Laurie Silvers had a brilliant idea in the late 1980s, but the SciFi Channel creator had one glaring problem.

``I didn't know anything about science fiction,'' Silvers said to a crowd at the University of Miami yesterday morning. "If I was not going to be credible, if I couldn't talk about my product, it was not going to go anywhere.''

Silvers was able to add late science fiction author Isaac Asimov and late Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry to her board of advisors, and they educated her on everything science fiction. When the SciFi (now SyFy) Channel launched in 1994, Silvers had a gold mine on her hands. She sold the channel to Universal, and it is currently worth about $4 billion, according to The Miami Herald.

Silvers shared her story as part of the Launch Pad's series of events happening in Miami during Global Entrepreneurship Week. The Launch Pad, which is the heart of Miami's entrepreneurship resource center, will be hosting GEW events through Friday.

tags: florida, Launch Pad, laurie silvers, Miami, scifi channel