So you want to build a company from the ground up? Here's our best stories on the art of a smart start.

Isolating the Leadership Gene

Jim Mullen's company invented a blockbuster treatment for multiple sclerosis, and it spends $1 million a day experimenting on revolutionary new medicines. Charles Fishman

Master of Startup Disasters

Your startup is in crisis, and you don`t know what to do. Who you gonna call? Ronit Herzfeld, a former mental-health counselor who now teaches fast-growing companies how to keep sane amid the chaos. Rekha Balu

Bad Times Are a Growth Business

DoveBid has built its fortune on the misfortunes that come with irrational exuberance -- from the junk-bond scandals of the 1980s to the dotcom implosion. Here`s how it gets the highest bidders -- and how it almost repeated the costly mistakes of its own clients. Scott Kirsner

(No) Exit Ahead?

A leading venture capitalist offers a tough-love survival guide: How to keep your company afloat when the IPO market has dried up. Plus, six words you should never use when raising money. Rekha Balu

Educating Michael

Michael Bronner made a fortune as the founder of a hot direct-marketing company. His new company helps Americans of more modest means save the small fortune required to pay for their children`s college tuition. Here`s what Bronner has learned so far. Paul C. Judge

From Country Boys to Big Cheese

The two execs behind Cabot Cheese run an agricultural co-op based in Vermont. They`re also tough guys who appreciate quality -- and love profit. Paul C. Judge

Why Is This Man Smiling?

You'd think startup wizard Atiq Raza would be getting hammered. He operates in trouble-plagued Silicon Valley, he launches companies in the wildly overbuilt telecom sector, and he runs -- gasp! -- a business incubator. Based on his impressive results, you may want to think again. Bill Breen

He Struck Gold on the Net (Really)

Rob McEwen owned an underperforming gold mine in northwestern Ontario, and he needed new ideas about where to dig. So he broke new ground -- and made data on the mine available online to anyone who wanted to help. Eureka! The Internet gold rush was on. Linda Tischler

Starting Your Startup

Unit of One Rekha Balu

Fresh Start 2002: Starting Over ... and Over ...

Startup star Kamram Elahian has enjoyed big wins, suffered expensive flops, and launched a bold initiative to wire the world's schools. In the process, he has become a master at making a fresh start. Bill Breen