That's How Profile of eHow.com

Courtney Rosen would have to research how to boil an egg. But ifyou ask her how to start a company--well, she can sum it up inabout nine steps. Explaining thousands of useful (and random) tasksin the most basic of terms is the specialty of eHow.com, her1-year-old San Francisco start-up that was born out of Rosen'sattempts to fix her own inline skates. Don't let theReader's Digest version of her success fool you, though.She calculated every step forward. With eHow.com's salesprojected to reach the "double-digit millions" this year,it's safe to say Rosen did her math.

"I knew I wanted this," Rosen says, "so I puttogether building blocks in terms of education and getting solidexperience that would set me up for it." First an MBAeducation from UCLA, then a managerial position in Internetstrategy consulting with Andersen Consulting. "It was agrind," she says. "I traveled practically every week fortwo-and-a-half years. But without that experience, I couldn'thave done what I'm doing."

Actually taking the leap from Andersen to eHow.com was the hardpart. She and Jeff Tinker, 31, a former Andersen colleague--nowhusband and vice president of operations--had devised businessplans before, but this one was unique. "I turned to Jeff oneday, and for about the 150th time, I said, `Do you really thinkthis is a good idea?' " recalls Rosen. Her 150thboost of confidence set in after he told her she'd be stupid ifshe didn't try it.