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• Position: North Carolina business stories

Hubby means it when he saw she's the boss

In the mid-'80s, Clark Maurer shined as an IBM programmer. Maurer, who has a bachelor's in computer science from Cornell, wrote a program called E, an editing tool 25,000 IBM programmers would use. He got a $10,000 bonus.

His fiancee, who was finishing her bachelor's in industrial engineering at Cornell, wasn't impressed. "She told me to go back in and ask for 1% or even half a percent of the money I made the company. And if they said no, to quit," he recalls. "I couldn't do it. I was too scared." She convinced him that he had nothing to lose: "He could always go back." Within the year, he had quit.

Married in 1987, they started MicroEdge -- now SlickEdit -- the next year in a one-bedroom apartment in Northern Virginia. "We got $20,000 from the sale of his condo," Jill Maurer says. "We decided if the money ran out, we'd stop. But we kept breaking even and started making money. The partnership continues as it began. Chief Technology Officer Clark, 38, provides the programming brains, and CEO Jill, 35, the administrative brawn and, when necessary, kicks in the butt. He is happiest at his computer. She enjoys meetings and brainstorming sessions.

They renamed their company for its main product, Visual SlickEdit, software that enables programming languages and programs to communicate more efficiently, which lets programmers write code faster. Microsoft is a customer. So is Hewlett-Packard.

The Maurers, the company's only shareholders, moved to Raleigh in 1990 and opened SlickEdit's offices in Apex. The company is moving to Cary, making room for 15 to 20 more programmers, marketers and sales reps -- who will join a staff of 33. Earlier this year, they hired their first chief operating officer, former IBMer Howard Lewis. They're positioning the company for a public offering or merger.

But the Maurers' division of labor remains. "We've hired people who do things better than we do," Jill says. "But Clark still writes code, and I'll still be leading."

Doctor's gift came with strings attached

Like many immigrants, Assad Meymandi gushes about the United States. "I love this country," he says as he sits in his modest North Raleigh office. "I'm very passionate about America -- what it has done for me and what I should do for it."

Even a visit from the taxman in the late '70s didn't dim his ardor. "1 have been audited just once, and they gave me $36.36. I have no problem paying taxes." The Internal Revenue Service...