Archive for the 'Profiles' Category
The Billion Dollar Story of 5-Hour Energy
Forbes: The rise of 5-Hour began in the spring of 2003, when Bhargava found himself at a natural products trade show in Anaheim, Calif. At one booth the sales reps peddled a 16-ounce concoction claiming to boost productivity for hours. Bhargava took a swig. “For the next six or seven hours I was in great [...]
It seems like every medium-sized town in America has at least one juice shop. What would drive someone to open their own? When Flo Eysler looks out his window, he doesn’t see natural juice everywhere. Instead, he sees pandas and pagodas and food covered in oil. But in his mind’s eye, he thinks he might [...]
Looking for Love in a Stack of Books
When I was young, and single, I used to visit bookstores. Not just because I loved to read, but also because I thought it might have been a good place to meet girls. (It wasn’t.) You can tell a lot about a person by the kinds of books they read. What reader hasn’t made a [...]
In this 17-minute documentary, Michael Garnier, proprietor of the Out’n’About Treehouse Resort in Oregon talks about his tree house business. His bed and breakfast contains the largest concentration of tree houses in the world. He didn’t always build tree houses. In fact, as an Oregon-hippy, he started out trying to make money with his organic, [...]
In this post on the Priceonomics Blog, Ryan Finlay recounts his business: Craigslist scavenger. The scrap yard’s electromagnetic steel excavator picked up my two steel die cast molds and put them on the scale. 1,240 pounds of steel! That meant $179.80 in my wallet for an hour of work. Not bad considering I picked them [...]
TurningArt: The Netflix of Paintings
TurningArt.com is a Netflix for art. Starting at $10 per month, you select from a variety framed 16” x 20” museum quality prints and choose one that you’d like to see on your walls. If you don’t like it, you can send it back and you’ll be shipped the next piece from your online queue. [...]
Ian Hutcheon is a 40 year old British astronomer living in Chile that has has combined his two great loves, astronomy and wine making. He’s created what is believed to be the first wine aged by a meteorite formed during the birth of the solar system. His wine, called “Meteorito” was created with grapes from [...]
Energy Drinks from Coffee Leftovers
Entrepreneur.com: Shaun Roberts, co-founder and CEO of Kalaheo, Hawaii-based KonaRed, is giving the sports drink category a java jolt. His company turns a byproduct of coffee production into a line of energy drinks, also called KonaRed. Before coffee farmers can ship out the beloved bean at the center of the coffee fruit, they have to [...]
Starting the World’s Largest Hotel from His Bedroom
Business Insider: Magnuson isn’t your typical startup guy. When he started his company in 2002, he wasn’t a kid coming straight out of college looking to raise money for a tech idea. Nor was he an ultra-rich investor, painstakingly searching for the next Internet behemoth. He was just a middle-aged man with a big idea, [...]
Five Profitable Businesses You’ve Never Thought Of
The following is a guest post from Vit. How are you going about making money? What if you could make money with some of your craziest ideas? Here are five of my favorite off-the-wall businesses: Game Truck – In 2006, Scott Novis, fed up with the experience had at his son’s 4th birthday party in [...]
Inventor’s Greatest Creation: The Flak Jacket
Byron Donzis recently passed away at the age of 79, but he will always be remembered for that important piece of equipment that all football players wear: the flak jacket. In 1978, Byron Donzis walked into a Houston hospital looking for Dan Pastorini, the Houston Oilers’ prized quarterback who was laid up with three broken [...]
Two layoffs made a great whoopie pie for two Maine residents. Their joblessness pushed them to start a bakery, called Chococa Baking Company, just as whoopie pies began gaining popularity in 2008. Money Magazine reports: Had Julie Ganong and Alan Mons not both been laid off in 2008, the couple might not be making whoopie [...]
The Tennessean: If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to fly on those fancy private aircraft that rich people use for getaways such as skiing or beach weekends, a new Web-based company in Smyrna, Tennessee aims to put you in the jet set — at prices that rival those of regular airline seats. SocialFlights.com allows [...]
Successful Mompreneurs: First Friends Portraits
Artist Erin Chainani was home with her 2 1/2-year-old twins and looking for a creative outlet. One day, the Miami mom decided to paint portraits of her kids’ favorite toys. “I wanted to do something that was important to them when they were little, so that when they grew up, they would have something they [...]
Entrepreneur Destined To Own Flower Shop
Do you think your business is your destiny? For Joy Thorpe, Bowie Florist was destined to belong to her, reports Bowie Patch. Bowie Florist was established in 1966. In the mid-1970s, Thorpe, now 55, began working at the shop when she was 18, staying several years and working for the first owner. Her father offered [...]
My Fox 9: Tony Morley is one of only about 300 full-time toy inventors in the United States, so there’s a good chance that one of his projects — beginning as a crude sketch — is now sitting on a store shelf. “I try to come up with toy concepts that big toy companies would [...]
