The Thinkers

Ok, so you're a go-getting, bright entrepreneur who needs help creating a business plan to charm the pants off a generous VC. But you don¹t have the cash for a pricey consultant, so you call on the brigade of entrepreneurs from growthink.com LLC (formerly BestBizPlan.com), the launching pad for the digital marketplace.

Located in Venice, California, this 10-month-old start-up, founded by University of California, Los Angeles MBAs Dave Lavinsky, 29, and Jay Turo, 31, allows Net start-ups to tap into the brains of its staff--also driven MBAs--at far lower rates than competitors. Co-developing the best plans, growthink.com has grown into an incubator-type model, taking start-ups through venture formation and providing funding and support services on an out-of-house basis. "We are basically a laboratory," says Lavinsky. "We take our clients' ideas and refine them based on the industries and the competition." Their pricing model includes upfront cash and equity portions; the financing completion fee varies.

And with their ever-expanding network of investors and the advantage of being intimately involved in the start-up process of hundreds of businesses, the partners have become veritable experts on how to run an Internet firm. "What's great about [this] is that it's really creative," says Lavinsky. "It's just awesome and it's fun."