Novich says he still works from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the week, plus time on Saturdays, though he admits to spending time on weekends handling billing and fielding e-mails and calls.

FORBES: Entrepreneurs

About half of U.S. homes are on equalized billing programs that even out power bills month to month and are the antithesis of real-time pricing programs.

FORBES: Energy

The first time the terminal is switched on, it directs web surfers to a portal where they enter their billing information and choose which voice or data package they want.

ECONOMIST: MONITOR