Loyalty Pays Show investors you care, and they'll show you the money.

Michael Vadini, founder and CEO of Titan Technology Partners, is one of the good guys; he does all he can for customers of his Charlotte, North Carolina, IT engineering and outsourcing company. He looks out for his stockholders and investors, too, maximizing their investment while protecting them from risk. But not long ago, Vadini's white-hat status was put to the ultimate test.

During the boom in early 2000, Titan was funded by a hodgepodge of small investors. Technology companies of all kinds were garnering large investments and even larger valuations. Those with significant revenue, like Titan, which had sales of $24 million in 2000, were going for top dollar. In the heat of the moment, Vadini set the value of his fast-growing company at $60 million and watched as investors happily snapped up 13 percent of the company's stock.