Small Biz

Accidental Entrepreneurs

Kelly Driscoll

Digication, Providence, R.I.
Founded: 2002
Employees: 10
Revenue: n/a

When Kelly Driscoll cooked up a program to let her students at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) share their portfolios online, she didn't think of it as preparation for a future business. But soon other professors were asking for the software, and the college awarded her a contract to deploy it campuswide. "That's when we were like: 'We really need to commercialize this. RISD is not just going to be our only customer,'" she says.

Now her e-Portfolios software is used in 2,000 schools and colleges. On top of running Digication, Driscoll still teaches part-time at RISD and Bryant University.