Measuring Roofs Without A Ladder or a Tape Measure
It doesn’t take much to completely revamp an entire industry if you have a new idea and a great execution. In 2006, roofing salesman David Carlson [no relation to Dane Carlson] vented to his brother-in-law about his frustrations from climbing onto rooftops and manually measuring to give estimates on repair work. Measuring by hand is [...]
Main Street Connect is a network of 52 community-based news websites. Inc. has up a video interview with the founders Jane Bryant Quinn and Carl Tucker. The video is below.
Decide.com Tells You When to Buy
Is Black Friday the best day to buy something? Not always, according to Oren Etzioni’s new website, Decide.com. The site looks at current and historical prices and rumors about upcoming models and tries to estimate the best time to buy. Let’s see what Decide.com says about some popular gift ideas: Apple MacBook Pro -Wait for [...]
Franchise Direct sent me a promotional video for some of their franchises. Even though it’s very promotional, I thought that it contained an interesting mix of business ideas and opportunities to share. Two of the interesting franchises profiled were: Alloy Wheel Repair Specialists Jan-Pro Cleaning Systems The video is below.
Making Money Delivering Lunches: Eat Club
A couple Stanford Business School grads have started a company in the Bay Area to deliver lunch to office workers. The company, Eat Club, was founded a year ago and now serves lunch to about 3,000 office workers per week from South San Francisco to northern San Jose. Their secret sauce: The company only delivers [...]
When Jennifer decided she wanted to be an entrepreneur, she was not looking for just another MLM. She needed a product that she would have some control over. Jennifer Devlin, founder of Celtic Complexion Skin Care for Rosacea, had two choices when she decided to go into business herself after leaving a ten year career [...]
A reader wrote: Traveling with Entrepreneur Magazine in 2011 we’ve interviewed some of the brightest innovators all across the U.S.A. We decided to bring them all together in this short film. The Innovators from SPARKHOUSE on Vimeo. After the jump, all of the innovators featured in the video.
Mom-Friendly Franchising: Stroller Strides
Many parents are starting businesses, hoping to find a balance between work and family. Sometimes a good franchise is all you need. Stroller Strides is a company that was launched by a new mom, and it’s made to be run by mompreneurs looking for the perfect opportunity. We can’t make claims as to what kind [...]
The Two Builders Who Switched from Houses to Coffins
When the construction boom in Ireland went bust, two Irish carpenters, Ronan Diggin and Noel O’sullivan found themselves without a job. Lucky for them, even in Ireland, nothing is s certain as death and taxes. So, they’ve started building caskets. Ronan and Noel asked around and was keen to get someone to help him start [...]
LA Times: Meet Silicon Valley’s version of Martha Stewart. Stewart may have invented lifestyle branding, but Brit Morin is determined to give it a digital makeover. Morin, a 25-year-old former employee of Apple and Google, is launching a new lifestyle brand that she describes as a cross between Real Simple and Wired magazines. She says [...]
Video: 6th Grade iPhone Developer
Watch on YouTube His bio from TEDx: Thomas Suarez is a sixth grade student at a middle school in the South Bay. Since before Tom started kindergarten he’s been fascinated by computers and technology. Recently, he has been focused on the development of applications for the iPhone, and establishing his own company, CarrotCorp.
If A Homeless Man Can Make Money With Soap, You Can Too
Dennis Anderson never expected to be homeless. After all, he had a college degree. (Sarcasm) Unfortunately, that plus the money he earned at his retail jobs in Massachusetts, barely paid the bills. So, on a whim, he packed up his car and drove across the country to the Oregon. Where he found himself, without his [...]
Fido to Go is Chicago’s premier (maybe the only) gourmutt food truck serving hand-crafted canine cookies & doggy ice creams. You can find them and about at the city’s dog parks, beaches, and special events. They are also available to cater doggy parties and can even provide the games, activities, and photographer.
Jack Dorsey The “Jack” Of All Trades
Mostly known as the co-founder of Twitter, he also co-founded Square. TechCrunch reveals some of the lessons he has learned as an entrepreneur. Dorsey revealed that both his own and his family’s experiences with entrepreneurship were inspiration for his two current startups — both of which remove friction from human communication and industry, a process [...]
Investment Banker Turned Furniture Maker
A few years ago, Greg Hankerson was an investment banker in Phoenix with a problem. No, not a problem at work. A problem at home. His wife wanted a patio, and Hankerson was too cheap to buy her one. This need eventually drove Hankerson out of the world of high finance and into business manufacturing [...]
Abu Dhabi Women Embracing Business
The National: A year ago, Badour Al Massabi and Hend Al Nuaimi would have been at a loss to describe what, exactly, an entrepreneur does. Now they are not only preparing to open their own businesses, but they also hold events to educate other female students at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi. “We are empowering [...]
Tiny Family Biz Sells Billions in Gold
In 1973, Coins ’N Things opened as a small storefront between a Dairy Queen and a hair salon in Brockton, Mass. Today they do $6.5 billion in annual sales with about fifty employees. How do they do it? Easy, they’re the single largest seller of raw gold the United States government. Every weekday, Coins ’N [...]
