Entrepreneurs

INDIANAPOLIS -- Roger Penske would be on the short list of billionaires with whom you'd like to hang out. Despite having more money than God, Penske is remarkably normal, infectiously friendly and open. Penske's companies sell cars and trucks, rent them, repair them, make parts for them and race them. They generate about $18 billion in annual revenue. Just one segment, Penske Automotive Group, announced first-quarter earnings that more than doubled over last year, from $14.9 million to $33.

Reid Hoffman is a big man in Silicon Valley. And, try as he might to remain in the background, his stature just keeps growing -- literally and figuratively. It all began in the bleak aftermath of the dot-com bust, when despondent entrepreneurs and investors were throwing in the towel. Hoffman, never one to shrink from a challenge, rolled up his sleeves. The PayPal Inc. veteran took some of the $10 million he made in 2002, when EBay Inc.

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.

Andrew Cherng remembers pacing through his Chinese restaurant in Pasadena wondering whether any customers would show. It was a difficult time. He had borrowed from family members and the Small Business Administration to open the eatery and had debts to pay. "People would stick their heads in and leave," Cherng recalled. His mother went out and sprinkled the sidewalk with salt, a Chinese custom to expel negative energy. It worked.

Silicon Valley insiders call it the O'Reilly Radar: Tim O'Reilly's uncanny ability to spot a technology revolution before it happens. But lately the entrepreneur, investor and book publisher has been busier trying to incite the next one. He is urging young entrepreneurs and engineers to stop making some of the sillier software that lets Facebook users throw virtual sheep at their friends or download virtual beer on iPhones, and instead start making a real difference in the world.

A new wave of baby boomer entrepreneurs likely to be unleashed by the current economic turmoil will be an important force in eventually pushing the economy onto safer ground, some experts say. A late-September poll by the Kauffman Foundation, which promotes entrepreneurship, showed that 70% of respondents agreed that the success and health of the economy depended on the success of entrepreneurs; 80% agreed the government should encourage more entrepreneurship.

Much as Barack Obama has kindled unprecedented interest in presidential politics, so too has he prompted a flood of merchandise, collectibles, television deals and book contracts. Presidents have always inspired such capitalism. But marketing experts say the historic nature of this election and the strong brand that the Illinois senator's campaign cultivated have sparked incredible demand for all things Obama.

It's 4:30 in the morning and Jacob Paz has been awake for half an hour, trying to squeeze in a little homework. But the phone rings. A load of 250 Christmas trees is on the way. So much for the 17-year-old high school senior's plan to start his English essay on how two world wars fueled disillusionment in American literature. It's time to get to work. Since Oct.

Foreign-born entrepreneurs were behind 1 in 4 technology start-ups in the United States over the last decade, according to a study to be published today. A team of researchers at Duke University estimated 25.3% of technology and engineering companies started between 1995 and 2005 had founders, chief executives, presidents or chief technology officers who were born outside the U.S. That's striking, given that just 11.7% of the U.S. population is foreign-born, according to U.S. census data.

Superman is still the champ of leaping tall buildings in a single bound, but mere mortals are catching up. Aboard Brian Spencer's turbocharged pogo stick, humans can now bounce over cars, hop onto walls and perform other acrobatics normally reserved for a guy in tights and a cape. "This stick is absolutely crazy," said Daniel Brown of xpogo.com, a website devoted to stunt pogo-stick jumping. The jackhammer-sized contraption sprang to life about five years ago.