By Marc Dacey

At 47, Stuart Berkowitz isn't a whiz kid anymore. But he still thinks like one. The Toronto-based entrepreneur has so far created three separate business ventures, and he's always on the lookout for the next big opportunity.

Berkowitz started Array Systems Computing Inc. in 1981 while still pursuing a Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Toronto. By 1996, Berkowitz had created a spinoff division, Array Telecom, specializing in voice-over-IP gateways. He sold that division in 1998 to found VoiceGenie Technologies Inc., a firm that builds and deploys infrastructure technologies that allow voice access to the Web via telephone. "I like to have a little excitement in my life," says Berkowitz. "That's why I sold off [Array] when I saw my existing market getting crowded, and I saw an opening in a new market that was going to be absolutely huge."

Berkowitz's story, like that of other Internet entrepreneurs, raises interesting questions about technology adventurers: can yesterday's whiz kid make today's savvy business leader? Can early success portend a lifetime of achievement? One-shot wunderkinder who've had the right ideas at the right time have become a stereotype, but there's reason to believe that business lessons learned in one's twenties-or earlier-can translate into viable and varied careers. True high-tech entrepreneurship means combining an early talent for innovation with the veteran skills needed to survive in a harsh business environment.

Berkowitz's ideas have changed as his ventures have diversified. Earlier in his career, while focused mainly on technical development, he financed new ventures himself. "With Array Telecom, I funded it all," he recalls. He realized, however, that the broader investment base he has landed for his latest venture ensures capital for sales and marketing goals that self-funding couldn't cover. Berkowitz has also come to believe that bench strength is crucial to getting the most out of his new, 65-employee company. "I tried to associate myself with the most experienced and prestigious board of directors and advisers I could think of," he says, counting in this group several former presidents of telecom firms. "They bring investors, relationships and credibility to a new venture-credibility with both potential investors and with customers, particularly through selective use of their Rolodexes."

Berkowitz spends considerable time researching his market and designing products that fulfill a need for customers. "I ask myself, 'Will they pay for a product?' You must be delivering something that the customer finds of fundamental value, and that means doing a lot of research and identifying problems that need solutions. It's the challenge of using my brain to put my fingerprint on the world."



JUDGING YOUR MOMENT

Lorien Gabel could have retired two years ago when he sold privately-owned Interlog, an Internet Service Provider started by his brother Matt Harrop, 26, to PSINet Canada.

Partnered with Harrop, the Malaysian-born, Toronto-based lawyer, now 31, had brought Interlog to local prominence with more than 50,000 customers, but by 1999 the pair saw that the wind of prosperity was blowing in a different direction. "We sold for a number of reasons," says Gabel. "One was the valuations that were being offered at that time, another was that we had looked at the market leaders and the long-term prospects for our services." It proved to be good timing, as has their re-entry into the tech field with privately-held Bird on a Wire Networks of Mississauga, Ont., a high-end managed server solutions provider. Gabel maintains that his new venture's focus is the same as before: customer service. "Whether the end user is at home or at a business, you are going to succeed or fail on service," he says. "So, really, we've taken service as a first principle. The technology is just the vehicle of the day: the differentiation is in how you deliver the technology to the customer."

Like many company founders, Gabel had to learn to delegate. With Bird on a Wire, he says, "we've learned to have a management team that allows us to plan for growth and to scale the business as needed. We've also learned to bring in outside resources, such as ASPs and other technology partners and suppliers." Having a larger senior management team "helps us as principals to avoid burnout, because the workload isn't concentrated solely on the owners. And that larger team brings a wide range of expertise and talents to the table." Gabel and his brother appreciate receiving a healthy compensation package, but becoming rich isn't their primary motivation for creating risky tech start-ups. "I enjoy the day-to-day challenges-the chance to succeed or fail, and the adrenaline that comes with the risk," says Gabel.

Not working seems unthinkable to him. "You have to do something with your life, and if you love being an entrepreneur, hiring people and creating value for customers, then this is what you do."

CHANGE. ALWAYS CHANGE

For Christopher Caldwell, the only constant in his remarkable record of entrepreneurship has been change. The 28-year-old native of St. Catharines, Ont., is the owner of Coral Technologies, based in London, Ont., with satellite offices in Toronto and Kitchener.

Caldwell began a PC assembly business at age 15 in order to support his own computer purchases. "There was no big bang," he recalls. "It was a slow process of filling a niche, in this case PC clone assembly, and learning step-by-step how to sell out of a basement. All I wanted to do originally was to buy a computer."

Dubbing his firm Epsilon Enterprises, Caldwell hired-"for a couple of bucks"-an assembler in his 30s to work a few hours each evening to meet word-of-mouth demand. From his customers, Caldwell learned of the dearth of good applications for the office PCs he was building, particularly in the accounting field. Leaving school in 1990 at age 16, he helped develop Biznix, the first Windows 3.0 accounting package.

One Biznix customer was a small company called Coral Technologies. Caldwell scraped together enough money to invest in Coral, looking to use the firm as a way to move into systems integration. Helping businesses obtain the best from their software and PCs turned out to be much more profitable than selling home-grown software.

"Within a year, I had paid off all my debts from buying Coral," says Caldwell. Adopting the motto "whatever it takes," Caldwell grew privately-held Coral by any means possible. "We made a lot of money finding solutions and products in the States," says Caldwell, noting that he was the "first to place an order for the (now ubiquitous) SoundBlaster sound card in Canada."

In 1995, he looked further abroad, acquiring a West African computing company. Coral radically altered that division's product line by offering high-end wireless and banking applications for the financial industry in Ghana.

Wireless and banking applications were an overlooked market in West Africa, where everything was still paper-based, says Caldwell. "But in an economy where there are few luxury items to buy, there can be a surprising amount of banking activity." Coral paved the way for the introduction of automated banking machines and the computerization of smaller banks throughout Ghana. Caldwell credits his first firm, Epsilon Enterprises, with teaching him "that it's essential to exploit niches and that you have to reinvent your company every two to three years." This means continually introducing new products, services and ideas that will make you indispensable to long-term clients.

"If you're not moving forward, you're dead."

Another important lesson that he learned early was to focus on the bottom line. "I would read accounting books," says Caldwell, "and I learned that the key to our success was in paying close attention to the numbers and benchmarking our results to those of our competitors." He has, however, shed some of his early convictions. He's no longer overly impressed with professional managers and people with degrees. "I've learned that while those accomplishments have their place, it's the work ethic, field experience and commitment to the cause that really pay off."

Though a couple of years shy of 30, Caldwell talks like the veteran businessman he is. "Doing business is not getting easier, but I am starting to enjoy it a lot more. For the first five years, you are learning the game. The next five, you're getting better at it. Now, I'm enjoying the game. Now I love business, and not just the computer business. The core principles are the same in any venture, and you've got to love the process and be willing to sweat out the lean years."