At those critical moments in a startup's life Conway responds quickly -- and so do those in his network. There was the time when a top executive at Tellme Netwo

At those critical moments in a startup's life Conway responds quickly -- and so do those in his network. There was the time when a top executive at Tellme Networks, a telecommunications startup, e-mailed Conway in desperation at 11 p.m., as a business deal with Verizon (VZ) was falling apart. Two minutes later, Conway's reply came, in all caps: "AM ON IT." By the next morning Conway had arranged a meeting with the Verizon president, which led to a nine-figure contract with Tellme. Microsoft eventually bought Tellme for $800 million. That's pretty badass.