David Perry, President and CEO, Ventro

Three-and-one-half short years ago, Ventro (nee Chemdex) was little more than a well-thumbed business plan sitting on the hard drive of entrepreneur and Harvard Business School grad David Perry.

Today, Ventro is widely regarded as the most significant driving force in the market for online, B2B e-commerce exchanges. That market is forecasted by Gartner Group to exceed $7.3 trillion globally by 2004.

Not bad for a 32-year-old who concedes Ventro wound up being "nothing like I envisioned three years ago."

Chemdex started as one of the first online business-to-business marketplaces. Perry's goal was to create a way for thousands of buyers to more easily link up with sellers via the Internet. A B2B exchange for life sciences products, Chemdex was just a starting point. To make the most of its steep investments into technology, the company decided to enter other vertical markets. Ventro companies now include Amphire Solutions (food service), Broadlane (health care supplies), Industria (energy and chemical plant equipment), MarketMile (business products and services) and Promedix (specialty medical supplies), plus a European arm of Chemdex known as Ventro Life Sciences.

Perry says he now understands the benefits of partnerships and of serving multiple markets. In fact, he no longer considers his company to be an exchange company, but rather a "marketplace service provider."

The company gets paid transaction fees, service revenue and license fees for its services. Not that Perry hasn't felt pressure. His stock started trading in July 1999 at $15 per share, shot up to $243.50 in February, then skidded to a low of $3.63 in October. "I'm getting older quickly," he concedes, "but I still love this stuff."

David Perry: Age 32

Years at company: 3

Education: Bachelor's, Chemical Engineering, University of Tulsa; M.B.A., Harvard Business School