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risk takers
SOMETIMES executive conservatism pays-even in the roller coaster world of Web business. Case in point: Two years ago when Larry Gerhard, CEO of online wineseller eVmeyard decided to cooperate with, rather than buck, the wine industry's complex distribution laws, prospective venture capitalists and fast-moving rivals like Wine.com and WineShopper.com might have laughed at his slowgrowth approach.
Since then, Wine.com and WineShopper.com merged to survive-and eVineyard scooped up Wme.com, the combined company, in April 2001. How? eVineyard concentrated on slowly building "logistics centers" that comply with state wine...