While they were reluctant to give up the independence that went along with owning their own company, they realized that by selling Stylus, they would avoid the challenges of hiring more programmers and developing an XML server.

"It saves you a lot of time to have the general Dilbert office setup, as opposed to our living room and a bunch of fold-up tables and borrowed computers, but it also means that sometimes there is something we want to do but we can't," Lloyd says.

Working full time at eXcelon meant Sjogreen, Lloyd and Traub had to put their Harvard careers on hold. But they're not complaining.

Lloyd refused to say how much they sold Transformis for or what their salaries are, but it was enough to buy a cell phone, rent an apartment in pricey Cambridge and drive the blue Audi he had dreamed about--at least until it got totaled.

And working at the eXcelon office in the Boston suburbs is more fun than studying for Moral Reasoning.

"My boss is a loud, funny Italian, and so are a bunch of my coworkers. It's fun," Lloyd says. "We laugh and drink our espresso and program and design stuff, and they wander around singing Italian at the top of their lungs."

He won't be gone forever. Lloyd says getting a Harvard degree is definitely a priority for the near future.

"I can do computer jobs whenever I want," Lloyd says, "But I can't finish my Harvard degree when I'm 30."