Show And Sell

It's 8 a.m. at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and Fabien Hyon is on an adrenaline high. He has been up since 5:30 getting ready for opening day. Standing in front of the $6,000, 20-by-30-foot black steel booth he built himself, the 25-year-old, Paris-born entrepreneur nervously scans the vast exhibition hall--row upon row of hungry entrepreneurs ready to compete with him for business. He jockeyed hard for this location. It's close to the large, well-appointed booths of the industry leaders he hopes will strike a deal with his 1 1/2-year-old San Francisco startup, Abvent Inc., a maker of architectural design software.

Hyon rallies his little sales army--seven staffers even younger than he is, all dressed in dark pants and button-down beige-and-brown shirts emblazoned with the company's logo. "We need lots of energy from everybody. You've all got to be on your toes," he says. They can all see the boss is tense. As he unpacks the boxes of black company T-shirts and CD-ROM samples for giveaways, he worries that he'll never recoup the $55,000 he has sunk into this show.