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Not all the new dot-com executives are recent college grads who got their start working out of a garage or back bedroom. Steve Ferlitta has been working in the insurance industry since 1977. Last year, he founded eGroupBenefits.com, an Internet-based employee benefits company in Roseville that specializes in serving small and medium-sized companies.
The company, which has received two rounds of financing from venture capitalists and institutional investors totaling $21.5 million, went online in March, and currently has about 60 businesses signed on with an average of 10 employees per account. EGroupBenefits.com occupies a 10,000 square-foot facility in Roseville and has some 40 employees.
BACKGROUND
* Age: 45
* Companies: President and CEO of Fertitta & Associates, Inc., an employee benefit firm founded in 1983; CEO and founder of eGroupBenefits.com, an Internet-based employeebenefits company founded in 1999.
* Education: B.S. in business administration, California State University Sacramento (1980); master's degree in taxation from Golden Gate University (1985)
* Lives in: Granite Bay
* Born in: Santa Rosa
* Wife: Stacie
* Children: 2-year-old Austin Giovanni, newborn daughter Kyleigh
* Professional organizations' Past president of Silicon Valley Health Underwriters
* Wheels: 1998 navy blue BMW 740il; 1999 white convertible Porsche Carerra; 2000 white Lincoln Navigator
THE BUSINESS
What company does: "We're an Internet-based employeebenefits company. Fertitta & Associates is the brick-andmortar version. With our product, an employer can get all their insurance rates,...