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Amid all the dot-bombs this year, here's a big dot-com success story.

Asif Satchu and his partner Jon Burgstone graduated from Harvard Business School just a year and a half ago. They started a Web company, a business-to-business (B2B) market exchange for manufacturing materials, and applied for an initial public offering. But the market for Internet stocks crashed. Then they struck gold.

Their company, Suppliermarket.com, was acquired by Ariba in a deal making Mr. Satchu and his partner richer by an estimated $100 million. He achieved a dream that still fuels the desires of many Internet entrepreneurs today.

SELF-CONFIDENCE MAN

Frankly, when I interviewed chairman and president Mr. Satchu in April, I had a sneaking suspicion Suppliermarket.com was headed for the dot-com junk pile. Back then I wrote critically about his hastily assembled company, cobbled together in less than a year with $48 million in venture capital, 125 employees, and an unproven business plan written in school.

By the time Suppliermarket.com had filed IPO documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company had piled up losses of $20 million on a mere $268,000 in revenue -- not even enough to pay the salaries of the two 28-year-old founders.

For some reason, Mr. Satchu didn't seem anxious to speak to me again, despite my repeated telephone calls and emails. Since Suppliermarket.com's acquisition, he had moved to San Francisco. We finally met last week at a cafй in a neighborhood dotted with dot-com offices.

Unlike the beaten-down executives of failed Net ventures I've met recently, Mr. Satchu still radiates an energy and enthusiasm for what he says are untapped business opportunities created by today's technology and venture capital. (Then again, who wouldn't be upbeat after hitting the acquisition jackpot?) He even sees the downturn in Internet stocks as a good sign. Mr. Satchu says, "Whenever there's that much volatility, there's a huge amount of wealth to be created."

As an astute entrepreneur, Mr. Satchu performed his job admirably, selling his company at a premium over what it valued itself in its IPO filings. His company also remains largely intact -- most of his employees still have jobs, although they now work for Ariba and their mission has changed.

SEASONS CHANGE

Last spring, Mr. Satchu couldn't praise enough the potential of Internet marketplaces, his company's specialty. Suppliermarket.com was supposed to become a dominant Web exchange, like a stock exchange, for buying and selling manufacturing materials such as rubber, metal, and plastic.

Since then, many of these B2B exchanges have failed, unable to attract large numbers of dollars, transactions, or participants. Those remaining, such as Ventro, Freemarkets, and Verticalnet, struggle to survive. When Internet stocks took a market downturn, a huge source of capital for these companies simply dried up.

Subsequently, Mr. Satchu called Bobby Lent, an Ariba founder, to pitch Suppliermarket.com. "This is going to sound like a truism, but we needed to get to market faster," Mr. Satchu explains to me. "If we merged, [Ariba] could turbo-charge our sales force."

After negotiating for a month and a half, Ariba agreed to acquire Suppliermarket.com for what eventually amounted to $912 million in stock, primarily for its Web exchange technology, expertise, and staff. Ariba announced plans to incorporate Suppliermarket.com Web technology with its software products and close down the B2B marketplace.

CARPE PECUNIA

Mr. Satchu insists the deal wasn't a strategic shift in thinking because Suppliermarket.com always sold software. The B2B marketplace, while still a good idea, was abandoned because it didn't fit with Ariba's business.

Perhaps it doesn't really matter what Mr. Satchu planned or didn't plan. The key in this era of Internet startups, free-flowing venture capital, and overnight riches is seizing the moment. For this lesson, Mr. Satchu gets an A.

There's a saying in business, "Bet on the jockey, not on the horse." Some people can succeed, sometimes in spite of market conditions. Suppliermarket.com shareholders and venture capitalists must be grateful.

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