New Starts

New Starts

By Sean Roth

Real Estate Editor

In the world of positive experiences, a major car crash doesnit normally make the list. Life changing, yes, but not typically positive. But then again, Anand Pallegar isnit your typical entrepreneur.

By the time he was 19, Pallegar was working in the world of Internet-based marketing with the likes of Ford Motor Co., Chrysler, General Motors and other Fortune 500 companies. That changed with a car crash in 2003 that forced him into recovery for nearly a year. For Pallegar, that year gave him perspectiv.

Pallegar, 26, is now a Sarasota resident and co-founder o with GCBR contributing writer Kendall Jones o of Startup Sarasota, a non-profit economic development company. So far, the extent of the startupis efforts has been creating S2, a daily e-mail collection of business stories linked to its authorsi Web sites, but Pallegar, who is consciously tight-lipped, is emphatic there is more on the way.

Pallegar also plans to expand the client base of the 3-year-old interactive-media company atLarge Inc., which he started in Detroit. The technology company provides interactive computer programs for kiosks, technical strategies, Web sites and more.

Pallegar grew up in Preston, England o a city in Lancashire. In 1994, his family moved to the United States, but Pallegar remained in the United Kingdom. A visit to America hooked him.

iI just fell in love,i he says. iI think it was the opportunity and the very notion of all these businesses.i

Pallegar attended the University of Michigan. Unsure of a major, he migrated from geography to biochemistry and then to business. iThe whole digital movement had really just started,i he says. iAt the time, I was bartending in Grosse Pointe. One of guys from the early days of the Web in Detroit used to come into the bar. He founded one of the first Web-hosting companies. I was always curious; so he and I became friends. He wasnit that smart; so I wondered how hard can it really be?i

The learning curve wasnit as easy as Pallegar envisioned. For one, he had never used a computer. Prior to college, Pallegar had never even typed a paper. But Pallegar bought a computer.

iThe keyboard took a little work to learn,i Pallegar says. But he was soon proficient enough to build Web sites for smaller companies. From 1998 to 2000, Pallegar ran Atlas Networks Inc.

iIt was my first taste of doing business in America,i he says. iI thought at the time that what I was doing had a big impact. Now I know how insignificant it was, but it was great experience.i

Eight months later, that company led Pallegar to a job as a consultant for the Munich, Germany-based, Internet-marketing firm Eye4U active media.

iThey were really a landlord on the Web,i he says. iI was learning how to create a presence. At this point, I was pretty much done with college.i

After a year, Pallegar followed Patrick Sarkissian and Matt Mason from Eye4U to Sarkissianis startup interactive media company, theFurious. Although it remained a five-person firm, the companyis revenues were considerable, Pallegar says.

iIt taught me some very important lessons about the corporate world,i he says. iI stayed there for a year. I was fortunate to work with them. In 2000, we were one of the leaders in interactive branding.i

Restless, Pallegar left the company.

iI wasnit sure whether I wanted to go back to school or what I wanted to do,i he says. iI just knew I needed a break.i

After four or five months, Pallegar started the Internet/software marketing firm atLarge in the basement of his home. The new firm focused exclusively on interactive media.

His first client was Interior Dynamics, the fourth largest interior furnishing company in Detroit. Pallegar also managed to continue the business relationship he had cultivated with Benson Ford and continued work with the Ford Motor Co. Other clients soon followed, and Pallegar relocated his firm to downtown Detroit.

Pallegar also was introduced to Jeff and Richard Sloan, who had just created an organization for high-tech businesses in Detroit.

iThey were looking for a new agency to house the concept,i Pallegar says. iWe partnered with them. The initial idea was to drive traffic to the site through the Web and through radio. The concept was based on promoting the Digital Drive as a major technology center in southeast Michigan.i

Although still relatively small, atLarge attracted attention nationally. Pallegar planned to eventually move the company to New York City.

Then fate changed his path. Pallegar was in a car accident on his way to work.

iI had just been working myself too hard,i he says.

Pallegaris face slammed into the SUVis steering wheel. Three surgeries later, he was unable to speak through his broken jaw and unable to see out of his left eye.

He had 18 fractured facial bones. His doctor told him it was likely his eye, paralyzed by an earlier surgery, might not recover.

At the same time, he was making major decisions for the future of his company.

iI wasnit prepared,i Pallegar says, ibut I knew I had to be proactive. I was the face of the company. I had always kept my cards close to my chest in my business. So there was really no one else who could handle the decisions I usually made. I wound up releasing most of our clients and keeping only the ones we could handle internally.i

He moved back with his parents, who had relocated Bradenton.

iIt really gave me time to reflect,i Pallegar says. iAs much as I loved Detroit, I never had any family there.i

Did he get depressed? iNo,i Pallegar says. iJust about nothing ever gets me down. I knew I was still going to be OK.i

After a year, Pallegar made an almost complete recovery.

iAfter I had healed and was presentable, I went back up to Detroit for meetings,i he says. iAt the same time, I was getting a better look around Sarasota.i

Pallegar found a coffee shop building in the middle of the Towles Court neighborhood.

iI had always dreamed of retiring to the south of France and opening a cafE on the Riviera,i Pallegar says.

In March, Pallegar purchased the 6,400-square-foot building at 238 Links Ave. S. for $440,000. He opened the front of the building as Le Cafe Du Jardin, and the two main offices in the back are designated for Startup Sarasota and atLarge.

iThere were a few clients that kept working with me through the ordeal, such as the Sloan brothers and Benson Ford,i Pallegar says. iI owe them a lot. I had always been lost before and looking for something new. The accident really helped me find what I had been wanting to do.i