Doubling up on the North Carolina 100.

• Position: Steven M. Mariano, founder of Strategic Outsourcing Inc. and Managed Care USA Inc.

When Steve Mariano and his wife, Nancy, arrived in Charlotte in 1991, all their possessions were jammed in their black Chevy Blazer. Nancy was pregnant with their first child. And Steve had burned much of their savings on a failed effort to buy a small Raleigh insurance company, which he won't name.

Mariano, 35, grew up in insurance. His dad owns an agency in Vineland, N.J. He'd worked there four years after graduating from Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa., in 1986, with a bachelor's in political science and economics. He knew he wanted to own a business. But after the Raleigh deal tanked, he wasn't going to try another acquisition and watch lawyers chew through the rest of his cash. So in 1991, with a little less than $5,000, he started Charlotte-based Strategic Outsourcing Inc., an employee-leasing company.

SOI has boomed, expecting sales of $400 million this year. In 1994, it led to Mariano starting Charlotte-based Managed Care USA Inc., which partners with insurers to offer workers' comp coverage and manages claims for companies. He sold his controlling interest in SOI this year, but the two companies give him claim to founding two entries on this year's NC 100, No. 14 and No. 74.

Back when he started SOI, Mariano had planned on being a benefits consultant. "But one of our first clients said, 'How about hiring my employees and letting me focus on sales, marketing and distribution?' That way, we were handling all state and federal taxes, workers' comp, health, retirement benefits, everything." Early on, most of his employees were warehouse and construction workers.

The blue-collar focus meant higher risk of on-the-job injuries, so Mariano found himself spending a lot of time and money on workers' comp. This was the early '90s, before workers' comp reform, and he says insurers were doing little to reduce or close...