>> announcer: this is "nightly busines report" with t good evening, everyone, and welcome to this special edition of "nightly busines report." i'm tyler mathisen. sue herera has the evening off. tonight we will examine the entrepreneurial spirit. the journey usually starts with a br idea. that may be the easy part, by the way. then comes the truly hard work. but of course it can all pay off, and before you know it, that bright idea can turn into a billion-dollar venture. we begin tonight with two new york city entrepreneurs who had the bright idea to change what may seem like a dull concept, office space. both with tech backgrounds, they

wanted to shake up the way leases work. and they're not only increasing flexibility for renters but for building owners as well. >> reporter: when they began renting out their extra new york city office space a few years ago, they didn't think it would turn into a business called no-tell. >> it was an accident, we didn't realize we were sitting on top of an explosive billions. >> reporter: in 15 months, they brought in $10 million. but starting it meant taking on a multinational, multibillion dollar company. >> we trying to decide if we had something unique to offer. >> reporter: some of the big boys are we work and regus. we work develops spaces for startups and individuals looking to share the cost of kitchens, social space, wi-fi, even group health insurance. regus, in business for more than

25 years, used to target big businesses. now it's aiming for other segments as well, with 3,000 locations across 120 countries. but the two men believe there is a giant, underserved market. faster-growing companies with 20, 30, maybe 50 employees. >> less than 1% of the office market is this co-working type stuff. 99% is companies that need headquarters. >> reporter: startups begin life as nomads. brand identity is a plus. kelsey says no-tell's flexible one-year lease allows venue book to move again if necessary. no-tell says space for 20 runs about $10,000 a month in new york city. >> we didn't want to sign a really large lease and then sublette to another company. >> reporter: to know-tell, leases are the enemy. >> leases were the way to do

business, until someone showed you a dinner wfferent way. >> reporte they say long term leases hurt small businesses and landlords. if average rents rise during the lease, landlords can't cash in. know-tell helps landlords turn over their spaces more often, letting the market dictate the price the same way hotels change room rates day to day. kn no-tell shares the risk with landlords and collects the margin off the top. >> that was a problem for a building owner. because you can't really run a building with your leases turning over every since months. i think no-tell took care of that. >> reporter: norman kirlin is the landlord who first pushed them to fill extra space they were renting from him. >> it's not really a traditional sublease operation. it's more of a moving around the companies as they needed space. >> reporter: they also believe their tech backgrounds will help

landlords adapt into the future. who knows what the conference room will look like in ten or 20 years? >> it alleviates the necessity for them to become experts in technology. and for residents, we alleviate the necessity for them to become experts in real estate. >> you have to coordinate different people's needs over time that change. now that we have technology, we can coordinate their needs and put them together. >> no-tell plans to expand to 40 locations by year end. the client list now includes media, finance, fashion, and retail companies. another pair of entrepreneurs got the bright idea to simplify the process health insurers use to decide whether to pay for some drugs. the company makes software used by doctors and farm pharmacist get approvals.

the company recently sold for more than $1 billion to the wholesale drug king mckessan. tonight we show you how they bring the drug approval process into the 20th century. >> reporter: even a small town pharmacist like peter in connecticut sees it happen. prescriptions placed on hold, requiring prior authorizations or pas before insurance companies will pay for medication. >> all the time. every day. there's at least one every day, if not five every day. >> reporter: they force doctors to decide whether to prescribe something else or ask the insurance company for approval. that used to mean forms to be filled out, faxes to be sent. >> it could be a week or two type of situation. and sometimes the patients don't need the medication anymore. >> reporter: enter cover my meds. it's software that supplies the

forms and auto populates the patient's records. once you hit send, it puts doctors, pharmacists, and insurance companies all on the same page. now headquartered in columbus, ohio, cover my meds was created by a former pharmacist and software developer. >> patients said, why won't they just cover my meds? >> reporter: columbus native matt was building software and websites before he teamed with one of his top customers, sam rogen, in 2007. >> the aha moment for us is when we decided to put a prior authorization on multiple sclerosis drugs. we found 40% of our patients never went on the drug. >> reporter: he learned that most feared they couldn't afford to pay for the drug without coverage. it became imperative to speed up and simplify the process.

