Recipe for Success Smart partnering can transform a lone inventor into a market force.

TheEntrepreneur: Michael Karyo, 35, founder of SiliconeZoneUSA in New York City

ProductDescription: Karyo's company produces a line of siliconebakeware cooking tools with superior heat transfer and nonstickproperties. The odor-resistant products, priced from $15 to $25apiece, let users bake more efficiently, thanks to such features aseven cooling and heat distribution. Silicone products had been usedin commercial kitchens previously, but Karyo was the first tocreate a consumer line.

Startup:$70,000 to $80,000 from Karyo, before the product was formallyintroduced in 2002; tooling costs of $70,000 to $80,000, from hisengineering partner/manufacturer