Want to connect with Catalyst magazine? Click on our LinkedIn profile.
His company may rank at number 24 on this year's list, but for its founder, president and CEO
Mitch Free, the lucky number is 42.
Mitch was age 42 when his company
MFG.com had its first profitable year. The 42nd richest man in the world –
Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos – is the company's largest investor.
And a favorite book,
"Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" says number "42” is the answer to life, the universe .
. . everything.
Mitch had no great entrepreneurial aspirations when at took courses at a south Georgia
technical school and did CAD work for Northwest Airlines.
He got the idea to create the eBay for manufacturers: where they could post CAD drawings of
what they need and manufacturers would bid for the work. MFG.com gets a flat fee but no cut of the
$8 billion a year in transactions.
Jeff Bezos is a smart man and his investment in MFG.com has clearly paid off with triple
digit growth. Mitch Free's next act is to expand the web technology into China and Europe, and add
a social networking component to it.
MFG.com
