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CoolTronics

CoolTronics

Tyler Dikman, 24
www.cooltronics.com
Tampa, Fla.

This is Dikman's second time as a finalist , having last year been featured as a co-founder of Redux. He founded CoolTronics in Tampa as a 15-year-old in 2000. "I started off basically teaching grannies how to surf the Web," he says. Dikman describes CoolTronics as a "concierge for technology," meant to be a one-stop shop for small businesses and home office users. Now a 15-person company, Dikman says it brought in $3.25 million in 2007.

Here's how it works: Clients call CoolTronics and describe their technology needs—such things as getting rid of viruses, setting up a network, training workers on new software, or upgrading equipment. Then the team works on-site with customers to resolve the problem, charging an hourly rate for services. "We don't want our customers to ever have to think about having to call another company," he says.

CoolTronics has over 700 clients in the Tampa Bay area, and a smaller client base in San Francisco, where Dikman now lives. He doesn't advertise—Dikman says most clients come through word-of-mouth referrals.