[lippy]

I was talking to my roommates and each had a story to share and I found them rather interesting.

I have 2;

In the 1950's my grandpa was a very successful OB/GYN in Wichita, KS (before HMOs and such, so people paid a premium for the better service). He was making more money than he could spend and investing all over. One day a couple of brothers were going door to door in his affluent community trying to get investors for their restaurant start-up. My grandpa says he had the check written out but decided not to do it ($20,000 for 20% or something close to that) and instead invested in a business complex that he barely broke even on. The two guys? Frank and Dan Carney. The company? PizzaHut.


My Dad owned 51% of a company making "peripherals" for C64s in the mid-80's. The company was doing upwards of $20m annually in sales and was going to go public in the 4th quarter of a given year. The investors persuaded my Dad from going public as they thought they'd make many more millions by waiting. Well, the Christmas season sucked and C64 basically went under. The company was owed around $3m from distributors that went into bankruptcy. Had his company gone public, they would of had the capital to acquire the distributors at an incredibly reduced cost and achieved some nifty vertical integration. His company ended up failing and they sold off everything to pay off loans.

Yours?