MyFoxTampaBay: Steve Pitts is stepping up, working hand-in-hand with local golf course owners to save their game. His new business model is shaping the way local owners do business. Local pro shops are failing to compete with high volume sport stores, so Pitts came up with the idea to front the bill by outfitting the [...]
Holistically Treating Senior Pets
Examiner: When Grant Stevens first started researching holistic ways to ease the aches and pains of his three senior dogs, he never dreamed it would lead to a new business venture. After seeing a dramatic change in his own dogs thanks to therapeutic massage and other treatments, Stevens is now sharing his talents through his [...]
Worldcrunch: A cozy fire burns in the waiting room’s fireplace. There’s a cowhide rug on the floor and antlers on the wall, along with a photograph of an imposing mountain peak. A woman wearing a lovely silk dirndl – a traditional and somewhat revealing Bavarian dress – walks in and asks what we would like [...]
Made by Hand / No 2 The Knife Maker from Made by Hand on Vimeo.
Techcrunch: Finally, there’s a way for me to carve up the slopes with my pizza-wedge turns without having to endure the condescending smirks of strangers. That’s because Liftopia, the startup gives you steep discounts on ski tickets and other snow-related activities, has just added a new feature: full-mountain rentals. Which means you can keep the [...]
Billy Bob Teeth Inventor Turns Author
Life is nothing like the teeth that Jonah White created so many years ago. It is made to be enjoyed and shared. That is exactly what he has done with his new book. White, a multimillionaire who still lives on the property where his parents, the late John and Ella White, raised him on a [...]
Tired of losing track of your drink at a party? Trong Nguyen’s unique drink tags will allow you to keep track of your drink throughout the night, reports The Sacramento Bee. Nguyen’s solution: Mini decks of playing cards called “PartyPal drinktags.” Guests get a tiny plastic card/tag – say, a jack of hearts – and [...]
Japanese Salon Has Gone To The Dogs
Japan Trends: Green Dog is a center for holistic life, situated in the upscale Tokyo Mid Town district, among high class restaurants, designer shops and museums. The objective of the center is to create a “joyful life with your partner (the dog)”. In order to achieve that Green Dog offers a wide variety of holistic [...]
More Dessert, Less Food Desert
“Food deserts” are low-income neighborhoods lacking access to healthful, affordable food. Across the U.S. a growing number of people live in food deserts, but a new business out of Seattle is attempting to feel this need. Stockbox Grocers is a miniature market that is tucked inside a reclaimed shipping container and placed into the parking [...]
In space, what happens to the bubbles in a glass of beer? How do you pour it? Can you even drink beer in space? Two beer-preneurs plan to find out when they market the first beer in space. BusinessWeek has more: Jason Held and Jaron Mitchell have a dream. In that dream, you are floating [...]
His Dad Gave Him a Soda Machine Instead of An Allowance
This sounds like a great idea to try with your kids: After a brief, failed experiment paying me to do chores, my dad tried something really neat. It clearly took a bit of legwork, but maybe there are some transferrable lessons for parents who want to lay an entrepreneurial foundation. He gave me a vending [...]
Keenwash: Mobile Waterless Carwash
BusinessWeek: Water is precious in Jordan, where shortages have prompted decades of rationing and exacerbated tensions with Israel. Nader Atmeh and his sons, Hassan and Moutaz, want to do their part by eliminating the traditional car wash in the Middle East. They say their waterless washing business, Keenwash, is saving Jordan hundreds of thousands of [...]
Making a Business Out of Cotton Candy
The Wicked Witch Cotton Candy Company sells cotton candy at everything from children’s parties to upscale weddings. The Bradenton Patch has more: Unlike processed cotton candy sold in chain stores, Wicked Witch Cotton Candy contains no preservatives and can be prepared with either kosher or organic ingredients. “We offer an array of fully customizable products,” [...]
The Founding of Virgin Atlantic
Richard Branson: “In ‘79, when Joan, my fiancee and I were on a holiday in the British Virgin Islands, we were trying to catch a flight to Puerto Rico; but the local Puerto Rican scheduled flight was cancelled. The airport terminal was full of stranded passengers. I made a few calls to charter companies and [...]
Out Of Unemployment Emerges An Entrepreneur
Dexter Patch: Begin owns and operates Right Brain Networks in Dexter, a website design and computer network management company that boasts a healthy clientele ranging from small businesses to the U.S. Army. “But business wasn’t always so good, he said. Like most Michigan residents two years ago, Begin, an information technology manager at a microchip [...]
Launching A Business That Docks Boats
Like many people during the recent recession, Larry Moody found himself laid off an looking for work. Thankfully, he had plenty of experience in plastics and that allowed him to start a new business making a boat docking system. Though he had worries similar to most unemployed people, such as how to pay for his [...]
The Sacramento Bee: Handmade in the United States of recycled materials, Elizabeth’s features the season’s must-have footwear: peep-toe booties in faux leather that are long on style but short on environmental impact — they are biodegradable and emit no volatile compounds. Faux suede platform heels are versatile, sexy and made from recycled plastic and soft, [...]
