Profiles of recognition-worthy entrepreneurs from the 1993 Entrepreneur of the Year contest.
The Entrepreneur of the Year program involves six months of continual winnowing and exhaustive research, analysis, verification, and debate -- all boiling down to the seven national winners featured in this issue. But there is so much more. Those who survived the process and were even considered for a national award are some of the most dynamic company builders in America. Here's a sampling of that exemplary group
Trip Hawkins
3DO/Electronic Arts
San Mateo, Calif.
Founded: Electronic Arts, 1982; 3DO, 1991
Business description: Electronic Arts sells video games and interactive entertainment software; 3DO develops technology for its Interactive Multiplayer and licenses it to hardware and software manufacturers
Employees: Electronic Arts, 1,000; 3DO, 200
Projected 1993 revenues: Electronic Arts, $400 million; 3DO, negligible -- it's still launching its product
At age 19 Electronic Arts and 3DO founder Trip Hawkins borrowed $5,000 from his dad to start his first company. The business was a flop, but Hawkins learned two things. "I loved being an entrepreneur," he says, "but before I'd do it again, I'd figure out how to do it right." He proceeded to get the training he needed. He got an M.B.A. from Stanford and then became the 68th employee at Apple Computer. In 1982, at age 28, Hawkins pulled together his personal funds to start what is now one of the leading providers of interactive entertainment software.
Early on, Hawkins realized his video-game and interactive-entertainment-software company was really in the entertainment business. "If you treat software creative people like artists, you can attract and retain the best people," he says. In that spirit, Electronic Arts' software packaging includes a photo of the team members who created the software and a list of their names (done in the style of movie credits).
In an attempt to provide the best distribution channel for his artists' work, Hawkins again looked to Hollywood, this time studying film distribution. He knew that retailers might balk, but he took a chance anyway and started selling his software products directly to them. Sales for Electronic Arts are projected to hit $400 million in 1993.
In 1990 Hawkins left his active role at Electronic Arts to found 3DO, a technology-development company focused on creating a unifying electronics standard for interactive entertainment multimedia. Hawkins quickly drummed up capital for the new home interactive multimedia platform called the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, by creating partnerships with giants Time Warner, AT&T, Matsushita, MCA, and Kleiner Perkins. Without even a product (3DO is licensing its architecture to hardware and software manufacturers instead of manufacturing the Multiplayer), Hawkins believes he was able to create an impressive coalition because his reputation was solid and his timing was right. -- Stephanie Gruner
Roland F. Dugas Jr.
Acadian Ambulance Service
Lafayette, La.
Founded: 1971
Business description: Provides emergency and nonemergency medical transportation
Employees: 920
Projected 1993 revenues: $58 million
In the late 1960s Roland Dugas, president of Acadian Ambulance Service, left the U.S. Air Force and joined Lafayette General Hospital as an assistant administrator. While there, he met up with Richard Zuschlag, a contract employee through Westinghouse, and Rolland Buckner, a registered nurse. The three began discussing the ambulance crisis: typically, funeral homes had provided ambulances, but when many of them started backing out, some small communities were in danger of losing their service altogether.
When Dugas and his two partners decided to start their ambulance service, in 1971, they were short on cash, but they knew where to get it. Acadian is a classic example of a customer-financed business. Using a Pennsylvania company as a model, the former hospital workers sold memberships to the community through a telethon. Every August Acadian hosts one membership drive, in which it saturates the market with advertising. Members pay a $49 flat fee, which covers their ambulance needs for the year. The concept was a winner. Acadian has more than 140,000 members and boasts a 90% membership-renewal rate.
Dugas's creativity is not limited to financing. To alleviate a shortage of paramedics, Acadian invested an initial $50,000 to fund an associate program through Southwestern Louisiana University's nursing school. Students get their clinical training by working with the paramedics at Acadian, and the company sends personnel to assist in teaching classes. Dugas claims that after graduating, the majority of students come to work for Acadian, where they continue to get in-house training. -- Stephanie Gruner
Sean Nguyen
Nguyen Electronics
Blaine, Minn.
Founded: 1986
Business description: Manufactures and assembles electronic components
Employees: 175
Projected 1993 revenues: $13 million
Sean Nguyen (pronounced "wen") turns 30 this month, but he's already amassed a list of mighty impressive accomplishments -- not the least of which is starting a company at the age of 23, a scant three years after fleeing Vietnam on a homemade boat with 39 other refugees. By the time the group had made it to Thailand, pirates had raided the boat seven times, taking the refugees' clothes, their money, and their motor. Nguyen spent nine months in refugee camps until a cousin living in Minnesota arranged for him, his father, and his brother to come to the United States.
