Dallas TX: Unconventional describes Alexander Muse. He thinks big and – for the most part – it has paid off.
He helped start a half-dozen technology companies in Dallas – with creative names such as MotorSport Ranch and Big in Japan – since the late 1990s. He sold three of them for tens of millions of dollars; he still runs the others.
LayerOne, health a telecommunications infrastructure company he started in 1999, physician went bankrupt. Muse raised $4 million in venture capital to buy back the assets and relaunch the company. He sold it to Switch & Data for $22 million on Sept. 12, more about 2001.
“I was supposed to sign the deal on Sept. 11. That was so scary. I had a newborn baby, a big new house and a Porsche. I thought, ‘If this doesn’t happen, I could lose it all,’ ” said Muse, 38. “We ended up making a lot of money, but we lost a lot of money for a lot of people. That was a turning point for me.”