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Seasoned execs on track of fun with start-up
Mary Koelle looks the picture of a seasoned corporate pro,
unless you happen to spot the rubber gardening clogs peeking
out from under her slacks.
Barbara Rose – Chicago Tribune
Another oddity: Scale model trains line the top of a cabinet in her
small downtown office.
They’re easy to explain.
The 53-year-old heads Ocuity LLC, a start-up that’s developing
wireless devices to monitor rail cars and keep track of trailers
that haul giant containers from ship to shore.
Her clogs? They’re one of the perquisites that come with being CEO of a start-up: No dress code.
What’s it like to go out on your own after 30 years in the corporate world at companies like Xerox
and GATX Corp.?
Koelle answers like a kid who’s spilling an exciting secret: "Fun!"
Twenty-somethings toting laptops no longer rule the start-up world. In fact, money has all but
dried up for tech entrepreneurs, whatever their age.
Once-cocky dot-comers are hunting jobs at companies where execs like Koelle made careers.
But the legacy of the 1990s Internet mania includes more than financial ruin. Despite the ongoing
bust, the boom reinforced an entrepreneurial spirit that continues to encourage execs like Koelle
to take chances on ideas that have simmered in their psyches for years.
Unlike the serial entrepreneurs who make a habit of starting companies, these first-time
risk-takers –many of them in mid- or late-career–could continue enjoying the perquisites that
come with knowing their way around big companies.
Instead, they’re investing their own money and time with the hope of building businesses and
running them.
"We’ve gotten beyond, `I’m going to get rich quick,’" says venture capitalist Bob Zieserl of KB
Partners in Northbrook. "The people we’re seeing in this market are a lot more seasoned. Their
[industry] experience is deep."
Koelle, a Cincinnati native, spent 10 years in marketing positions at Xerox before joining GATX as
a vice president in 1998 to expand the company’s rail car leasing business.
She and product development director Bill Garfield, a 44-year-old engineer, began working more
than two years ago on a project that led them to start Ocuity.
They envisioned a programmable device with sensors to monitor rail cars and materials traveling
in rugged environments. The solar and battery-powered device would record and transmit
everything from unusual jolts and intrusions to changes in temperature and pressure.
They grew convinced their idea was the basis for a profitable business.
"Every time we reached a point where GATX questioned the investment we would have to make
in money and personnel, it forced us to think about whether or not we were interested in doing it
on our own," Koelle says.
Their moment of truth came in late 2000, when GATX axed new business development efforts.
The pair founded Ocuity in February 2001 with little more than conceptual drawings and a market
study.
Early this year, they merged their effort with that of a California entrepreneur, Russ Hardy, 60,
who is developing similar technology.
Together, they hope to create a profitable company with $107 million in sales within five years.
They’ve lined up two large companies to begin testing their product within 90 days. One is a
hazardous chemical shipper looking to beef up security following the Sept. 11 attacks.
They’re also in discusssions with potential backers.
Still, it’s far from certain Ocuity will make it. "We’ve seen lots of instances where we can show
that you can save money using technology," says Zieserl, the venture capitalist. "Then we
scratch our heads when adoption is painfully slow."
Koelle is well aware of the odds, but they don’t scare her.
"My fear was that if I took another corporate position, I’d end up spending the rest of my life
there. If we’re successful it will pay off, and not just monetarily."
If not? "It’s been the most instructive year-and-a-half I’ve ever spent."
Not to mention, the most fun.
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