C. Thomas McMillen is the kind of guy that Venture Capital is hunting for. Also PhD's with good ideas like Google. I don't think that just any body can raise money like that. Maybe the smart guys are sidestepping the VC's who always get the upper hand at some point and kick the founders out of the organization, and going straight for the IPO.
Homeland Security is BIG Business for those inside and around the beltway. That is about all it is. How how secure will it make you as more and more beltway bandits figure out how to spend more dough on more stuff. "The most notable of this year's crop of blank checks is Fortress America, a Bethesda, Md.-based company that's the handiwork of C. Thomas McMillen, a former Maryland congressman, NBA player and Rhodes Scholar. The six-month-old concern hopes to raise $42 million in an IPO to buy a company that "contracts directly with the government on homeland security projects." In an attempt to ensure Fortress America's bona fides with investors and government officials, McMillen has attracted an all-star cast of characters from the defense and intelligence communities, including former Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.) and Asa Hutchinson, former undersecretary for the federal Department of Homeland Security"