Mika Salmi: Net Movie Mogul

When the internet bubble burst in 2000, it deflated a bunch of video-related startups. Staging a comeback just as giants such as Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO ) were placing their own bets on video required a strong stomach and a stadium-sized ego. Mika Salmi had both. "I guess I just wasn't smart enough to realize people wouldn't use the Internet to watch entertainment," jokes the 40-year-old founder and CEO of Atom Entertainment Inc. Today, the company's two Web sites, shockwave.com and atomfilms.com, reach more than 28 million unique users a month with games, edgy cartoons, political lampoons, and other shorts. About 4 million of them log on specifically to watch the films -- making atomfilms.com one of the Net's most successful independent movie sites.

Atom takes its personality from the gung ho Salmi, a six-foot-two-inch extreme sports fan and entertainment addict. The son of a former Finnish hockey pro, Salmi worked as a ski instructor and party DJ while getting a degree in finance at the University of Wisconsin in 1987. Intent on joining the music business, he sent 125 letters to New York record labels and was rejected by each before getting a foot in the door at TVT Records as a database manager. His big break came in 1989: On a late-night excursion to a local club, he discovered and signed the rock band Nine Inch Nails.