AP Photo/Los Angeles Times, Iris Schneider
PREVIOUS | NEXT
|
|
IDEA MAN
COMPANY idealab!, Founder and chairman
AGE 41
ADDRESS www.idealab.com
BIO This year, two of Bill Gross's companies, eToys and GoTo.com, made big splashes
before Wall Street backed off from the IPO blitz. eToys is such a good idea that
it has thrown bricks-and-mortar baron Toys 'R' Us into turmoil. But then ideas
are what Gross is all about. The founder of idealab!, an incubator for Internet
start-ups, has launched some 30 companies in the past three years. There have
been flops, but the three that have gone public--eToys, GoTo.com and Ticketmaster
Online-CitySearch--are worth nearly $9 billion.
Gross is brilliant and often seems distracted, yet the ideas keep coming. One of
his latest, the concept of giving away free PCs in exchange for the right to
track consumers' surfing habits, attracted more than a million applicants. His
strategy is simple: pool knowledge for all his start-ups, then spit out
laser-focused sites such as WeddingChannel.com and PayMyBills.com that fill a
useful niche.
BEST LINE "What I really love most is starting the company. I love that
conception. I love that excitement."
FORWARD TILT idealab! is set to open new incubators in San Francisco, New York,
Boston and London.
|
