Brian Javeline didn't just have a paper route when he was 12, he managed several, taking a cut from each of his ``employees.'' He then modified the formula with flea market booths on the weekends. By the time he was old enough to drive, he was building businesses.

For Javeline, a Long Island-born techie, entrepreneurship always came naturally, he says. Now living in Coral Springs, he is in the process of co-founding his fourth technology company, MyOnlineToolbox.com.

``It's like the firefighter who needs the fires to keep stimulated -- that's my environment,'' said Javeline, 44. ``I am always envisioning how to do something better.''

In his mind, making money was the only option after the breakup of his parents' marriage, even though it meant fudging his birth date to get that first paper route. In high school, Javeline was ``the ticket guy,'' once netting thousands in a few hours for the Jackson 5 Victory Tour. In college, he hawked trips to Fort Lauderdale, reaping free spring break treks for himself and friends.

While at Stony Brook University in New York, he became intrigued with how computers work and earned a degree in computer science.

A DIFFERENT PATH

After graduating, Javeline planned to work on smart missiles for the Marines, but color blindness nixed this dream. A couple weeks later, he fell into his first big entrepreneurial venture with a contact in the apparel industry. Naysayers said he didn't know how to run a business, but he and a small team set up a business management system for order processing, production and accounting for apparel manufacturers including Hanes and bebe. He shuttled between New York, where Accelerated Computer Technologies was based, and Fort Lauderdale, his new home.

Riding high on the success, Javeline started his next venture, WebTML, with some of the same group that started ACT. There were lots of proverbial 14-15 hour days and sleepless nights while the team created a rapid-development tool for the Internet programming language Java. ``The motivation was the highest it has been in my life,'' Javeline recalls.

But a better-financed competitor came out first. Then came the tech crash of 2000. ``I felt like I was cheated. I saw my vision so clear, but now there were so many obstacles before me.''

That venture failed.

But in a consulting gig with JP Morgan during its merger with Chase, Javeline was able to use the WebTML technology and also learned about the private equity market, which would become the client base for his next venture: InvestmentCafe.

Despite naysayers who said he couldn't crack that market without the MBA and financial world connections, InvestmentCafe gained clients fast, including The Carlyle Group, one of the biggest in the industry. He sold his share of the company -- he says both ACT and InvestmentCafe were multimillion-dollar firms, profitable and debt free -- to finance MyOnlineToolbox.com, a job management platform for the contracting industry.

MyOnlineToolbox.com manages estimates, change orders, scheduling and invoices, facilitating communication among contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and customers.

THE NAME GAME

The parent company is ServusXchange.com, a name he and some fellow techies dreamed up. ``No one remembers it, they spell it wrong. It just doesn't resonate,'' he says now. Since he couldn't easily undo the parent name, he changed the name of the key product, which he came up with while sitting on a F-150, eyeing the driver's toolbox.

He's not profitable yet, but user sign-ups have grown from under 100 at the end of 2008 to 700 now, ahead of target. Last month, he was named one of the Top 20 Most Promising Companies in America by Forbes.

His angel investors hail from California, Minnesota, New Jersey, Canada and Britain, and he has raised $2 million so far, halfway to his goal. Last week, he was closing a deal with his first Florida investor.

Still, his frustration with the tech-investing climate in the Southeast stings. ``Many business people have more than enough financial means to support the entrepreneurial spirit of America and simply forget where they came from after they have made it big,'' he says. His ultimate goal is to be a mentor and angel investor for young entrepreneurs.

It's important to him to be there for his wife and two daughters, ages 7 and 8, including coaching their soccer teams. His employees know not to expect communication during dinner, homework and other family time.

His advice to would-be entrepreneurs is this: ``Every day you need to be open minded about learning how to build, market, see, finance, support and even let your idea go -- preferably as an exit strategy for your investors.

``You need to accept the fact that many things are beyond your control. You take the cards dealt and then make decisions, try new things, learn from your mistakes and continue on.''

And ignore those naysayers.

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