Randi Hecht faced a big decision as she completed her degree in business management at the University of Nevada, Reno.
She had an offer on the table to work in the recruiting department of a large manufacturing company where she had interned.
Or she could strike out on her own and form a company that provides quality, real-time transcription services to people with impaired hearing.
"The far-reaching dream won out over the safe course," says Hecht, who's now the 23-year-old chief executive officer of Reno-based Intellitext LLC.
Eager to share what she's learned and equally eager to learn what she can from other chief executives who are still in their 20s Hecht is one of the co-founders of a northern Nevada chapter of Under 30 CEO.
It's expected to be the first chapter in the West for the organization.
More than 40 young executives showed up last week for an organizational meeting, drawn by a combination of old-fashioned personal contacts and new-fashioned social networking through Facebook.
Jigar Patel, who began last summer to spearhead development of the Under 30 CEO chapter in Reno, says the group intends to help young entrepreneurs transform their ideas into profitable companies.
The 27-year-old Patel, for instance, is developing TrepSift, a Sparks company that creates software to match angel investors and venture-capital firms with promising startups.
But the group won't be open to everyone who has a bright idea, Patel says.
He says members will be vetted to make sure they're serious about creating businesses and have the entrepreneurial drive to make it happen.
And despite the group's name, some of the members are likely to be in their 30s, says co-founder Zachary Draper, president of Sparks-based Zadra Inc., a Web-development company.
The 26-year-old Draper launched his company four years ago and continues to build it while he holds down a day job at a nonprofit group in Reno. He also built the new chapter's Web site, renounder30ceo.org.
Draper said he hopes the new organization will provide opportunities for his small company to develop partnerships and vendor relationships with other small companies in northern Nevada.
Hecht, meanwhile, says she hopes her work with the new organization can help reduce some of the fear that she felt when she launched Intellitext.
"The risk that I had missed a step was daunting, and daily, I was haunted with mental images of dire consequences that would surely come if I had missed any necessary steps or legalities in my business' s setup," she says. "I plan to make entrepreneurship a lifelong career, and I look forward to assisting others in doing the same."
