StartupNation Judges' Synopsis

Who would've thought that an online banquet table ecommerce site would be a recession-busting business, let alone the winner of the Top Ten Recession Busters category?! But alas, Alex Steiner's 2009 startup, Banquet Tables Pro, an online wholesaler of banquet and restaurant furniture, has prevailed.

Anticipating the recession, and everyone else's hunkering down, his mantra was, "this is your chance." While working days as a website designer and search engine optimization expert at a local ecommerce company, he'd work nights and very early mornings to get his own site live. He chose to sell banquet tables and chairs to leverage his family experience in the hospitality industry. He made the leap from his day job and went live on January 10th.

Within his first 3 weeks up and running, he made more than he did as an employee in a month. Now his sales are 10 times what they were the first month. Initial investment was around $450, and lots of hours of work, but boy, has it paid off.