Here's a tremendous sports, technology and entrepreneurship story about Esmaili, 39, and Rasheen Smith, 27 and their product Flex-Power, the hottest -- and best smelling -- sports cream in da bidness.

Flex-Power was born in 1999, when Esmaili—a former soccer player for U.C. Berkeley who still plays in a local league—needed knee surgery. Afterward he turned to typical sports creams for relief but couldn't abide the way they smelled, reeking under the suits the Morgan Stanley executive wore to work. (Esmaili managed money for several professional athletes.) At the same time Esmaili was wary of prescription pills. Many professional athletes would share his concern by 2000, when Alonzo Mourning, then center for the Miami Heat, was diagnosed with focal glomerulosclerosis, a kidney disorder. Medical experts say that oral anti-inflammatory medicines did not cause his disease. But the caveat that excessive use of such drugs—from over-the-counter medications like ibuprofen and aspirin to prescription drugs like Vioxx and Indocin—can in rare cases lead to other kidney problems was enough to scare many athletes.

The fear unleashed by Mourning's disease may have been bad science, but Esmaili thought it could be good for business. He asked Smith—whom he'd met through a mutual friend—to pen a business plan. In August 2000 the two founded Flex-Power with $500,000 raised from family and friends, and with an idea: to create a topical sports cream made with methyl-sulfonyl-methane (MSM) and glucosamine—anti-inflammatories that had previously been taken orally—that didn't stink.

They hired a team of scientists, who took two years to develop a formula. Unable to afford market research, Esmaili and Smith combed health and beauty aisles of local drugstores, sniffing products in search of a scent. They enlisted the guidance of PowerBar founder Brian Maxwell, who advised them to start with two varieties of the cream to meet wider demand. (Customers have a choice of Clean Scent and Citrus Light.) They also ran early trials by some of Esmaili's former clients on the 49ers, who advised them to add a heating sensation. (Off-the-shelf anti-inflammatory creams usually heat or cool an affected area. Though soothing, neither effect is a result of active ingredients.)

The resulting product does indeed smell good. And athletes seem impressed with the way it soothes their muscles, even though —like all sports creams—its medicinal qualities are questionable. (Topical anti-inflammatories require no FDA approval.) "Does it work because of the medication? Or does it work because you are massaging your muscle with a soothing cream?" asks Warren Strudwick, team doctor for the Oakland Raiders, who has given Flex-Power to players. "Who knows? It doesn't really matter as long as there is some relief."