Entrepreneurs

I am in agreement with the view expressed in your tribute to Steve Jobs that many CEOs of the largest corporations are overpaid for what they do ("Steve Jobs, old-fashioned visionary," Oct. 9). They are not innovators and they are not personal risk takers. Steve Jobs was not a typical CEO because he was an entrepreneur and the founder of his company despite the fact that he was "fired" and had a hiatus from the company for 12 years. You note that "while he became a rich man, he did not appear to be motivated by money.

This is a tale about Baltimore beer barons, the owner of the Washington Senators, a silver bullet, and how the Orioles got to Baltimore. Now, with the O's generating a buzz as they fight for first place in the American League East and prepare to meet the Washington Nationals for a weekend series in D.C., it seems like a good time to spin it. I heard it some years ago when Dawson Farber Jr., a former executive at National Brewing Company who...

Kenneth McCullough got the itch to buy a snowplow months ago, acting on a hunch that this winter would be a nasty one. Money, McCullough anticipated, would be there to be made. Turns out McCullough's gut was right. He is prepping for this weekend's snow as if he is a participant in Sunday's Super Bowl. "I'm going to get a good eight hours' sleep, then get up at 5 a.m. [Saturday] and get started," said McCullough, 39, who lives in Reisterstown and plans to canvass Baltimore County for jobs.

A survey by the Innovation Alliance found that a vast majority of participants in Baltimore's technology community are interested in a "hub" — akin to similar spaces in New York City and San Diego — that could be used for meetings, conferences and continuous education and networking for entrepreneurs. That and other findings in a report released Monday are among the early results of an effort by the Innovation Alliance, funded with a $75,000 grant from the philanthropic Abell Foundation, to improve the environment for new-business formation in Baltimore.

Entrepreneurs, both established and wanna-be's, have a new place to connect on the web. Live Your Dream TV offers tips, techniques and hopefully a whole lot of inspiration to entrepreneurs needing help or just wanting to spread the word about their services. The daily webcasts were started in January by Columbia couple Mick and Tara Carbo. Their own entrepreneurial story is inspirational and still a work in progress. While they walk that hopeful road to success, the Hammond High School alums are committed to doing what they can to help others live their dream as well.

Could crowdfunding work for entrepreneurs who need capital for their private startup and are willing to sell a stake in it to the masses? Congress seems to think so. Charities and artists successfully raise money for their causes via crowdfunding, a method of soliciting hundreds or thousands of small donations over the Internet. Could it work for entrepreneurs who need capital for their startup and are willing to sell a stake in it to the masses? Congress seems to think so. The bipartisan Jumpstart Our Business Startups — or JOBS — Act loosens restrictions so business can more easily raise capital and, it's hoped, create jobs.

One mobile application lets people know the ratio of single people to married people at a bar or restaurant. One website lets owners of vacant buildings poll the crowd to see what kind of business should move into the neighborhood. Another app lets teachers use Facebook as a tool. These are a handful of apps that came to life in Baltimore during the city's first Startup Weekend. More than 125 people descended on Baltimore from as far away as New York City for the chance to rapidly develop their ideas into prototypes, in hopes of becoming the next Facebook or Google.

Anne Arundel Community College will offer entrepreneurs and employees of business and industry a travel-study course to explore the feasibility of conducting business in China. The course, "Doing Business in China," will be held May 19 to May 30 and will include visits to Beijing's Zhongguancun district, Xian, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The trip's cost ranges from $3,170 to $3,565, with payment plans available. The cost covers round-trip airfare, stays in hotels, daily breakfast, some dinners and lunches, and sightseeing tours.

Look beyond the dark wood, piped in classical music and ornate furniture of Frank A. Adams' Timonium office, and the true essence of Grotech Capital Group Inc.'s president and chief executive emerges.In one corner of an end table, for instance, sits a small block inscribed with a paraphrase of Winston Churchill's famous "Never give in" speech. Tucked behind a door is a plaque extolling the philosophy of Vince Lombardi, entitled "What it takes to be No. 1.""Working hard and not giving up have helped me in my life, and they're very much characteristics of Grotech at large," said Mr. Adams, a former PHH Corp.

Now that the conventions are over and all the delegates have returned home, small-business owners face the challenge of choosing the best candidate for president.President Bush and Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton continue to pepper their speeches with compassionate references to the needs of small business. Both promise to make things better for entrepreneurs by kick-starting the economy. Despite the promises, many entrepreneurs believe the candidates are more likely to listen to what big business and special interests have to say because that's where campaign dollars come from.

Could crowdfunding work for entrepreneurs who need capital for their private startup and are willing to sell a stake in it to the masses? Congress seems to think so. Charities and artists successfully raise money for their causes via crowdfunding, a method of soliciting hundreds or thousands of small donations over the Internet. Could it work for entrepreneurs who need capital for their startup and are willing to sell a stake in it to the masses? Congress seems to think so. The bipartisan Jumpstart Our Business Startups — or JOBS — Act loosens restrictions so business can more easily raise capital and, it's hoped, create jobs.

