Electrifying Shockwave

In the past five years, Lawrence Levy has attracted loads of attention in the Valley as Steve Jobs's right-hand man and chief financial officer of Pixar Animation Studios (PIXR). Levy orchestrated the computer filmmaker's partnership with Walt Disney Co. (DIS) that yielded the Oscar-winning Toy Story. He shepherded the company through a $140 million initial public offering in 1995 and extended Pixar's Disney contract to include five more films.

These days, Levy is on his own as chief executive of entertainment site Shockwave.com. Just four months into the job, he's out to find another winning formula, even though he's up against some long odds. Shockwave is struggling to find itself in a niche where rivals are falling by the wayside, unable to pull in enough revenues or raise money to get off the ground.