Since Stargate would become an Internet service provider—a necessary entity, sure, but not too unusual a concept—Rosenson and the Ruscitto brothers never went public and made billions. But long before he turned 20, Rosenson was marketing his Web design services to some of the most powerful CEOs in town. “I was able to pay for school completely,” he says, proudly nodding toward the opposite wall with the Pitt bachelor’s degree, which his Web design work helped pay for. And because he was so busy juggling customer-service and design duties, Rosenson studied both full- and part-time and only recently received his diploma, in December of 2002. “I’m just like anyone who works,” he says, when asked what fuels his ambition. “I’m motivated.”

Of course, in an ailing economy, motivation can only take you so far. Stargate held on like a champ; it didn’t file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection until April of last year. The company was split into thirds: Earthlink bought a slice; A.C. Coy, a tech outfit from Cecil Township took another; and Expedient Holdings USA, LLC, an Internet and telecommunications provider with a large stable of corporate clients, took the third. That’s where Rosenson works today. “I help simplify complexities,” Rosenson says, in a valiant attempt to describe his current job. Today, Rosenson is 27, but he has the serious air of a man 10 years his senior. He talks about the challenges of his new position—officially, he’s a director—but, perhaps fittingly, says that he’d like to go into advertising and public relations someday. Why? “It’s the perception thing,” he explains. “You could be a nothing company, but with the right marketing, have the best perception in the world.”

A week and a half later, Rosenson is in Cleveland on business. Expedient has operations there, too, as well as in Boston, New York, Seattle, San Diego and more than a dozen other markets. As he talks on a cell phone and makes his way to dinner at a downtown restaurant, it’s clear from the concrete tone of his voice that for the first time in years, the future looks truly stable: no bubbles to be burst, no funding to dry up. After all, Expedient, which delivers Internet service support to a large cluster of established companies (American Express, The Discovery Channel, Staples), is quite a different animal than was Stargate, which was funded largely by the dream of two young brothers, who hedged its success on the whims of an even younger—and certainly more volatile—tech industry.
But now for the hard questions: Where’s the tech industry heading? Is it possible for kids with a smart tech idea today to make money?
“I think yes and no,” Rosenson offers. When Stargate was first gaining steam, of course, tech was the wild frontier. “And everyone, just like us, was just figuring it out,” he continues. “I would say yes, in the sense that something else is coming along.”

Such as? “Who knows?” he answers, good-naturedly. “I can’t answer that. But I think it’s going to be a need that’s not already being met in the marketplace,” he remarks, now waiting for a table in the restaurant. “I think it’s unfair to compare 1994 to today. Because at that point, we were really up, and then we went down. And now, I think we’re going up again.”

B.J. Pinchbeck, who has just finished a clerking shift at a New Brighton-area pharmacy, where he works after school, couldn’t agree more. “Definitely,” he says. “You just have to think about what would help people. If you can market that, I think it would sell.”

These days, another of B.J.’s fascinations is the field of robotics. “Think about when people started using calculators,” he offers. “They didn’t have to use the abacus anymore, and that made life easier. Now just think about if a robot did the dishes….”

Meeting a need. Finding a hole in the marketplace. Turns out, that’s not all Pinchbeck and Rosenson agree on. They’re also both quick to admit the serendipity of their respective situations—getting in and getting out, as it were, at just the right time. “I think we were extremely lucky,” says Pinchbeck. “I look back, and I think the way the site is now, it might not sell.”

And here’s Rosenson, talking about the turn his life has taken: “What happened with Stargate was disappointing,” he acknowledges, but says he’s better off in his role at Expedient: “I think I’ve found a role that I’m well-suited for.”

Clearly, the future looks bright, especially for Pinchbeck, who still has a year of high school and four years of college to tackle before he can truly take on the world. But has all the attention—all the media exposure—caused him to think of young success and the adult world in a different light? “Yeah,” he admits, “but not in a bad way. Like, I could go to Disneyworld and not get mauled. I don’t feel like I’ve missed anything. I definitely lived my childhood.”

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