Food Entrepreneurs: Michael Moran’s CurrySimple

By Guest Author Erika Valdez

CurrySimple was founded by Michael Moran, who at a very early age discovered his passion for food and whose entrepreneurial spirit led him to the establishment of a successful business opportunity. While working at a Thai restaurant in Atlanta, Moran became inspired to create a product not readily available to the consumer. He discovered that the American people found it difficult to cook Thai food at home, in part because they were not able to recreate the tastes of the sauces. It was from this that the idea for CurrySimple —an online company that sells curry and other products made in Thailand from scratch with fresh ingredients—was born. The packaging technology preserves the curry so that it tastes just like on the day it was made. >>>

Helping At-Risk High School Students with Online Solutions: Apex Learning CEO Cheryl Vedoe (Part 3)

SM: What was the status of Apex when you joined seven years ago?

CV: Apex was founded in 1997. I joined in the fall of 2002. The company at the time was primarily an online Advanced Placement company. They had developed a set of online Advanced Placement courses that were delivered with the assistance of Apex teachers. >>>

Black Friday Appeal

With gift shopping on everybody’s mind, I’d like to ask my readers to each stop for a moment and think about who you know who has lost his or her job in this recession, and whether or not you can inspire them to stand up and start something of their own. Not something grandiose with huge financing requirements, but a bootstrapped venture.

Bootstrapping, Weapon Of Mass Reconstruction can perhaps be your gift to these unfortunate but talented people in your lives who need an injection of inspiration.

Food Entrepreneurs: Tools For Food With SpitJack

By Guest Author Erika Valdez

Today’s food entrepreneur story showcases Bruce Frankel, a former restaurant owner and chef, who now owns SpitJack, an online retailer that specializes in selling cooking tools for men. SpitJack sells a variety of products that range from indoor grills to fireplace rotisserie sets with a unique twist—preparing your dinner in the fireplace while enjoying the warmth of the fire. >>>

CRM And RNOW Hook Onto Social Networking

According to Gartner, worldwide CRM market revenue was up 12.5% to $9.15 billion in 2008, and Salesforce.com continues to rise rapidly with a 10.6% share. The company recently announced its social networking product Chatter, which was inspired by Facebook and Twitter. While Chatter has been developed in-house, rival SaaS customer relationship management (CRM) vendor RightNow is entering the social networking space via acquisitions. Let’s take a closer look at their performances. >>>

Helping At-Risk High School Students with Online Solutions: Apex Learning CEO Cheryl Vedoe (Part 2)

SM: Have you remained in the education space since your introduction to it at Apple?

CV: I have, with one exception. >>>

Food Entrepreneurs: Angela Shelf Medearis, The Kitchen Diva

By Guest Author Erika Valdez

Happy Thanksgiving to all readers! We continue our celebration of the season with the second interview in the food entrepreneurs series. Today’s entrepreneur is Angela Shelf Medearis, who is not only an award-wining author of four best-selling cookbooks (as well as over 80 children’s books), but also the host and producer of the television cooking show, The Kitchen Diva!, and one of the few African American women to own her own multimedia production company (Diva Productions Inc.). In my recent interview with Shelf Medearis, I learned more about how where entrepreneurial spirit led her to become successful in a field that she had not previously considered. >>>

Helping At-Risk High School Students with Online Solutions: Apex Learning CEO Cheryl Vedoe (Part 1)

Cheryl Vedeo is the CEO of Apex Learning. Her background as a software engineer, marketer, and senior manager gave her a solid technical foundation. It was at Apple, as the head of the K-12 education division, that she was introduced to education in the technology space. Cheryl holds a BA in Mathematics from Wheaton College, in Norton, Massachusetts, and an MBA from Northeastern University, in Boston, Massachusetts. She serves as a trustee of Wheaton College and is on the board of directors of the Washington Technology Alliance.

SM: Cheryl, to get started, could you tell me about yourself? Where are you from and what kind of upbringing contributed to where you are today?

CV: I grew up in the Northeast, in Massachusetts specifically. I was a math major in college. I went to Wheaton College. >>>