Soft Sell How two brothers with an idea for a better tissue got in the game with the big boys--and didn't get flushed.

Everywhere we went, people told us it couldn't be done-- andthat if it could be done, it would've been done by now,"says Willy Paterson-Brown, 33. But Paterson-Brown and his brother,Tim, 38, weren't discouraged by the naysayers. TheScottish-born entrepreneurs attacked the task ahead of them withthe underdog fervor of David challenging Goliath--carving out aplace for their upstart company among the tissue industry'sbiggest players.

Seattle-based Linters Inc., the company the brothers founded in1994, is the maker of Purely Cotton, the world's first and only100 percent cotton tissue products. The bottom line? Lastyear's limited regional distribution of Purely Cotton productsbrought in sales of $14 million, and the brothers estimate that thedeployment of national distribution later this year will tripletheir company's annual sales.

Willy and Tim could sense from the beginning that they had awinner. After all, America is crazy about cotton, from wearing itto sleeping on it. And why wouldn't health-conscious andenvironmentally aware consumers take just as keenly to the use of aless-abrasive renewable resource in their facial tissues and toiletpaper? And here's the kicker--it's not toilet paperat all. Goodbye, wood pulp: Says Willy, "The beauty of the rawmaterial of cotton is it's just so much better for theskin."