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Like the Energizer Bunny, tech entrepreneur Clarence Wooten Jr. just keeps going and going and going.
He spent most of his 20s starting and growing tech companies: Soft Ideas, Envision Designs, Metamorphosis Studios. Now, at 28, he's scored a hit with ImageCafe, which was acquired by Network Solutions for eight figures in November.
"There's nothing more exciting than taking something that's just an idea in your head and turning it into a viable business," said Wooten, who has to stay at Network Solutions three years for his options to mature.
As part of the deal, Wooten shed his entrepreneurial skin and slipped into corporate America - but for how long? The sparkle in his eye and the excitement in his voice when he talks about founding companies makes it hard to believe he'll answer to someone else for too much longer.
"He is the epitome of the true entrepreneur," said Corinna Moebius, a friend of Wooten's. "He saw a need. He believed in his ability to fulfill that need."
The 6'3" exec defies the computer nerd stereotype: He went to college o a basketball scholarship. "People laugh at that," he said. "They say, 'Well he's in the computer business so he must have been a nerd all of his life."'
The nerd lifestyle has taken its toll, he said. "I think I've put on some pounds from being behind the desk setting up ImageCafe."
But at the rate he moves - and the number of startups under his belt - it's tough to imagine Wooten sitting still for long. Still,...