President and CEO
Icon Information Consultants, Houston, Texas
Pamela Chambers O'Rourke knew it was time to strike out on her own when she was reprimanded by her last employer for treating IT clients too well. "They said I was spoiling my customers," she recalls. She launched her own IT consulting firm with $200,000 in startup capital from friends, local businesses, and many of those same "spoiled" clients. Its first year, Icon grossed $2.5 million. Eight profitable years later, it's a $33 million firm with more than 325 employees. Her secret? Stay hungry. "I pay myself on commission," she says. "It makes me want to get up and go to work." -- LC
53, founder, president, and CEO
United Medical Resources, Cincinnati, Ohio
Victoria Gluckman is a bootstrapper. She sold greeting cards door-to-door at age 10 to help "achieve a better life for my family and myself," she says. She skipped college and landed in health benefits in the early 1980s, just as employers began to face the complexities of managed care. By 1983, Gluckman saw her chance -- to manage those complexities for companies. When she approached Stouffer's with a plan to save it more than $1 million, she had her first contract. Today, her company boasts 120 corporate clients and about $30 million in revenue each year. -- RU
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