Saylor’s Soldiers. How to build a company that produces entrepreneurs and indirectly jobs for the region.

Say what you will about Michael Saylor’s reign, but his recruits are tearing up Washington’s tech scene

All they needed to know about business they learned at MicroStrategy.

Twenty-one former employees of the McLean software company have founded 12 companies in Maryland, D.C. and Virginia.

MicroStrategy has produced more first-time entrepreneurs and startup jobs than arguably any other local technology company, eclipsing in many minds the local impact of America Online.

You could say there was something in the water at MicroStrategy or — as some company alums say — in the Kool-Aid that CEO Michael Saylor stirred up so regularly.

The business software company, founded in 1989, is legendary for its storybook rise and steep fall. Shares traded as high as $333 on March 10, 2000, but the announcement that MicroStrategy would restate earnings sent the price tumbling March 20. It fell as low as $1.12 per share by Oct. 8, 2001.

Washington Business Journal
by Ben Hammer
Staff Reporter

Full Story: http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2006/03/20/story7.html