Fabled for entrepreneurs launching companies in garages, Silicon Valley now may have a new legend: the phantom of AOL.
To save money for two months, 20-year-old Eric Simons surreptitiously lived inside AOL’s Palo Alto, Calif., office, sleeping on its couches, showering in its gym, sneaking its snacks and laboring there all day to develop his dream — the Internet site ClassConnect, which he launched to help teachers create and share lessons plans with students and other educators.
Simons said he managed to avoid detection because AOL regularly lets budding innovators not affiliated with the company use its building to work on their projects.
