Building a technology startup is challenge enough. Changing its business model just two years later is even more daring. That's just what Peter Bell, chairman and founder of Storage Networks Inc., did to try to keep his company alive and profitable. He's burned through nearly $400 million, without a lot of success. But he's determined to prove he can help customers eliminate the complexity of data storage.

ON TRAVEL: Rather than fly, Bell travels from Boston to New York in a chauffeured car. The main benefit: Sleep.

Bell isn't afraid to take chances, or even ignore the advice of people he respects when he's sure he's right. Years ago, he walked away from an accounting career--in the middle of the certification exam. "I went to the rest room an hour into it and realized I didn't want to be an accountant," he says. "I walked out, picked up my girlfriend, and went away for the weekend." He took a job for less money with EMC Corp., which at the time made memory boards. "My father told me it was the dumbest thing I ever did," he says.

The jury's still out on his father's judgment. Bell left EMC, raised $650 million in capital, and launched Storage Networks in November 2000 as the first provider of storage as a service. "People were in a rush to implement Y2K protection and CRM apps," Bell says. "We gave them a way to do it all quicker."

It meant Bell had to spend loads of capital buying storage capacity. Yet companies were reluctant to hand their data to an unknown company, and Storage Networks struggled. "When we started, companies weren't getting efficiency out of their storage," Bell says. "Nobody's solved that yet." So Bell and his executive team spent the past year asking managers what they need to solve their storage problems, which led to the decision to transform the company into a storage-management software vendor. In the coming year, Bell hopes to expand the software to include infrastructure linked to storage devices such as servers and databases. "We must think broader than we have until now," he says. Storage Networks' 2002 revenue is expected to come in around $95 million.

William Weyand, retired chairman and CEO of SDRC, a product life-cycle management company acquired by EDS for $1 billion, joined Storage Networks' board in June. He believes Bell can successfully turn Storage Networks into "an ROI-driven software company."

Bell sticks with what he likes. The college sweetheart he spent the weekend with after bailing on the CPA exam is now his wife. And he's sticking with Storage Networks. "I've got my chance to run the show," he says. "I still have the dream and excitement that this will grow into something lasting."
--Martin J. Garvey