. “We all
have a dream of what the flawless house would be, but so few of
us can actually achieve it. Dollhouses are a way of feeling like
you created the perfect home, on a smaller scale.” At her rate,
in a couple of years Hunot may actually be living in the life-size
version of one of her own miniature creations.
Though it’s too soon to say whether any of these companies have
what it takes to be that one out of 100 that will still be around
next year, it seems that their founders have certainly done something
right. They’ve all created companies based on an aspect of their
lives that brings them joy, and they all love going to work in
the morning, or at any time, as the case may be. “I’ve never worked
so hard in my life,” says Campusdog’s Green, “and I’ve also never
been happier.”
Cindy Teasdale is a St. Louis-based free-lance writer.
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