Entrepreneurial odd couples can make or break a company. In the case of Aerotec LLC, the chance meeting between two people of very different talents and temperaments saved the startup from certain death. It was October 1997. Clay Graham, a onetime Chicago business owner who was then evaluating potential investments for a venture capital friend, sat fidgeting in a conference room at the Sears Tower. He was listening to James Dow, a mechanical and aerospace engineer for 21 years at Alabama Power Co., make a pitch for his airborne surveying business. Dow droned on in detail about how a laser mounted on a helicopter could map electric utility power lines—noting, almost as an afterthought, that the gadget could provide better engineering drawings than traditional ground surveying, in less time and for the same price (and at a fraction of the cost of satellite pics). "It was an engineer's, not a business, presentation," says Graham.
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机译：创业的单身夫妻可以成败一家公司。就Aerotec LLC而言，两个天赋和性情截然不同的人之间的偶然会面使这家初创公司免于某些死亡。那是1997年10月。曾是芝加哥企业主的克莱·格雷厄姆（Clay Graham），当时正在为一个风险投资朋友评估潜在的投资，在西尔斯大厦的会议室坐立不安。他在阿拉巴马州电力公司（Alabama Power Co.）担任机械和航空工程师21年之久的詹姆斯·陶（James Dow）倾听其机载测量业务的意见。陶氏详细研究了安装在直升机上的激光器如何绘制电力线的图样，几乎是事后才想到，与传统的地面勘测相比，该装置可以在更短的时间内以相同的价格提供更好的工程制图（并且费用仅为卫星图片的一小部分）。格雷厄姆说：“这只是工程师的演讲，而不是商务的演讲。”
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