In a magazine interview, entrepreneur Ivo Lukačovič once said his dream as a kid was to become a garbage collector because he always liked how they hung off the back of the garbage trucks.

But life played out differently for him.

Last month, the 32-year-old founder and majority owner of the leading Czech Internet portal Seznam was included on two lists any man would love to see his name on: the country's billionaires and most desirable bachelors.

Lukačovič's stake in Seznam alone puts him at just over 1 billion Kč ($45.5 million). Meanwhile, an SC&C poll recently named him the eighth-most desirable man in the country.

His position in the poll increases when only counting the intelligentsia — he ranked most desirable among women with college degrees.

"This is a good ego massage," says the boyish-looking businessman from his glass office that separates him from his 210 employees. "There is nothing more flattering to a man's vanity than being included in these two lists."

Jet-lagged

Lukačovič calls work and sports his favorite drugs. Now, however, with Seznam firmly on its feet, he can afford to work only six to eight hours a day, four days a week.

"It's not so bad," he says.

The stability gives Lukačovič time for biking, squash and wall-climbing three times a week. He likes to spend weekends hiking by himself.

A few years ago, he was a passionate yachter and traveled throughout Asia and Latin America.

Now Lukačovič prefers to stay at home.

The yacht has been parked in a friend's yard for two years. The forests of China and New Guinea have lost their allure.

"I got tired of it," he says. "Now I like it at home. I got a feeling that life is the same everywhere."

Lukačovič calls himself rather introverted and a loner.

"The only people I can stand are my family," he says. "Those are the people I like."

Friends say that deep down he is just a normal guy, but hint at a competitor, whether it be through the Internet, pingpong or yachting.

"A couple of times I beat him in bowling," said longtime friend Jiří Pallas. "But Ivo must be a winner in everything. He comes to bowl again and again, always determined to win."

Building the empire

In 1996, when the Internet era was in its infancy, Lukačovič was a student at Czech Technical University in Prague. He founded his first Internet portal, Seznam, which offered a search engine for cataloged Czech Web sites.

"At that time, I didn't know how to do anything else," recalls Lukačovič, who is sometimes called the Czech Bill Gates. "I thought it was a great idea to do business in a field that had not yet emerged."

Founding the search engine at a time when the market was not yet developed gave the 22-year-old student-turned-businessman a lot of time to learn about business before competition emerged.

"He was at the right place at the right time," says Libor Nováček, one of the first advertisers on Seznam.

The business itself, however, emerged as a byproduct of the server that needed money to develop.

"It was an accident," says Lukačovič, who had to drop out of college when the business started eating up too much of his time. "When I started doing business, I didn't know how to make out an invoice."

He has since learned.

In 2000, he sold a 30 percent stake in his company to Swedish investor Spray for $2 million.

In 2004, Seznam's net profit was 90 million Kč on 553 million Kč turnover. Lukačovič wants 2 billion Kč in turnover within five years.

Friends and business partners say that Lukačovič's success is to a great extent due to his ability to find workable business models and not lose touch with less tech-savvy users.

Having built his whole life around his company, Lukačovič plans to stay at its helm by getting personally involved in all levels.

Last year, he started a regular blog in which he chats about the minutiae of his personal life and opens a gate into his company's life. The blog gives readers a chance to come up with ideas on how to improve Seznam.

The entrepreneur says his business succeeded because it was always based on a sound economic principle.