Small Biz

Rishi Shah, 25

Flying Cart Media
Madison, Wis.

Rishi Shah doesn't like clothes shopping. So when he was studying electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, he decided to start a business that would allow users to get recommendations on what to buy based on past purchases. He envisioned national brands like the Gap (GPS) offering the service to their customers. Executives liked the idea, too, but in meetings told Shah that they could offer such a service themselves.

Still convinced he could create a successful e-commerce business, Shah spoke to independent retailers running shops along State Street near campus and discovered that most wanted a simple way to sell online. He held onto the idea. After working for Accenture (ACN) for two years, learning "how to take an idea and turn it into something,” he created three-employee Flying Cart to give small-business owners a way to sell their products online. He offers a bare-bones version for free and sells subscriptions to two versions with more options for $15 and $30 a month.

Shah says about 30 new shops are created on his site each day. He estimates the business, which now has more than 1,000 shops, will be profitable by the spring of 2008.