Geoffrey Moore, Managing Director, The Chasm Group

It might surprise you to know that Geoffrey Moore, the man whose books have inspired and educated millions of entrepreneurs and executives, considers himself an investor and consultant before a writer.

It may also surprise you that Moore, the author of bestsellers Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado and Living On the Fault Line, doesn't consider himself a gadget guy or early technology adopter, despite being Silicon Valley's most sought-after market adviser. His cell phone is never on and only his wife, Marie, and his assistant know how to beep him.

Furthermore, Moore doesn't subscribe to the work-above-all lifestyle so many swear by. Twice each year, for example, he and Marie vacation in Hawaii with no cell phones, no beepers, no computers and no e-mail. "I cannot adopt the interrupt-driven lifestyle that so many of my colleagues have embraced," he says.

So how did he wind up being the sage of the Internet Age? Moore, a former English professor, identified market dynamics that would define the Internet era years before anyone else. In Chasm, for example, Moore identified a gap products and companies must cross before becoming hits.

Today, Moore writes, consults and invests. He's a venture partner with Mohr Davidow Ventures in Menlo Park, Calif. Some of the ventures he likes: Brigade, Critical Path and Siterock.

He also likes Internet service companies. Unlike others, he thinks service companies should concentrate on solving lower-level problems. It's thinking like that that keeps others up at night. Reading. And worrying.

Geoffrey Moore: Age 54

Years at company: 8

Education: Bachelor's, Literature, Stanford;

Ph.D., literature, University of Washington

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