instead of sending patients often to fend for themselves, they wanted to tell patients, okay, we've got this for you. >> when a doc has an all-drug, all-payer solution, that's when the adoption and viral adoption model really came about. >> we've now helped 42 million people. >> reporter: cover my meds is free for patients and a half million prescribers who use it. it's also free for the 47,000 pharmacies using it. its paying customers are insurance companies, and those pharmacy benefits managers who hope that cover my meds can help reduce the cost that build when patients don't take their medicine. cover my meds won't discuss exactly what it charges, saying only that it cuts the average cost of each prior authorization request from roughly $40 to less than $10. >> we've picked a problem that can be solved in a way that the insurance companies are a very important customer, they're the way all of this has to work.

>> reporter: it's been working and selling too. cover my meds doesn't quibble with reports that last year's sales were roughly $100 million. by the end of 2016, they'll have more than 500 employees. and with insurance companies requiring approval on more and more drugs, an even higher purpose. >> this company can become quite large. it's because we're solving a problem that is daily life. >> cover my meds agreed to be acquired by mckessan in january. the two ex-owners are staying on for now. more than 67 million people bowled at least one time last year. more than a third of them at a place run by tom shannon. she's an entrepreneur who has turned run-down alleys into an international brand that's become the largest player in the $6 billion u.s. bowling industry. here's how he made

>> i haven't got a chance. maybe i do. >> reporter: don't let that first ball fool you. >> that was pretty abysmal. >> reporter: tom shannon knows how to strike it rich in bowling. >> how many total bowling centers do you run? >> now, 308. and about 9,000 employees. >> reporter: his ten-pin empire, known broadly as bowl more amf, racks up about $550 million in annual revenue and hosts plenty of celebrities. >> al pacino, the kardashians. >> the kardashians were here? you're kidding me. >> i taught kim how to bowl. >> i bet you did. >> reporter: it all started with less glamour and a single location. bowl more lanes, a new york city institution that shannon walked into in 1994, more than a half century after it opened. >> it was very run down. probably no investment in at

least three decades. >> reporter: but the darden business school graduate saw potential for a revamped bowling experience. >> business was financed with the combination of $3,000 in equity, which is all i had, and $2 million borrowed. >> from whom? >> two-thirds of it was a seller note. i borrowed money from small business investment corp. at 17.5% interest. >> then he went to work, adding new technology, updating the decor, improving the music and the menu, and transforming the tired bowling alley into a hip nighttime destination. >> we used to renovate during the day, clean up, and open for business at 5:00. >> and it worked. shannon says by 1999, the union square location was the highest grossing bowling alley in the country. two years later, he tried the same trick in suburban maryland with a similar result. >> and so i thought, it's working in manhattan, it's working in bethesda, we have a

model that will work. >> reporter: soon he saw customers rolling through the doors of six bowl more centers at a time when thousands of alleys were closing shop, including amf, the biggest player in bowling at the time. for shannon, it was an entry angle to big league bowling. >> i partnered up with a private equity firm and we managed to buy amf out of bankruptcy for $300 million. so overnight, i went from six bowling alleys to 272. >> then there's another acquisition, you get even bigger. brunswick. >> this was a little bit audacious. >> reporter: the newly combined bowl more amf spent $70 million to score 85 additional centers from brunswick in 2014. the company currently operates under four brand names. bowl more, amf, brunswick zone, and bolero, and it spares no expense on renovation. >> do you work with theatrical stage and set designers to do this? >> we do it all in-house.

for me the funnest part of the business is i guess to create this crazy spectacle in which you can bowl. it actually has an economic return. >> reporter: a healthy one at that. in 2015, the annual revenue hit higher than half a billion dollars and welcomed more than 25 million visitors to its lanes. >> i view this as a long term play. and i don't know where the limit is. i expect at some point we'll be a multi-billion dollar diversified entertainment company. >> y >> well done! >> once in a lifetime. shannon has no plans to take the company public anytime soon, but he's looking to expand his empire outside the bowling by using an old fashioned stick-to-it-iveness, a group of working moms created a niche business and tapped into a multibillion dollar global label market which is expected to reach, get this, more than $43

