entrepreneurship : Buzz

It was 2012's first snowfall, but that didn't stop 200 people from trekking to the University of Baltimore for the second annual Create Baltimore. 

"Ideas were spit-balled, the collaborators of tomorrow (perhaps) met each other and an assortment of topics were covered," writes the Baltimore Brew. "People discussed mapping and visualizing, journalism and various ways to shine a light on government data, creating an advocacy organization for city bicyclists, improving food access in urban neighborhoods and a host of other ripe topics."

You can read the rest of the story here. 

A Baltimore County sports shop will be the subject of a new reality TV show, according to the Baltimore Sun's David Zurawick.

ABC will follow the owners of Robbie's First Base in Timonium in 12, half-hour episodes. You can read more about the planned TV show in Zurawick's blog.

Scott Ferber is rebranding his new company TidalTV and is now calling it Videology, the Baltimore Business Journal writes.

Videology is building a network of advertisers for video content and has signed up AOL Video as a client, the newspaper reports.

Ferber is the Baltimore entrepreneur who co-founded Advertising.com with his brother John Ferber. In 2004, the entrepreneurs sold Advertising.com to AOL for $435 million. You can read the rest of the story here.

Philanthropist William Polk Carey, who donated millions to Maryland universities, died Jan. 2 in West Palm Beach, Fla. Newspapers around the country remembered the investment firm owner who managed an $11.8 billion investment portfolio.
That includes the Wall Street Journal, which ran an Associated Press story remembering the late entrepreneur.

Last year, Carey gave $30 million to the University of Maryland law school and gave $50 million to found the Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business in 2006.

Darcie Chan is a 37-year-old attorney who has sold 400,000 copies of her self-published book "The Mill River Recluse," writes the Wall Street Journal.

And Chan got her law degree from the University of Baltimore. Numerous literary agents and publishers rejected the book before Chan decided to publish it herself, she tells the newspaper. You can read more about Chan's literary success here. (Registration is required).

What do Urban Pirates, Marine Steel Wire Products, aMuse Toys and Union Box Co. have in common?

Leaders from all of these Greater Baltimore firms were invited to the White House to share their thoughts on health care reform, the economy and other business concerns, according to the Baltimore Business Journal.

You can read more about the meeting and see a complete list of businesses that participated here.

When the public got word that Café Hon owner Denise Whiting had trademarked the word "Hon," the Hampen business owner faced a backlash that affected sales of her restaurant.

But she told several media outlets that she is dropping her trademark of the term of the uniquely Baltimore term of endearment. 

She also apologized for stirring up such controversy.

Thanks, Hon.

You can read more about it here.

From the article: "Citybizlist took a look at the 10 finalists of TechNite's 10 Hottest Technologies in Town to see what their Facebook presence looked like. We figured that if these were the hot technologies in Baltimore, they would be on the forefront of how social media, Facebook in particular, could be harnessed to attract interest, promote dialogue, create connections, establish a strong brand, etc." Read the full post here.

If Easton real estate agent Tim Miller can pull it off, National Premium beer will soon make a return to area coolers.

From Erik Maza at the Sun:

For decades, National Premium has been a hazy, distant memory. Stored-away memorabilia and faded beer ads were all that remained of its once-storied legacy.

That may change next year. Tim Miller, an Easton real estate agent, has acquired the trademark and has ambitious plans to bring the beer back to the Baltimore market by next baseball season. He has secured the formula and announced a new, spiffy logo. Capital investment and brewing are next.

Read the full story.

Local startup 410Labs made big news last week by announcing a round of funding for Shortmail, a new too designed to alleviate the burden of overwhelming email conversations.

From the source:

But it's not just Twitter for email. There are other interesting elements of the service too. For example, you can set any Shortmail conversation to be private or public. The latter feature I tested out yesterday with 410 Labs (the company behind Shortmail) co-founder Dave Troy. Below, find my Q&A back and forth with him. (They don't currently have embeds, so I took screen shots of it to include in this post. But you can find the thread live on the web here.)

As Troy notes below, 410 Labs has secured a $750,000 Series A round of funding. True Ventures, 500 Startups, Fortify Ventures, and The Maryland Venture Fund drove the round. Individuals including Tim O'Shaughnessy (co-founder of LivingSocial), Jeff Ganek (founder of Neustar), Abdur Chowdhury (chief scientist at Twitter), among others, participated as well.

Read the full story at TechCrunch.

One of the country's top five new pie shops to open in 2010 was started by none other than Baltimore's Rodney Henry, according to Budget Travel magazine.

Henry is the owner of Dangerously Delicious Pies, long known among Baltimoreans. Last year, Henry opened a Washington, D.C. store.

The November issue of Budget Travel magazine recognizes the DC shop along with others in Chicago, Portland, Ore., San Francisco and New York. You can read the entire story here.

Some people travel the world creating art. Others take their talents on the road to design buildings. Still others study different cultures to bring new zing to their culinary creations. For Baltimore resident Brian Strumke, it's all about beer.

Here's an excerpt:

"Love & Regret, which Strumke brewed at the 'Hofbrouwerijke brewery in Beerzel, Belgium, in February, is a saison (farmhouse-style ale) spiced with heather, chamomile, lavender and dandelion. It accompanied the first course of a beer dinner at Pizzeria Paradiso two weeks ago. (Stillwater is expanding its market to encompass 18 cities nationwide, and I caught up with Strumke in the midst of a road trip that had already taken him to Vermont, Boston and New York City.)

None of the unusual ingredients stands out by itself, but Love & Regret has a delightful floral perfume that wafts up the back of one's throat and fills the sinuses. It measures 7.2 percent alcohol by volume (reasonable by the standards of today's high-octane "imperial" beers) and offers a crisp aftertaste that perks up the appetite."

Read the entire article.

Maryland Technology Development Corporation's new head, Robert A. Rosenbaum, took a little time out to talk with The Washington Post about his plans for the agency.

Here's an excerpt:

"Rosenbaum, a former managing director of Baltimore-based Nobska Ventures, also is pushing to close a gap in how the money is handed out. Too often, early-stage companies are left gasping for funds as they mature. If funding permits, he wants Tedco to fill that gap by following up on its seed investments with a second infusion of cash to help promising companies grow."

Read the entire article.

If you haven't been to Harbor East recently, then you've been missing out on the latest additions to one of Baltimore's most dynamic communities. The city's newest neighborhood continues to evolve and gain kudos for Baltimore.

Here's an excerpt:

"In the last six years, in the hands of the Baltimore-based H&S Properties Development Corporation, the area has sprouted towering condo, hotel and office buildings along with gleaming restaurants and shops, some of which possess a spiffed-up, cookie-cutter Mall of America feel.

Harbor East has proven such a draw that its borders have expanded far beyond what was first planned as an eight-block area, bumping up against neighboring Little Italy."

Read the entire article here.

Local piemaster, Rodney Henry, has added another layer to his sweet and savory empire by taking his treats on the road with a new food truck. There's only one problem: you'll have to take a 45 minute drive to find it as it roams the streets of Washington, D.C.

Here's an excerpt:

"The District's newest food truck, Dangerously Delicious Pies, enjoyed its first full day today on the campus of the George Washington University in Foggy Bottom. Headed by operator Lloyd Blanchard, the truck offers an assortment of savory and sweet pies as well as quiches."

Read the entire blog post.