104 CLEARING THE HURDLES: WOMEN BUILDING HIGH-GROWTH BUSINESSES
and at MCC, Hammer had been involved in the develop-
ment of products that she thought were perfect for the cus-
tomers, but the organizations showed lack of enthusiasm
for them and would either kill them or shelve them. She
was not going to let that happen to this project. She was
willing to reinvent herself, again!
26
In fall 1991, Hammer
attracted an initial investment of $250,000 from Admiral
Inman, a business angel. Following 200% growth in the
next five years, a West Coast venture capital firm, VC1,
also invested $1.25 million.
Hammer’s story is not unusual. She used her academic experience
and education in literature and language as a basis for developing new
capabilities in computer programming. ...