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 [1]

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 [2]

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 [3]

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? [4]

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 [5]

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 [6]

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? [7]

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) [8]

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 [9]

Unit of One Rekha Balu

Fresh Start 2002: Starting Over ... and Over ... [10]

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