At 13, Delcie Was Already A Businessman

In yesterday’s Daily Hampshire Gazette business page, a feature caught my eye. It was about a man named Delcie Bean who has grown up quickly, and told his Horatio Alger tale of success starting out at a very early age.

Bean began his business career by founding a computer repair business called Vertical Horizons Computer Services. He helped family members and friends navigate their confusing email and how to browse the web. His clients had to come pick him up and bring him home for the work, since he was just 13 years old.

Today Bean can boast that he’s got seven full-time technicians, an office manager and a full-time sales rep. He decided to buy an existing business called Valley Computerworks back in 2003, and he moved it to a building he bought on Rt 9 in Hadley. Now he’s reached the ripe old age of 23. He told reporter Deborah Oakley that his precocious success as a mere child “is a double edge sword. There is some level of hesitancy when they realize [his tech support service] is going to be run by someone 18 or 19.”