Entrepreneurs : Buzz

Pittsburgh entrepreneur (and former founder of mSpoke) Sean Ammirati makes a strong case for Pittsburgh as a potential rival to Silicon Valley, especially if the local business community supports local entreprenuers. Ammirati is working with a team of entreprenuers, business leaders and Innovation Works to bring it about through "Innovation Happens."

Read about it on ReadWriteWeb.

Chris Rosella sat down with Dozen's Andrew Twigg to discuss the rapidly expanding Dozen empire, from apple pie a la mode to Sunday brunch, from prix-fixe farm-to-table dinners to raising their own chickens and growing their own herbs.

Read the complete Boring Pittsburgh blog post.

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"My goal is to make craft accessible," Martin says. "By showing interesting work in an unintimidating environment, I'm able to foster appreciation of jewelry as an art form that is meant to be experienced."

Luke & Eloy Gallery is located at 5169 Butler St.

Read the complete American Craft article.

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Give and Take has launched a new T-shirt collection dubbed Glad Rags, which feature images of Great Depression-era hobo markings and codings. Proceeds from these shirts will benefit the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

Give and Take's proprietress, Shea Mullen, also runs CoCo's Cupcake Cafe in Shadyside.

Click here to read the complete Keystone Edge article.

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EcoClean will lease 10,000 square feet in the old brewery building, behind an Art Deco facade that still proudly proclaims, "Fort Pitt--that's it."

Click here to read the complete article in Keystone Edge, Pop City's Pennsylvania-wide sister publication.

Rollier's was founded in 1922, and now maintains a brick-and-mortar location in Mt. Lebanon (its longtime Shadyside shop closed in 2002), as well as a successful supplementary website, HardToFindItems.com. Brothers Brett and Derek Satterfield, whose great-grandfather started Rollier's, realized the neighborhood hardware shop needed a fresh way to compete with big-box stores, so in 2008 they launched the site, which houses tons of niche-type items, from white wires instead of green, to grill thermometers.

HardToFindItems added $1.3 million in revenue to Rollier's takings in 2009, and will likely add about $3 million in 2010.

Click here to read the complete article on Rollier's Hardware.

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Read the complete interview for insight into Modcloth's early stumbles, and what the future holds (spoilers: even more customer-driven direction, and maybe even some plus-size fashions--finally!).

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The contenders: CoCo's in Shadyside and Dozen, which last week opened its fifth location, this one on the South Side.

Currently, Dozen is in the lead with 56 percent of the votes, CoCo's got 20 percent, and 24 percent of the votes go to write-ins.

Looks like Dozen's got this match in the (pastry) bag, but we say: Don't count out Vanilla Pastry Studio to rear its pretty little head.

Click here to read the complete Boring Pittsburgh blog post.

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A month may have passed since the G-20 rolled into and out of town, but independent Downtown businesses are still feeling the effects, and not necessarily in a positive way, Franktuary's owners say.

In his "Dear Mr. President" letter posted on Franktuary's blog, Franktuary co-owner Tim Tobitsch writes, "The hype and limited access to downtown generated by the presence of your international peers kept approximately 90% of my regular clientele away.. The law enforcement officials stationed downtown, although pleasant and professional, were not permitted to take a lunch break and eat at the establishment of their choosing. The presence of protesters, tourists, and adventurous locals in the Golden Triangle failed to replace even a tiny fraction of downtown Pittsburgh's regular daytime population. Ironically, while trying to fix the global economy with pomp, circumstance, and a Friday morning meeting, those who attended the G-20 Summit managed to kill many facets of a local economy for approximately 72 hours.

"At a minimum, my business lost $500 in sales as a direct result of the entirety of downtown Pittsburgh being turned into a high-security international society club. Admittedly, from a global perspective the amount of money to which I am referring is not very much. However, to a business such as my own it is a staggering loss."

And because Franktuary is more about finding a solution than whining about the problem, they've got an idea: If 20 world leaders were to buy one $25 Franktuary hooded sweatshirt each, that would equal $500--the loss in sales over the two-day summit.

No response from the world leaders yet. But if you want a hoodie, stop by the shop at 325 Oliver Ave., or email tim@franktuary.com.

Click here to read the complete Franktuary blog post.

The 12-person company specializes in robotic toys "designed in Pittsburgh, made in China and distributed everywhere," says co-founder David Palmer. Its toys, including an adorable robotic penguin ($79.99) and a game-playing gorilla ($99.99), emerged from research on high-performance legged robots coming out of CMU. Bossa Nova recently brought a new CEO, Martin Hitch, into the mix, and is hoping to crack the U.S. market and its big retailers this year. Bossa Nova's revenues are approaching $4 million.

To read the complete Time article, click here.