billion by the year 2020. their unconventional struggle from startup to brand name is how they made their millions. rise and shine. time to get ready for school. >> reporter: to keep track of her kids' stuff, julie cole puts their names on almost everything. >> give me your water bottles, dudes. >> reporter: a formidable task for all six of them. it helps that she's a co-founder of multimillion dollar company mabel's labels based in ontario, canada, an idea that began when she and her sister and their mom couldn't find durable labels. >> we saw masking tape, permanent marker. we thought, there's got to be a better solution. >> reporter: they reached out to a friend who worked in printing. >> i said, this is ridiculous, tell your kids not to lose their

stuff. until you're in a parenting situation, you don't believe this is a problem. >> reporter: the four spent two years researching how to make sticky labels. >> that would go through the dishwasher, the microwave, be ev resistant. >> reporter: and they did it while working full-time and raising families. >> my partners wanted to try something on their own as an add-on business. >> reporter: all they really needed was a workspace, printing machines, and money. but they decided against outside investors. >> we were 100%, you've got to help us out, we're doing a startup, we're boot strapping. >> we did a lot of bartering for things. our website was built in trade for a foosball table. >> we ran a production facility out of my sister's dingy basement. >> reporter: in 2003, mabel's labels launched online, selling packs of 45 durable personalized labels for about $21 each. they received about ten to 15 orders a day, and then out of

the blue, hundreds at one time. >> i called the foosball guy slash website developer and said, what is going on? he said, there's no virus, those are orders. >> reporter: turns out their product had been featured in an e-mail newsletter and things really started to stick. >> i remember making myself count to five and then hitting f5 for refresh and more had come in. it was crazy. we had to call in sick for our day jobs to make these labels. >> reporter: within four years, this part-time business became a full-time job for all of them. they moved out of the basement and into this 14,000 square foot facilities. by 2016, they had 40 employees and sales of $9.5 million canadian. that's nearly 7.25 million u.s. bucks. it caught the attention of one of the largest specialty packaging and label companies in the world, cce industries, which made them an offer. >> they understood our brand. they had been watching us for a long time. we sold the company for $12

million. >> reporter: that's more than $9 million u.s. cole has continued to run public relations. their two co-founders cashed out. now the business pumps out hundreds to thousands of label packs a day depending on the season. it runs almost 24/7s. >> there's something really special about starting this and building it and selling it, and knowing that you did it all without a single loan. >> i really do lov make labels. >> mabel's labels can be used on practically anything, sports, gear, luggage, shoes, phone skins, even including bar code technology so it can be tracked back to you if you lose it. thinking about retiring? why the new retirement is not to retire

so maybe you didn't make your millions, but you did work hard your entire life, and now it's time to think about retiring. as jane wells reports, many americans don't want to retire in the >> i may bring in the camera close right here. >> reporter: veteran assistant director jason roberts is giving a class to aspiring background actors at burbank's legendary central casting. one student is 67-year-old abe rogland.

he used to run a logistics company but that went south in the recession. now he's pursuing acting because he says he needs money. and a lot of them does, he says. >> a lot of them cashed out their iras, they're out working because social security isn't making it. >> reporter: 42% of people working for pay after retirement need the mon by. but at the same time, almost all of them also do it for fun. >> i get bored. >> reporter: 77-year-old walt retired at age 60 from a career in food services management. now he picks up odd jobs as a background actor, not for money but to keep busy. he even did a scene with cameron diaz for "bad teacher" where she washed his cadillac. >> i didn't wash my car for two months after that. >> reporter: the fact is, we're living healthier, longer, more active lives. that's why the senior center here in palm springs is a hive of activity.

half of americans expect to live at least to age 85. and more of us are retiring earlier than expected but we're not sitting around. people like sherry. >> i had breast cancer six years ago. and i looked at between 62 and 65, and i thought, do i really want to stay there another few years, or do i want to start really living? >> reporter: she ran the numbers, realized that with a little downsizing, she had enough retirement to, quote, start living. now through a website called trusted house sitters, she house sits and pet sits around the world for free. >> i plan to do this as long as i can. i love it. >> reporter: retiring is a lot less retiring than it used to be. for "nightly busines report," jane w while some are coming up with second acts in their retirement years, there are others who simply can't wait to really retire to start living life as they expected it to be. and they're doing it well before 65.

