Cass Business School in the U.K. offers 18 master's programs, dubbed MSc degrees, in subjects such as investment management and management.

WSJ: Alternatives to the M.B.A. Becoming More Popular

Equally important, Saylor talked MIT fraternity brother Sanju K. Bansal, an Indian-born engineer with a master's in computer science, into leaving Booz, Allen to join him in the new business.

FORBES: Database evangelist

Like that time in 1990 when Thomas K. Figge got wind of a dozen wooden duck decoys carved by master craftsman Bert Graves that were just sitting, unloved, on the mantel of a funeral home near Bloomington, Ill.

FORBES: Duck Calls