Invisible Capital

1Dreaming a Difficult Dream

This book was born out of passion, history, and, yes, failure (or so I thought at the time). After the one-two punch of the spring 2000 tech-stock slide and the September 11, 2001, attacks, my brother and I finally agreed to suspend operations of the technology-based product design firm we had launched five years prior. This venture had been dying a slow death in perennial start-up mode due to lack of working capital (among a host of other factors).

I thought I had entered that project with my eyes wide open. After all, I had worked on Capitol Hill dealing with business development and federal procurement issues. I had worked for a federal commission on entrepreneurship. I had been surrounded by and strongly influenced ...