All about street smarts

In 1973, Barry Steinberg was living on Manchester Boulevard in Wheatley Heights, trying to decide what to name his startup. Then he spied the street sign from his window and, in an instant Manchester Equipment was born. Today, the Nasdaq-listed, Hauppauge-based company that started with $1,000 is

Instead, the Dix Hills resident with twin daughters prefers tending to his horses at his home upstate and fishing off of Montauk on his Viking.

Q. Is this what you thought you'd do when you grew up?

A: This is the result of the aimless drifting of a 20-yearold. I knew what I didnt want to do - be a seltzer man like my father. I did that while I was in school. Those boxes got real heavy by the end of the day. Q. Why did you start Manchester?

A. After the army I went to work for the Port Authority, then I took a test for a computer tab operator. I was working in the industry in Manhattan. There were no PCs, just mainframes that used disk packs. They looked like a Silician pizza in the box. They held information and were removable like a diskette. I was writing the programs. Companies like IBM didnt sell disk packs, but companies needed them. So I took $1,000 out of the bank, started the company and never looked back.

Q: Where do you see the most growth for your business?

A: In second-tier companies, those below the Fortune 500. That's the sweet spot for us. There's margins left in those areas and we fill that need. It's our greatest potential for growth. Some of the manufacturers go after our market share, but they usually go after the larger companies, that's why we focus on the lower end of the food chain. And we're a one-stop shop, which makes us pretty unique.

Q: Like living on Long Island?

A: Yeah, it's OK. Long Island has been very good to me. It"s just the highways ... If you could double the width of Long Island, you'd have room for the amount of roads we need. Maybe we could fill up Long Island Sound and turn into Connecticut.

Q: Best lesson you've learned over the years?

A: That I'm not that smart. That's why I bring on the people who are the best in their specific fields.