AGAINST ALL ODDS

The Unbelievably True Story of Arnet's Rise to the INC. 500

By: Michael Wells Ph.D.

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Join Arnet Corporation's co-founder Michael Wells on this unputdownable tale of entrepreneurial triumph.

The personal computer revolution of the 1980s spawned thousands of hardware and software enterprises, many of which quickly vanished. Arnet Corporation, a producer of add-on networking adapters for the IBM PC, could have easily become one of these forgotten companies. However, the determined founding team faced adversity head-on, even challenging a bankruptcy ruling from the institution that granted their initial government-backed loan. This resilience paid off as Arnet jumped one formidable hurdle after another, eventually securing a spot on INC. Magazine’s coveted 500 Fastest Growing Companies list for two consecutive years. The company was also showered with accolades, including the Nashville Business Journal’s Small Business of the Year award and the State of Tennessee’s Exporter of the Year award, not to mention its flagship product earning the #1 spot among its competitors in a ranking by Infoworld magazine.

In a narrative packed with the suspense of a bestselling thriller, Wells recounts the founding of the company in Nashville, Tennessee at age twenty-seven with an unlikely partner—his retired stepfather. Narrated in grisly detail is Arnet’s close call with bankruptcy, the IRS on the brink of padlocking the company’s front doors, a near shutdown at the hands of industry titan Computervision, who threatened to “crush Arnet like a bug,” plus pivotal interactions with other prominent company founders, such as Kevin Jenkins of Hercules Graphics and the iconic Michael Dell of Dell Computer.

You won't want to miss out on this gripping, unputdownable tale of a startup victory against all odds. The book is also richly illustrated with photographs that capture the excitement and spirit of Arnet’s incredible journey!