Entrepreneur Michael O'Brien was buying domain names for $15 and reselling them when he found one that would change his life.
Inspired by a television commercial for United Negro College Fund, O'Brien typed the words "Financialaide.com" into his computer early one morning in 1998. That led the California State University, Fresno, graduate to start a company that this year has 75 employees and is expected to generate as much as $1.4 billion in loan volume.

O'Brien realized he found something when the Web site he created for his newest domain name had more than 1,000 "hits."

"This one was different," he said. "I knew I didn't want to sell it."

Then 28, and the owner of a marketing company in Fresno, he discovered through additional research and communication with the visitors to his Web site that people were clamoring for information on how to pay for college. He decided to develop a company to help them navigate through the maze.

"I almost got goose bumps," he said, when he realized financial aid was a $40 billion to $50 billion industry annually. O'Brien was recently named Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Fresno State, where he meets and gives talks to students.

Today, the business he founded with his brother, Matt O'Brien, and Fresno restaurant owner John Shegerian is still a relatively small player in an industry dominated by powerhouse Sallie Mae, which provides more than half of all student loans.

But FinancialAid.com -- the "e" was dropped in "aide" -- is growing. It provides $100 million in new and consolidated loans each month and is expanding into other types of financial services including car loans, insurance and mortgages.

FinancialAid.com brokers loans for Education Lending Group Inc., which made $726 million in loans in the first quarter of the year.

Robert deRose, CEO of Education Lending Group, said he teamed with the online business because he believes the financial aid industry is headed to more direct marketing.

About 30% of Education Lending Group's business is generated online, and deRose expects that to increase with the approval of electronic signatures on student loans. An electronic signature reduces paperwork and speeds the approval process.

He said students are so comfortable with the Internet that buying financial aid and similar products on the Web will become more common. "Kids coming out of school don't want to be called up on the phone. They won't answer a mailer," he said.

Nick Jimenez concurs. A 1997 graduate of Fresno State, Jimenez used FinancialAid.com to consolidate four $5,000 student loans into one loan. The move cut his payments $200 per month although it also extended the life of his loan.

"I do online banking, and I pay my credit card online. It was a no-brainer," said Jimenez, who graduated with a degree in philosophy and works in human resources.

FinancialAid.com has come a long way in a relatively short period, but it wasn't easy in the early stages.

O'Brien enlisted the help of his younger brother, Matt, who was a Fresno State student, to help with the business. Then they recruited Shegerian, owner of Bulldog Brewing Co. at Fig Garden Village.

Shegerian knew the O'Brien brothers because they put the brewery name on T-shirts, caps and other products as owners of NationWide Threads, a company that specialized in creating brands through imprinted goods and Web site design.

Shegerian also operated a venture capital firm in Fresno and was drawn to the fledgling financial services company the brothers were trying to start. "This one caught my fancy," said Shegerian, who became a partner in FinancialAid.com.

The three partners met two or three times per week in the same booth at Bulldog Brewing Co., always discussing strategy and tossing out ideas. The business plan was rewritten dozens of times, finally becoming a transaction-oriented site instead of one that distributed only information.

The O'Briens and Shegerian had a shared vision but little else. The business plan was done by March 2000, but the dot.com bubble had burst and 17 outside venture capital firms passed on providing additional financing. Two others expressed interest but wanted majority ownership.

"We turned down both," Shegerian said of the interested venture capital firms.

Matt O'Brien said that was a courageous decision. "It was so tempting," he said.

They would fund the startup themselves. Shegerian was investing his own money, and Michael O'Brien was devoting his NationWide Threads salary to the effort and living off wife Julie's paycheck. Together, they plunged more than $3 million into personal debt.

"We were one-third partners, and we put every dime we had into it," Shegerian said.

Their faith in the concept was so strong that they spent a full year and $1 million negotiating the purchase of the FinancialAid.com domain name. They paid six figures to simply remove the "e" from "aide." But it was crucial, Michael O'Brien said, because colleges offer "financial aid" -- not "financial aide."

And O'Brien started buying domain names in the financial aid sector so competitors couldn't siphon off customers.

Eventually, four "angel" investors from Fresno, including two doctors who wrote their pledges on the back of prescription pads, contributed $75,000. That money, in addition to a modest $50,000 bank credit line from Wells Fargo, was enough to get the business on its feet.

To grow, the partners felt the financial services company had to be away from Fresno, where their other business interests were interfering. To eliminate those distractions, the business moved to Julie's hometown of San Diego.

Eventually, the O'Briens sold NationWide Threads for $120,000, after Michael O'Brien started the company for $5,000 in 1994.

Tim Stearns, a professor of entrepreneurship at Fresno State, said the growth of FinancialAid.com defied the odds in at least one respect. It was born when Internet-related businesses fell by the wayside.

Shegerian said that was because the founders of FinancialAid.com had a firm grip on their business plan. "A lot of companies didn't know what they were doing," he said.

FinancialAid.com also capitalized on low interest rates and the refinancing craze.

"What propelled these guys was the refinancing of student loans because of interest rates dropping," Stearns said.

Whether FinancialAid.com is as successful when interest rates rise remains to be seen. The company will benefit by diversifying into other types of financial services, Stearns said.

And money for college will always be sought, the founder says.

For example, Fresno State has 19,000 students receiving loans, scholarships or grants, said Maria Hernandez, director of financial aid. The average cost of books and tuition for four years is about $11,600. The figure does not include housing.

Multiply that by thousands of colleges across the nation, and you can see why deRose and others are not worried.

"Every year kids graduate with $40 billion to $50 billion in debt," deRose said.