.Com Dreams

Gordon Sharp-Bolster didn't come to Richmond to try to start a dot-com empire. He came to play the saxophone.

But this 35-year-old Church Hill resident now says, "I know life is what happens when you're making other plans."

The fateful call came five years ago when some old college friends called him out of the blue with a plan.

"They wanted me to come to Richmond and play saxophone in their band," he says with a smile. "Well, that fell through."

He left the fast life in New York City, where he sold ads for outfits such as the New York Post and Fortune Magazine, and moved to Richmond.

"I did the corporate thing in New York for six years," he said. "I thought that's where I wanted to be, but it wasn't my cup of tea."

So what was the Roanoke College grad to do?

"I was by the pool one day," he says as if delivering a sales pitch, "and I asked myself: What do I do with my life?"

The long and short of that answer, he says, was to start his own business -- well, three of them, actually.

Sharp-Bolster is the president and founder of YourDoorMat.com and ExpressCarmats, as well as his own house-painting operation. Each begets the other, he said.

"As president," he says, "I'm also chief pencil pusher." The Market's Beneath Your Feet At first, Sharp-Bolster wanted to market custom-made car mats over the Internet. He had hatched the plan while researching the little-heard of industry of door-mat manufacturing.

(Ty Bowers / richmond.com)

Everyone needs a doormat, right?

"While I was researching door mats, I kept finding a lot places selling car mats," he said. "So I called some guys I knew in the auto parts business in New York and pitched them the idea."

His New York contacts had pioneered ExpressAutoParts.com , the largest online store for auto parts in the country.

"They were very intrigued with the idea," Sharp-Bolster said, so he drafted a plan and they tried to sell the mats online.

"Was it a great success?" Sharp-Bolster says. "No."

But it was exposure to the car market at no cost.

Now, Sharp-Bolster has forged a working partnership with Richmond Ford to sell his car mats, which can be embroidered with anything from sports logos to business logos, and can fit any car make or model.

Sharp-Bolster said he only hopes he can make it work. He's playing it safe, he says, by using an existing market infrastructure, which keeps his out-of-pocket costs low.

That's a good thing right now because money's tight for this aspiring dot-com magnate.

"I'm painting houses right now," he said, laughing. "That kind of un-sexifies all this e-business stuff."

Door mats, Sharp-Bolster thinks, are another potential goldmine. It's similar to the car mat concept, he says, in that the market's still beneath your feet.

Sharp-Bolster sells custom-embroidered door mats to online customers, a venture that's yet to show a significant profit.

"I'd like this to happen faster," he says of his mat ventures, "but I'm very comfortable with crawling before I walk."

So, a typical day for Sharp-Bolster entails a few wardrobe changes.

Last Friday, for example, Sharp-Bolster began his

day in a suit at a sales meeting at Richmond Ford. He then packed his black 1995 Volkswagen Jetta full of painting supplies and heading out to raise a little capital.

"I'm struggling every month to pay my bills. That makes all this very real for me," he said. "But I can do all this with a little attitude and what you call balls."

Not watching the stock market too closely helps as well. A Family of Entreprenuers Sharp-Bolster was born in Greenwich, Conn., to parents who instilled the entrepreneurial bug in him at an early age. Success was paramount.

In fact, Sharp-Bolster's resume is a list of some interesting ventures.

(Ty Bowers / richmond.com)

Painter by day, doormat magnate by night, Gordon Sharp-Bolster has few entrepreneurial boundaries.

As a history and French major fresh out of college, he landed an improbable job as a market analyst for Citibank's Ireland branch. Then he went to New York for six years of hard-nose, highly competitive work in ad sales.

"I was always afraid of it," he says of New York. "But I won't write off my experience there. I learned a lot about big, hard business."

However, the move to Richmond was a welcomed change, he says.

"I figured I'd be in a city I didn't have to escape every weekend. I love it down here."

Still, another big move looms in his future.

His father, Desmond, and mother, Melanie, have started a business of their own in Ireland.

The pair headed back to the Sharp-Bolsters' island of descent and fixed up the old family homestead, turning it into a successful bed and breakfast.

The inn, Glenlohane , is a "private home for paying guests," Sharp-Bolster says, adding that some day he'll want to take over its operation. Some day.

And it will probably have lots of doormats.

For now, he's content to pursue his own opportunities. He sees himself as part of an opportunistic generation.

"And I was born with the opportunistic gene," he says. Do you or a friend have a "real" job and also an idea you're trying on the Internet? If so, send e-mail to Ty Bowers and let him know how you plan to become the next .com millionaire.