For almost a decade I suffered from an occupational disease that befalls many attorneys: a sincere and intense desire never ever to practice law again. When this infirmity became an overwhelming obsession, and I had a business idea (auditing lawyers’ bills for big corporations), despite twin two year-olds at home, a big mortgage, and about enough savings to last six months, I quit. Read more

In the 1990s, when I started my last company, services and technology were far less hospitable to starting a start-up than today. Needless to say, there weren’t any “incubators,”meaning places where you could rent a cubicle for cheap and have support services. So you cobbled things together.  Usually, as I did, you worked from home and, to project a corporate image, you hired an answering service located at what seemed to be a business address where you also rented a mailbox. Read more