On March 27, TowsonGlobal at Towson University is marking its fifth anniversary and recognized the achievements of six entrepreneurs who have turned ideas into real businesses. During the Celebration of Entrepreneurial Success ceremony at the university, certificates of accomplishment will be awarded to the incubator's first graduates, which include: Linda Seidel and Estelle Meister of Transcending Cosmetics - a company that was founded to market their proprietary product, Natural Cover, to makeup professionals and medical practitioners.

Kyle Boyce takes a guitar lesson in Chicago every Wednesday night — with a teacher in Toronto. No traveling is involved. Instead, Boyce fires up a computer, plugs in his electric guitar and launches into a live music lesson with his instructor on Bandhappy.com, a new Baltimore-based website that aims to bring such lessons to the masses. "I was super-skeptical about it at first," said Boyce, 27, who is a guitarist in a band called Unvisioned. "But after my first lesson, I was hooked.

For a disciplined U.S. Naval Academy graduate who helped run nuclear-powered ships, Jason Hardebeck likes to move fast and break things. The 46-year-old entrepreneur, who grew up in Montana and Nevada, came to the East Coast to attend the academy in Annapolis. His career has spanned startups in Boston, Black & Decker in Towson and his own Baltimore-based startup, WhoGlue, which he started at the peak of the dot-com boom over a decade ago. He closed a chapter last fall by selling WhoGlue, an online network for private communities, to Facebook for an undisclosed amount.

Harry Reese Gamber, a high school dropout who became a successful businessman specializing in drywall and painting, died Sunday of pancreatic cancer at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. The Owings Mills resident, who had lived in Catonsville for many years, was 85. The son of an auto mechanic and a homemaker, Harry Reese Gamber was born in a home in Westminster that is now Maggie's Restaurant. His great-grandfather, William Snyder Gamber, who was a Civil War veteran, served as postmaster from 1881 to 1903 of the Carroll County village that was named for him. In 1930, Mr. Gamber, who was known as Reese, was struck by an automobile that left him with serious nerve damage and a permanently injured right arm. Numerous hospitalizations left him behind in school, and when he was 13, he dropped out. Unable to enlist for the service because of his arm, Mr. Gamber worked for the Red Cross during World War II. From 1945 to 1948, he worked a variety of construction jobs, including driving a cement mixer for the Harry T. Campbell Co., and later rose to become a foreman.

We're surprised Megan Auman had the time to chat with us. After all, she's not only a jewelry designer and metalsmith, but an educator and entrepreneur (yes, we feel like slackers, too). Auman, 30, began her eponymous jewelry line after graduate school in 2006, and her work, found at meganauman.com , is sold at more than 60 stores. And she's helping to shape the next generation of designers. In 2009, she created Designing an MBA at designinganmba.com, focusing on business thinking for designers.

MOSCOW -- As Yuri Tumentsev heads down Gorky Street toward the gritty industrial suburbs, his white Lada never leaves the fast lane -- fitting for the new breed of young, ambitious Soviet entrepreneurs.He's dressed casually, but with a European flair unusual for the Soviet Union: black pants and a black shirt splashed with red, green and gold. He takes a drag on a Marlboro, the coolest cigarette in this nicotine-mad country. "I think I am a Soviet yuppie," he says, smiling.In Zelenograd, Mr. Tumentsev stops at a large state-owned laundry, where his young retail and manufacturing company, ABV, leases two small rooms to make socks.

When Betsy Browning was in law school and needed to present evidence, she drew charts and graphs on the back of shirt cardboard with a marking pen. Browning went on to teach media law at the University of Texas at Austin, but never forgot those crude cardboard graphics.Today, Browning combines her legal expertise with the talents of a team of graphic artists at Browning & Co. The Houston-based firm prepares demonstrative evidence for trials and utility rate cases across the country. The charts, graphics and time lines not only help jury members better understand what's being said in court but will also generate about $1 million in revenue this year for Browning's company.

A few weeks ago, McKeever Conwell joined the Baltimore Tech Facebook group, which has more than 600 online members. There, the 25-year-old computer engineer proposed an idea: How about getting a small group together to practice business pitches? He offered to hold the event in his living room. What happened next stunned Conwell. People he didn't know embraced his idea and moved it forward. One man offered free office space and a catered lunch at his accounting services company; others pulled in experienced advisers to give the entrepreneurs feedback.

There's a language slip in the online description of the Baltimore Mixtape Project, an effort to inspire young people to express their views about the sorry state of juvenile justice through hip-hop. Describing the project's first contest — called "Battle: Bar None" — the organizers refer to the school-to-prison pipeline that sends thousands of troubled kids out of classrooms and into juvie-jails. "Many of Baltimore's youth are intimately failure with these dynamics," the website says.