[arctangent]

Richard Branson is a good example of an "adventure capitalist".

Here is his Wikipedia profile:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson

Here is the Wikipedia page for his space tourism company:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Galactic

Also worthy of a mention is Mark Shuttleworth, who was the world's second space tourist (and also the founder of the Ubuntu Foundation):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Shuttleworth

[hugh3]

Perhaps the ur-example would be Howard Hughes. Got rich selling drill bits, plunged it all into much more interesting ventures like aeroplanes and motion pictures.

[iwwr]

Don't forget Anousheh Ansari:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anousheh_Ansari

[benologist]

And Richard Garriot aka Lord British - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Garriott

[arctangent]

Everyone on the list of space tourists has an interesting past:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_tourism#List_of_flown_spa...

[IDisposableHero]

Don't forget John Carmack - from Doom at Id softare to Armadillo Aerospace