Beep, Beep! Hot high-tech entrepreneurs

To keep this interview appointment and catch alast-minute business flight, Surya Jayaweera had to juggle a cellphone and defensive driving. No problem for this model member ofGeneration Tech, who handled both tasks with the same skillhe's used to steer his company to success.

Growing up, Jayaweera's dreams bounced between scientist andinventor, but age taught him entrepreneurship was the practicalroute to making his mark. Before getting his engineering degree inMay 1996, Jayaweera brainstormed product ideas with businesspotential. A day at the park with a pile of magazines sparked thewinner: An article on two-way pagers catalyzed images of a pagerthat could access e-mail and the Web.

Two days later, Jayaweera drove to Las Vegas and pitched hisidea to Motorola at COMDEX, the major computer and electronicsshow. After a meeting at company headquarters, he penned a deal:He'd create the software; they'd make the pagers. In 1997,Jayaweera's vision, the Motorola PageWriter, was launched--andhis business, WolfeTech Corp., was born.