Circle of success

Co-founders Kathy Sherbrooke and Janet Kraus met big goals with Circles, their Boston-based corporate concierge service (see the April 2006 story "We Can Fix Anything"). They raised $26 million from VCs, turned profitable in 2001, and this year expect $60 million in sales. And now, with the recent sale of Circles to French food-services giant Sodexho, the partners have turned equity into cash. How much? "It's not sit-on-the-beach money for us," Sherbrooke, 40, says, adding, "Our investors did very well."

Sherbrooke will stay on as CEO, while Kraus, 41, will run Spire ("Face-book meets About.com for affluent adults," Sherbrooke calls it), a former Circles subsidiary, now independent.

"It's an evolution in our partnership," says Sherbrooke, who emphasizes this isn't a breakup. Kraus's office, once down the hall from hers, is now around the corner, and each will serve on the other's board.