Virginia Inman

North Carolina's Research Triangle is the idol of industrial-policy advocates, who argue that the rest of the country ought to emulate its business-govern...  Read story

Rust Ventures, of Austin, Tex., has agreed two times to fund a company that the founders didn't plan to manage themselves, at least not on a daily basis. ...  Read story

Clinton Richardson, an Atlanta attorney who works with many start-ups, says almost every one he sees has a hidden flaw that can end up costing the founder...  Read story

After 25 years as a movie-studio executive, Joseph A. Adelman recognized a unique audience for a new theater chain. Kidpix Theaters Corp., in Los Angeles,...  Read story

Suite Charity

Corporate giving earned a good report card in the first half of this decade. From 1979 to 1984, corporate contributions to charitable institutions jumped ...  Read story

Pamela Miller "was troubled watching executive women look like bag ladies" as they walked to Wall Street carrying their dress shoes in plastic bags. She s...  Read story

When Jack Wells and Phil Shannon looked for venture capital, they didn't find much interest. So they went to the bank -- but not to ask for a loan. To su...  Read story

Introducing The 1986 Inc. 100

Like a bunch of adolescents, the companies on the INC. 100 are an unsettled lot. They have grown so fast that their knees ache. They have consumed capit...  Read story

New Benefits;

THE NUMBER OF AMERICANS without health insurance jumped from 25 million to 30 million between 1977 and 1984, largely because of the loss of manufacturing ...  Read story

Dressed For Success;

STILL WOOZY FROM BAD investments in electronics, venture capitalists expect to find relief in specialty retailing. "I'm besieged by calls from other...  Read story

In 18 years of research at Case Western Reserve University, Professor Joseph Fagan developed a way to test infants for retardation within the first year o...  Read story

Like human factory workers, robots depend on conveyor belts and other machines to bring them parts. The conveyor systems are custom-designed for the robo...  Read story

Not every developer lost money as the Denver real estate market went sour. When Eric and Steve Holtze saw an apartment glut coming, the brothers went on b...  Read story

Homes, Sweet Homes

Aluminum-siding salespeople take note -- the Promised Land may be in Albuquerque. That's where the number of housing starts is growing fastest, acco...  Read story

Every newspaper reader knows the problem. Spend five minutes thumbing through and your hands and shirt are filthy. Saranda Corp., of Dayton, has develope...  Read story

Labor Shortage;

TODAY, WHEN YOU ORDER A large Pepsi at your local Burger King, the cashier may hand you an empty cup to fill at the self-service drink machine. In 10 yea...  Read story

Andrew Gerber learned the textile business in his family's Rhode Island mill. But its outdated processes, which had barely changed since the turn of the c...  Read story

Tighter Medicare reimbursement policies have led hospitals to discharge patients earlier. But out-patients who are far from home have to check into hotels...  Read story

The health-spa market looks impossibly overcrowded -- and plenty of shakeout victims would line up to confirm it. But Sharlyne Powell and Sharon McConnel...  Read story

Chain Gang;

CAN SMALL COMPANIES FIND A way into a drug market dominated by giants -- without spending themselves broke on research and development? Polymer chem...  Read story

Black-owned Businesses

When it comes to black entrepreneurs, there's good news and bad news. Black Americans are creating new businesses at a much faster pace than the economy ...  Read story

Japan is the second-biggest market for technology products in the world, but most U.S. companies find it impossible to crack. The primary reason isn't tr...  Read story

A Loan At Last

When it comes to commercial loans, the rich aren't getting richer. New York City banks may have the most dough, but their commercial and industrial loan ...  Read story

Many airplane accidents occur on takeoff. To improve safety in private and commercial aircraft, AeroQuest Corp., of Wichita, makes an electronic system t...  Read story

Hidden sandstone in coal seams can wreck the $12-million machines that chew through tons of coal. Mining through unexpected hard rock can even cause fata...  Read story

Small-time Justice

The mergers game has become the greatest show on Wall Street, with huge companies gobbling each other up woth nary a protest from the trustbusters in Wash...  Read story

Light aircraft fly fairly low and often without ground control, so they sometimes lose their way in bad weather. Digital Avionics Corp., of Marietta, Ga....  Read story

Strip Tease;

THIS IS A GOOD TIME TO BE a stripper. A developer of strip shopping centers, that is. Shunted aside for two decades by their more glamorous cousins...  Read story

Hard-of-hearing travelers often have a tough time in hotels because they don't know when to answer the telephone or the door -- and they can't hear a fire...  Read story

Time-sharing;

TO HEAR BRAD HOWE TALK, you might think he can't hold a job. "In May 1983, I walked into five companies on five successive days and said, "I'm your new C...  Read story

Going Public;

WHEN APPLE COMPUTER INC. went public in 1980, the state of Massachusetts refused to register the stock, saying that the offering price was too high for th...  Read story

McDonald's Corp. launched the fast-food business with a limited menu and take-out-only service. Then menus became fatter, restaurants fancier, and prices...  Read story

Upstarts

U.S. embassies and consulates get about 50,000 calls a year from people trying to contact American travelers in Western Europe. Alan Wissenberg saw a bus...  Read story

Selling Out

MANY PEOPLE WHO WANT TO sell their small companies are finding that their money lies over the ocean. When foreign investors poured $89.8 billion int...  Read story

Upstarts

Dunham Barney wants to keep failing farms from lying fallow or becoming parking lots. Farmvest Inc., of Simsbury, Conn., offers one-stop shopping people ...  Read story

Hedging Bets;

SMALL COMPANIES TRADING over the counter have a tough time attracting dollars from such conservative investors as pension-fund managers, who prefer to tak...  Read story

Upstarts

Start-ups have become all the rage among University of Utah professors, who have helped make Salt Lake City a biomedical capital. But not every inventive...  Read story

Exporters;

THEY CAN'T SINK ALL THOSE cargo ships steaming this way, laden with cars and video recorders -- although they might want to. Many states are finding...  Read story

Upstarts: Highlighting New Companies

Some companies really do benefit from stiffer Internal Revenue Service regulations. Last year's tax law (see "Your Money or Your Car, page tk) requires p...  Read story

Back To Basics

In the rush to make deals, many venture capitalists give the money and run. But now, some venture funds are going back to building companies by injecting ...  Read story