Kristen Nicole

Tom Magnuson isn’t your typical startup guy. When he started his company in 2002, he wasn’t a kid coming straight out of college looking to raise money for a tech idea. Nor was he an ultra-rich investor, painstakingly searching for the next Internet behemoth. He was just a middle-aged man with a big idea, and a plan. “We had two Macs and this business idea that we could start a hotel chain for independents,” Magnuson says. Back then, all he had for an office was his son’s bedroom…