Serial Success
Whats the secret to serial success in some entrepreneurs? It can take a life time, a trail of failed attempts and a load of money before some people bring an indea to market or a business to success, others just keep doing it.
Take these two Toms for instance, five years ago, Tom Scott and Tom First realized they would never have to work again. Friends from college, the pair had launched a juice brand called Nantucket Nectars from the back of their island boat and catapulted themselves — the self-dubbed “juice guys” — into the stuff of entrepreneurial legend as their beverage took off nationwide.
They sold a majority of their company to Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc., and when Cadbury Schweppes PLC later bought the entire business for an estimated $100 million in March of 2002, both men were set for retirement — and they were only in their mid-30s.
But there was no retiring in their futures. Today Messrs. Scott and First are both deep into new ventures that, for now at least, appear headed for success. Mr. Scott leads Plum TV, a New York-based company that operates local television channels in historic, affluent markets such as Aspen, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, and has had notable investors including Starwood Capital Group CEO Barry Sternlicht, singer Jimmy Buffett and former Viacom CEO Tom Freston.
Mr. First is in the midst of a new start-up: O Beverages LLC, in Cambridge, Mass., which markets a line of naturally flavored waters already sold in nearly 20 states through Safeway, Balducci’s and Bristol Farms, among other stores. In between Nantucket Nectars and their current ventures, the two men started a beverage-distribution-software company that was sold to a publicly traded technology company.
“I’m a crazy competitive person, so there’s no way I’m stopping,” Mr. First says. “I like being in the trenches.”
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