A startup story worth reading.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: ON SMALL BIZ - RE/MAX

BEFORE THE TERM "STARTUP" EVEN EXISTED IN THE lexicon of business, arguably the most influential startup in Colorado's modern history was already causing a stir. It's an oft-told story: Dave and Gail Liniger founded RE/MAX in Denver in 1973 with the idea of letting real estate agents keep all of their commissions rather than split them with their office owner. Instead, agents would pay a flat monthly fee.

Real estate traditionalists cried that this would be the ruin of the industry. But far from being a destructive force, RE/MAX proved to be real estate's great liberator, optimally rewarding agents who were most serious about the profession, weeding out casual part-timers, and thus in a Darwinian way heightening the level of professionalism in the entire industry.

I bring this up because just last month a book on RE/MAX came out, coinciding with the company's surpassing of the 100,000-agent mark worldwide. The book is a revealing read for anyone curious about a startup so rich in struggle and triumph it makes new companies of the late '90s tech boom look like they were playing in the startup kiddie pool.

A few RE/MAX anecdotes, some that are in the book and some I know because I worked there:

RE/MAX was launched with outside capital of $15,000. Instead of riding a trend, the company hacked out a trail completely counter to tradition. When guardians of the 50-50 commission-split publicly chided the newborn, RE/MAX didn't turn the other cheek. Newly signed RE/MAX agents donned t-shirts that read defiantly: "WE UPPED OUR COMMISSIONS. UP YOURS."

Even the way the company got its name was unconventional. Dave Liniger likes to tell the story of how a handful of the company's principals were sitting around one night trying to come up with a name. Loosened up with tequila shots with limes, the group came up with "R.E. Max," an acronym for "real estate maximums." Only problem was, that looked too much like some guy named Max with the initials R.E. So they took out the periods and added a slash to come up with RE/MAX.

"A lot of companies spend tens of thousands of dollars on consulting to come up with a company name," Liniger is fond of saying. "We spent $7.50 for a bottle of tequila."

In the earliest days, Marty Schottenheimer was a RE/MAX guy. His career as an NFL linebacker had come to an end and he was giving real estate a go in the early '70s. Dave Liniger saw him as an insider who could help get a relocation business going with the NFL. But...