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Airborne Cold Medicine

VITAL STATS: Victoria Knight-McDowell, 42, president of Airborne Inc.

COMPANY: Carmel, California, natural cold remedy company that produces effervescent herbal tablets

2003 SALES PROJECTIONS: $10 million to $15 million

STUDY TIME: "I was getting sick in the classroom, and watched parents and teachers constantly catching colds. My family [had negative reactions] to mainstream medication, so we were always doing something that seemed bizarre at the time; now it's common to seek 'alternative medicine.' I started doing research and experimenting with herbs I had luck with in the past."

COVERT OP: "We gave Longs Drugs a dozen tubes to test-market locally. [My husband, Rider, and I] would visit these nine Longs and take turns buying it so it would scan as something that was selling. We did this for a couple of weeks. Then one day I went to Longs in Santa Cruz and [the product was] gone. I was afraid they found out and yanked everything. Rider told me all the stores had sold out and they had real orders."

MEDIA BUGS: "We have two school buses, festooned with [cartoon] germs and people, with full-time drivers. Dirk from the first Survivor was a celebrity spokesperson; now we have Barry Williams from The Brady Bunch. We also launched our Sore Throat Gummi Lozenges and have radio and print ads coming out."

THIRD SHIFT: "I miss teaching very, very much. I'm on hiatus because my son was born around the time that Airborne started to take off. [I'll still be involved in Airborne], but next fall I'm teaching two days a week; now I can afford to!"

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