Not Out of Thin Air

Paul Gelinas admits that he wasn't ready to sell his company, Chicopee-based Air Express, in 2004 when a private equity group based in Chicago put on a full-court press for the venture.

He had just secured a chanel earrings new contract with Shell Oil that would place chanel earrings the coin-operated air machines he managed into another 1,500 gas-station/convenience-store operations, with two machines at each site. That would give him more than 10,000 machines total, or roughly a third of the massive--and growing--'air' market. At the time, he estimated that some machines were grossing upwards of $700 per month.

Gelinas told Business West that he wanted to assimilate the Shell machines and further expand his operation before entertaining thoughts of selling, but the equity group essentially made him an offer he couldn't refuse--a price that reflected where the company would be in two years, rather than where it was at that moment.

And so he moved on to the next chanel earrings stage of his career a little sooner than he expected. He was able to do so in large part because of the numbers he had compiled, as well, as the momentum gained from the Shell contract. But Air Express had other things going for it, especially those key ingredients known as transferability and sustainability.

In other words, said Gelinas, he had put in place a system that would enable Air Express to operate successfully without him at the helm. "I didn't want to be counting quarters my whole life, so I knew I needed a system."

Helping other companies create sustainability and transferability--and the value that comes with both--is the thrust behind a new company Gelinas has created called Vital Viewpoint Advisors. It represents just one of many ways that he is living up to the phrase he uttered several times as he talked with Business West: "Entrepreneurs do what entrepreneurs do."

In other words, and generally speaking, they don't head to the beach and relax with their windfall. Instead, they look for new challenges and opportunities to continually scratch that entrepreneurial itch, becoming both investors in new ventures and mentors to those trying to get new businesses off the ground or to that next level.

Gelinas has found several such opportunities, though Vital Viewpoint his work with the River Valley Investor Group as both member and investor, and several budding business ventures, ranging from a bulk-mail consolidation outfit called Zippy Blu, to a company that will supply machines to truck stops that will enable truckers to buy electricity and Internet connectivity for their sleeping bunks through a device attached to a side window like a speaker at a drive-in theater.

"It's a lot like Air Express in many ways," said Gelinas in reference to the truck-stop product, which should be ready for the market shortly. "But instead of selling air, we're selling heating, air conditioning, 110 power, and Internet."

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For this issue, BusinessWest looks at how a man who pulled a unique business concept out of thin air, or compressed air, as the case may be, is finding new and intriguing ways to do what entrepreneurs do, while helping local businesses at the same time.

Pressure Points

The "incognito entrepreneur."

That's the role Gelinas says he's played in a number of college courses in Entrepreneurship taught by friend, fellow omega watches Longmeadow resident