Tech geeks and fashion usually clash. Think pocket protectors, hiked-up pants and T-shirts festooned with inside jokes for software coders.
But when Silicon Valley entrepreneur Rob Meadows thought about fashion, he imagined a purple-green halter dress and shiny suits of gold lace. So after he sold his mobile software company, Lumitrend Inc., in 2006 for millions of dollars (the amount was not disclosed), he decided to start his own clothing line rather than create another tech company right away
"I didn't want to jump from one 20-hour technology day to another," he said. "And of course there's the parties, the beautiful women, the fun parts of it as well."
His line now sells at small boutiques such as Inago on Third Street in Los Angeles and he has made a special line for Nordstrom.
High-tech entrepreneurs such as Meadows are notorious for starting company after company, fueling California's economy with new concepts and successes. But some leave tech for less geeky pastures: They start vodka companies, they become vintners, and yes, they even go into fashion.
"A lot of folks, when they have wealth, find things that will be interesting and unique to their lives," said Al Osborne, faculty director of the Harold Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at UCLA. That often means becoming involved with nonprofits, starting health food restaurants or investing in green technology, he said.
Making it in fashion is very different from succeeding in technology. It takes years for a fashion line to be profitable because the profit margins are slim.
And in some cases, they'll be competing with people who have a lot of cash lying around: think Sean "Diddy" Combs' clothing and fragrance line Sean John, and Jennifer Lopez's lifestyle brand JLO.
"Whether you're a starlet or a rock star, everybody wants to have their name on a label," said Ilse Metchek, president of the California Fashion Assn.
Selling that label to the masses, though, is a bit tougher, she said. New designers have to create a pattern, make it fit for people of different sizes, and design something that someone would actually want to wear.
"The hump from start-up to real company, that's where they fall," she said.
For tech entrepreneurs, it's often precisely that challenge that attracts them to fashion.
Sep Kamvar sold his personalized search engine, Kaltix, to Google Inc. for an undisclosed amount in late 2003 and began to work for the tech giant. But he grew restless.
