Joel Ronning: Founder & CEO, Digital River

Despite the current economic slump, e-commerce services provider Digital River hasn't faltered. It has shown consistent revenue growth since its founding in 1994. The company, which started out packaging and delivering software electronically, created an e-commerce and software-services division soon thereafter. Unlike its peers, Digital River shied away from working with dot coms, instead targeting established companies looking for a way to get to the Web. Then came a successful IPO bid in 1998 and more than $57 million in revenue in 2000. Throughout its history, CEO Joel Ronning has been at the helm. Today, the company provides services to more than 10,000 clients, including established brands such as Fujitsu, Major League Baseball, Nabisco and Symantec. And it beat Wall Street expectations for its third quarter with $14 million in revenue, an 84 percent year-over-year increase. Perhaps more impressive, gross margins increased to 79 percent as well.

So, what makes Ronning a visionary? The courage to look ahead to another growth period. His company has made eight strategic purchases to date, including the assets of e-business outsourcing providers Orbit Commerce and RegSoft."What we are trying to do is build mass," Ronning says.