E Commerce Crusader

The way BizRate.com co-founder Farhad Mohit sees it, there have been two revolutions in the world of e-tailing. To demonstrate, he jumps up, grabs a marker, and begins writing on the large paper tablet in his office. "V. 1.0: Amazon," he scrawls, referring in techie shorthand to what he thinks of as the first wave. Then he dashes off "V. 2.0: BizRate." Mohit's claim that the king of all e-tailers is outdated compared with BizRate is brazen, indeed. BizRate, after all, is a Web site that attracts a mere 4 million visitors a month with its consumer ratings on e-tailers. Amazon.com Inc. has five times as many customers.

But if there's one trait that has served 31-year-old Mohit well in the four years since he dreamed up BizRate, brazenness would have to be it. Dressed in his standard uniform of jeans and torn sweatshirt, with his long hair loosely tied in a bun, Mohit looks more like a firebrand '60s student radical than the chairman of a corporation. And he acts more like it, too. Mohit frequently climbs atop a cubicle divider to deliver rousing state-of-the-company addresses to BizRate's employees. He has passionate shouting matches with colleagues. And he e-mails his workers inspirational poems to rev them up. The company's slogan is right in character: "Don't get e-screwed."