Entrepreneurs across America - Cover Story

Entrepreneur, April, 1996 by Janean Chuna, Debra Phillips, Cynthia E. Grifin, Heather Page, Lynn Beresford, Holly Celeste Fisk, Charlotte Mulhern

UTAH

Company: Viewpoint DataLabs International Inc. Location: Orem Business Began: 1988 Start-Up Cost: $50,000 1995 Sales:$6 million 1996 Projections: $10 million plus

Riddle me this, riddle me that--who's responsible for the model of the man who would be bat?

John Wright, that's who. His company created a full-body model of Batman used in the recent blockbuster film "Batman Forever." The caped crusader is just a sampling, however, of the many 3-D models Viewpoint produces for companies in the entertainment, litigation, architectural and medical fields.

"We're creating the wave--instead of riding it," says Wright, 39, who parlayed a mechanical engineering background into a model enterprise. "And we'd like to think [others will benefit] from the innovations coming from this industry."

Wright, who's been building models since he was 8, is no stranger to innovation or hard work. "The thing about entrepreneurs," he says, "is they just don't know when to quit."

MASSACHUSETTS

Company: InScribe Location: Cambridge Business Began: 1985 Start-Up Cost: $100,000 1995 Sales: $4 million 1996 Projections: $5 million plus

Having a product that is too perfect is an ob-stacle few entrepreneurs encounter, but that was one of the first problems brothers Joseph (left) and Jon Sieber (38 and 40, respectively) ran into when they founded InScribe, which designs hard- ware and software for the personalization industry.

Their computer calligraphy program uses calligraphy pens to address 30 to 50 items per hour. But potential customers complained the lettering looked too machine-produced, so the brothers added uneven pen strokes and other glitches to make it look more natural. Today, InScribe is used by thousands of stationers nationwide, as well as in the White House.

The Siebers had talked about running their own business since they were kids, so when a friend told them how a calligrapher had ruined her wedding invitations, they saw the handwriting on the wall. "I quit my job [as a management consultant] in one of those insane moments, and we just decided to do it," says Joseph.

Their newest product, Infinite Designs, is a software package launched in September that now accounts for almost 80 percent of their business. The program allows retail stores to produce personalized invitations, announcements and more on-site, all with same- or next-day delivery. And with plans to begin doing business on the Internet, the Siebers' success seems to be letter-perfect.

NEW JERSEY

Company: Tidewater Workshop Location: Oceanville Business Began: 1990 Start-Up Cost: $165 1995 Sales: $3.5 million 1996 Projections: $7 million

You expect to find cedar in closets and hope chests. But garden furniture? Peter Caporilli is the first to admit it's unorthodox. "We weren't sure if people were ready to accept cedar [garden furniture]," he says. "But we've been doubling sales each year."

The woodworking gene was passed down to Caporilli from his great- grandfather, who started Modern Boat Works, a boat manufacturing business, in 1902. When former mail order executive Caporilli decided to launch a garden furniture enterprise in 1990, he renovated the warehouse where his ancestors built custom-made cedar skiffs and yachts until 1984. Capitalizing on a boom in the gardening industry and using the same weatherproof wood his great-grandfather favored--eastern white cedar-- Caporilli opened Tidewater Workshop, which sells its signature benches, porch swings and planter boxes primarily through its mail order catalog.