Sloan thinks he's got their number.

• Position: Sloan Financial Group Inc employee Maceo Sloan launches paging/voice-mail communications firm PCS Development Inc

The future of wireless communications is calling, and Maceo Sloan has answered in a big way.

The money manager and venture capitalist has launched PCS Development Inc., which is investing more than $350 million in a high-tech paging and voice-mail system. It may be the riskiest venture yet for the man who manages $4 billion in investments through Sloan Financial Group in Durham.

Sloan has taken full advantage of his assets - his experience, his contacts, even his race. He became familiar with the communications business in the '70s when he grouped some cable and radio franchises as an investment for North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co.

In 1994, Sloan brought together investors, including several paging companies, who joined with venture-capital funds to raise just more than $150 million. Sloan bid it all on five regional narrowband broadcasting licenses that could be connected into a nationwide paging system. But while he had the cash, he had no intention of spending more than a fraction of it at closing.

As a black, Sloan qualified for a Federal Communications Commission minority incentive discount, which knocked about 40% off the price. That meant his group could bid $152 million but...