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Bart Knellinger grew up in a family of professionals. His father was a dentist; his mother earned a master's degree. Two of his three sisters became dentists; the other an attorney.

But after he graduated from high school, Knellinger decided college required too many prerequisite courses. He set off on a different pursuit: business owner.

To get an entrepreneur's education, he packed up his car and moved to Chicago, because it was, well, Chicago. By the time he arrived in the Windy City, he was out of gas and the $300 he'd started out with was nearly gone.