Diks is aiming for 1, 000 Beter Bed stores by 2003, which means expanding the company from locations in Austria, Germany, Holland and France to open stores in Italy, Belgium and Poland.

FORBES: 20 FOR 2000

Founders: Mark Diks, 45, and Pieter Diks, 44, board member Stock options: 12% interest in company Why on the list: The Diks brothers now run 400 stores in the Netherlands' formerly fragmented bedroom-furniture market.

FORBES: 20 FOR 2000

On the outskirts of Nairobi among 140 acres of indigenous forest sits Giraffe Manor, an intimate 10-room hotel that also happens to be a sanctuary to warthogs, bushbucks, dik-diks, more than 180 species of birds and 14 rare Rothschild giraffes (including five babies).

FORBES: Outlandish Outposts: Giraffe Manor in Kenya