what are the pitfalls of early retirement? our guest is here to discuss, diane, welcome, good to see you, how have you been? >> good to see you. >> let's say i have a mind that i would like to retire at 62 or 59 or whatever. how do i know if i'm a good candidate to do that? >> you really need to think about all the pitfalls that are out there. and do you have enough dollars to stretch and let you do everything that you want to do? so you need to think about a couple of things. what is it you want to do in retirement? what's that going to cost? if you want to travel, if you want to do all those things. there are many things. >> do you have a baseline life expectancy when you work with clients? do you say 90, 95? >> we use 100. >> you're an optimist! >> we have clients in their 90s and still going strong.

so, you know, the odds are pretty good, we're going to have a lot of people reach that age. >> i've worked with several financial advisers over the years, and most of them, i say, no, you got this wrong, they tell me, don't expect to spend less when you retire than you do in your working years. are they right? >> they're exactly right. in fact -- >> why? >> because you replace all that free time -- you know, you used to spend money working, now people say, oh, you retire, you spend less. the reality is you don't, you spend more on entertainment, you spend more on eating out, travel, golf, tennis, whatever the things are. >> and you probably spend a lot more on health care. >> you definitely, possibly do. >> so what are those pitfalls that let's say i am getting ready to retire a little bit early, let's say it's 62 or whatever it is. what do i need to avoid, most importantly? >> you need to make sure you have dollars in taxable

accounts. >> taxable accounts? why? >> that's so when you need dollars, when you need to draw dollars out, you don't have to tap those retirement accounts so soon and take early withdrawal. >> early would be before 59 1/2, right? >> early would be a lot further out than that, because those dollars have to last. >> should i wait to begin receiving my social security benefits? >> depends on your situation. but most people should think about extending that or delaying that time, because they get extra earnings every year by delaying that. >> and how do i factor in the possibility that my health care costs may go up because i consume more medical services or other reasons? >> well, health care will -- if you retire and you're not medicare qualified yet, there's a major gap, and that can be

super expensive. so you have to go out and look at the market. see what you might have to pay. could be many thousands. >> do you have any clients who have retired early and then realized they've got to go back to work? >> i have many clients who have retired early and gone back to work, either because they got bored, or because they needed -- >> they needed to fill the gaps. diane, great to see you, good to have you back. coming up, keeping active. now you can do a boutique fitness workout in the privacy of your own home

well, perhaps you went away for spring break and overindulged just a bit. now is the time to get back on track and back to the gym. but if you would rather work out at home, tech companies are making it a whole lot easier. diana olick, the fittest person i know, has the latest edition of "sweat equity." >> reporter: did you ever want to work out in one of those elite boutique manhattan fitness studios, but you live here? or her now you can. kind of. >> i started to realize the power of these studios. >> reporter: lauren was a wall street bond trader who trade in finance for fitness and launched forte, really a tech company that's putting live cameras in the corners of boutique studio classes. >> these studios operate on a militant schedule. they are very professional. when these trainers put their

mikes on, they're doing a performance. >> reporter: and that performance streams out live across forte's web platform, for $39 a month or $288 a year, anyone, anywhere, can stream any class. >> over the course of two years now, the pitch has become very simple. everybody wants to be streaming. my job has become a lot easier. >> reporter: the studios get a cut of the subscription fees. >> they also get something else very valuable. >> obviously from the streaming, that's income, that's always great. but i think the exposure to the brand and what we do is, for us, number one. >> reporter: these are live streaming classes. but they're also live paying clients. not everybody wants their sweat streaming on the internet. that's why each class has a dead zone. if you're over here, you're not online. but if you're in the class, you're not sensored either, which adds a certain amount of risk to the reps. what are you most worried about is going to happen in a live

class? >> we're not worried about that much. that's the beauty of what we want to see, this raw, unedited footage. we want to see the one person who doesn't do a pushup the entire time, we want to see the friends talking. >> reporter: that's the reality tv aspect of the nightly workout. i'm diana olick for "nightly busines report." thanks so much for watching "nightly busines report." i'm tyler mathisen. have a great weekend and we'll see you ba