Eric Adolphe, CEO of Optimus

Eric Adolphe works without a safety net so that others don't have to. When he founded mobile public safety solutions firm Optimus in 1992, banks and venture capital firms declined to offer financial assistance. So to pay expenses and salaries, Adolphe racked up more than $200,000 in personal credit card bills and moonlighted as a telemarketer and pizza delivery guy to scrape by.

The gamble paid off: A decade later, Optimus' clients include NASA, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency. “Public safety is our business,” said Adolphe, now the company's CEO. “And right now, our business is quite good.”

Most recently, Optimus launched Michael's Fire and EMS, a wireless software solution that allows emergency service dispatchers to track and direct ambulances via global positioning systems. Upon arrival at an accident scene, emergency teams can enter critical patient data into wireless handhelds that transmit the information to local hospitals and health departments, in some instances even the Centers for Disease Control. In response, rescue workers receive instructions for treatment and disease containment — all in real time.

“EMTs live and die by response time — they call it the golden hour,” Adolphe said. “Any seconds and minutes we can shave increases the probability of saving lives.”

Brooklyn-born Adolphe began his high-tech career at just 16 years old when he was one of 12 students nationwide selected for a Federal Aviation Administration engineering internship. After graduating from City College of New York in 1988, he returned to the FAA full-time. His Mini-Telecommunications Demarcation System, which monitors links between pilots and air traffic controllers, is now found in every air traffic control facility in the nation. It also earned him a spot in a National Inventor's Hall of Fame exhibit dedicated to women and minority innovators.

“For a kid from the inner city to get involved in developing technology to save lives,” Adolphe said, “that's a powerful and romantic thing.”