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Back in 1993, Don Alvarez was an auditor with Deloitte\u2019s San Francisco office when specialty retailer and coveted client company West Marine went public.

For Alvarez, the day began with WM\u2019s management explicating the novel steps behind pricing its offering, which was followed by the requisite trip to a Bay Area printer.

The long day turned into a long night, so there was little hesitation on Alvarez\u2019s part when West Marine\u2019s CFO offered him a lift back to the accounting house\u2019s office. 

Still, the night would turn out to have even more to offer the young auditor. Alvarez remembers that as they were arriving in downtown San Francisco at about 2:00 a.m., WM\u2019s CFO suddenly pulled his car over to the curb and turned to him.   

Recalls Alvarez: \u201cHe looked at me and said, \u2018I am now the CFO of a public company and I have no talent in my organization with public company experience\u2014will you come and work for me?\u2019\u201d 

Looking back, Alvarez reports that he did not hesitate to issue a \u201cyes\u201d right on the spot, which was a welcome reply that put in motion a formal job offer that allowed him to land inside the retailer\u2019s controller office in the following January.

Of course, the retail landscape was about to be altered as Amazon (established in 1994) and other shopping destinations began to appear online.  

\u201cI heard Amazon coming, loud and clear,\u201d notes Alvarez, who would exit WM in 2007 to step into the CFO office at a dotcom retailer known as FatBrain.com.

\u201cWe were selling technical reference books on the Internet, whereas Amazon was selling all books,\u201d remarks Alvarez, who adds that he was only 32 when he became FatBrain.com\u2019s 30th employee hire.

\u201cWe were told that we would be taking the company public in 18 months, and instead we took it public in about nine,\u201d comments Alvarez, who still marvels at the notion of an economy where capital seemed to be available around every corner.

Says Alvarez: \u201cI remember being chastised by a venture capitalist because I was too prudent with money\u2014he gave me a lecture on how these were unprecedented times and all that we needed to do is spend, spend, spend.\u201d \u2013Jack Sweeney