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THE FIERCELY COMPETITIVE RONNING SHOWED THAT HE CAN LEARN FROM PAST MISTAKES
IT, WAS 1985 WHEN A GROUP OF INVESTORS SQUEEZED JOEL Ronning out of Mirror Technologies, an Apple peripherals company he had founded two years earlier.
Not a fond memory, but it was a defining moment for the entrepreneur, who admits he was unprepared at the time to handle the backroom operations of a company that went from zero to 150 employees in less than a year. Ronning formed a new venture called Tech Squared and went after Mirror with a vengeance, exhibiting some of the same competitiveness he displays after-hours in his passion for sailboat racing.
"He doesn't give you an inch," says Scott Erdmann, a sailing competitor who races against Ronning two to three times a week.
He didn't give Mirror an inch, either. Within three years, Ronning had acquired the company for what he calls a song. "There...