As the owners saw their control over the players slowly slip through their fingertips, Miller created a model of unionization that is still the gold standard in sports.

FORBES: Disappointments And Unfinished Business Highlight Baseball's Winter Meetings

He wanted a classy desk chair that would compete with the established master of back support, Herman Miller's Aeron model.

FORBES: The Chair Men

That business model sounds familiar, said Miller, of the American Aviation Institute.

CNN: 2022: Cheap flights, more rail and hands-free cars

Sometimes, Jette said, soldiers wanted an 80-pound workhorse like a model built by Foster-Miller of Waltham, which was also tested in Afghanistan.

MSN: New robots well trained for war

In the end, however, focusing on the API business model may ultimately have paid off for Miller, pushing him to develop a robust technology that can also be used in other verticals.

FORBES: Punchfork CEO Shares Lessons From Its Big Recipe Data Business Model

Rhett Miller ought to be a household name by now: With model-esque good looks, considerable stage presence, and an arsenal of catchy pop songs, the charismatic frontman for alt-country favorite Old 97's doesn't want for raw materials.

NPR: Rhett Miller: 'Serial Ladykiller,' Lovelorn Crooner

Miller's current company is a pure NT environment using a multiple-master domain model.

CNN: The rebirth of Novell

The Chicago native earned a finance doctorate at the University of Chicago in the early 1970s, when he worked with advisors like Nobel Prize winner Merton Miller and Fischer Black and Myron Scholes, coauthors of the Black-Scholes options pricing model.

FORBES: Money & Investing