Archive: Value Added
Value Added: Venture-ing On The Web
Here's Tom Heath's latest column on Washington's entrepreneurial set: Matt Silverman is a fifth-year student at George Washington University, where he will graduate with a master's degree in information systems this December. He is a Web geek. He gets his news from digg.com, slashdot.org, reddit.com and The Drudge Report. He...
By Dan Beyers | July 22, 2008; 05:52 PM ET | Comments (18)
Value Added: Does Ralph Lauren Do Whale Belts?
Here's Tom Heath's latest column on Washington's entrepreneurial set: This is the Value Added that I look back upon proudly one day and say, "I discovered the next Ralph Lauren." Or it's the one where I say to myself, "What was I thinking?" I am betting it will be the...
By Dan Beyers | July 15, 2008; 04:36 PM ET | Comments (201)
Value Added: Being The Boss
Here's Tom Heath's latest column on Washington's entrepreneurial set: Farhat Elmohtaseb doesn't want to answer to a boss, or punch a clock or work his way up some corporate ladder. He is right where he wants to be: the owner and operator of four Subway sandwich shops in downtown Washington....
By Dan Beyers | July 8, 2008; 02:52 PM ET | Comments (27)
ExecuTube: The Subway King of the Mid-Atlantic
Yesterday's Washington Business section featured a profile of Larry Feldman, who recently opened his 1,019th Subway store. He sat down with Tom Heath for a lengthy interview. Here's part one, and check out more from Feldman on competition, quality control and entrepreneurship....
By Terri Rupar | July 8, 2008; 12:07 PM ET | Comments (1)
Value Added: The Secretive Rales
Here's Tom Heath's latest column on Washington's entrepreneurial set: So which two local business legends braved an economic downturn and an all-but-dead IPO market and took public a boring pump company based in Richmond? And now, with the firm valued around $1.1 billion, own $220 million each in company stock?...
By Terri Rupar | July 1, 2008; 03:12 PM ET | Comments (15)
Value Added: Second Chances
Here's Tom Heath's latest column on Washington's entrepreneurial set: When Arman Eshraghi's representatives pitched me on a story about his Reston-based start-up, I thought to myself: another software company that loses money but is valued at millions of dollars. I thought most of those went boom with the tech bust...
By Terri Rupar | June 24, 2008; 04:31 PM ET | Comments (42)
Recruiting In A Downturn
NRI Staffing helps people fill permanent or temporary positions - administrative, finance, health care and more. That can be challenging when unemployment is low and the economy is down, making companies wary of hiring. Michael Lyons, NRI's director of corporate accounts, addressed that as well as his vacation plans a...
By Terri Rupar | June 19, 2008; 12:20 PM ET | Comments (1)
Value Added: Suds And Money
Here's Tom Heath's latest column on Washington's entrepreneurial set: My wife, Polly, used to work with a guy named Jim Koch. You probably never heard of him, but you may have heard of the beer he invented: Sam Adams, made by another Koch invention called the Boston Beer Company. Koch,...
By Dan Beyers | June 17, 2008; 06:48 PM ET | Comments (53)
Value Added: From Milking Cows To Mutual Funds
Here's Tom Heath's latest column on Washington's entrepreneurial set: I attended a lecture in downtown D.C. about a year ago to hear Carly Fiorina, former chairman and chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard and now a member of Republican presumptive presidential nominee Sen. John McCain's inner circle. Fiorina talked about how...
By Dan Beyers | June 10, 2008; 05:35 PM ET | Comments (20)
ExecuTube: Interview WIth Lobbying's Van Scoyoc
One of the executives who sat down with staff writer Thomas Heath during our Post 200 event a few weeks ago was Stu Van Scoyoc, president of Van Scoyoc Associates. That's the third-biggest lobbying firm in Washington, behind two law firms. Is this a good year for business? How have...
By Terri Rupar | June 6, 2008; 12:00 PM ET | Email a Comment
ExecuTube: A Video Chat With Ted Leonsis
Staff writer Tom Heath sat down with Washington Capitals majority owner Ted Leonsis during the inaugural stop of our Post 200 Roadshow recently for a wide-ranging chat. The result is this series of short videos. Ted talks about his secrets for a successful life. He tells us how he goes...
By Dan Beyers | June 5, 2008; 05:00 AM ET | Comments (3)
Value Added: Pushing Petunias
Here's Tom Heath's latest column on Washington's entrepreneurial set: A couple of weekends a month, my wife and I drive up Route 270 in Montgomery County to one of the big box stores like Sam's Club or Home Depot in Gaithersburg. We walk the aisles, buying everything from "man-size" bags...
By Dan Beyers | June 3, 2008; 03:30 PM ET | Comments (34)
The First Executive Interview: Dan Mudd
We grabbed some time and some executives at our Post 200 event a couple of weeks ago and tried out a new feature for the WashBiz blog. This is our first of what we hope is many executive interviews. Today: Dan Mudd, CEO of Fannie Mae, who had talked to...
By Terri Rupar | May 29, 2008; 12:21 PM ET | Comments (2)
Value Added: Taking Advantage Of Opportunities
One of my favorite experiences is jetting to Phoenix, Ariz., each January, where my wife, Polly, and I visit her parents and I attend the FBR Open, one of the wilder events on the PGA Tour and a corporate schmoozefest sponsored by Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, the Rosslyn investment...
By Dan Beyers | May 27, 2008; 06:40 PM ET | Comments (40)
Value Added: Getting The Car Washed
Here's Tom Heath's latest column on Washington's entrepreneurial set: David DuGoff loves rainy Tuesdays. He relishes big trees that drop nasty yellow pollen all over cars. He prays for a couple of feet of snow every January and February. Not all at the same time, but enough to throw lots...
By Dan Beyers | May 20, 2008; 07:16 PM ET | Comments (14)
Value Added: Fannie Mae's Dan Mudd
In last week's blog/column Tom Heath wrote about one of the Washington region's smallest businesses, an indoor swimming center for dogs only. . .This week we jump to the largest business in the region, Fannie Mae, the home mortgage giant, which probably has more revenues in a minute than...
By Dan Beyers | May 13, 2008; 02:01 PM ET | Comments (4)
Value Added: This Business Is For The Dogs
Here's Tom Heath's latest column on Washington's entrepreneurial set: I have been dying to write about the Canine Fitness Center for a year. Why? Because it combines a couple of my passions: my Yellow Labrador Retriever named Babe and, secondly, cool little businesses. If you don't like dogs, you may...
By Dan Beyers | May 7, 2008; 11:00 AM ET | Comments (16)
Value Added: From Tennis Teacher To Running The Club
Gary Henkin's immersion into the business side of the fitness craze reminds me of the advice one of my former editors, Doug Feaver, once gave me. Feaver, who was one of the kinder and smarter editors I was privileged to work for, said if I wanted to be an...
By Dan Beyers | April 29, 2008; 12:55 PM ET | Comments (8)
Value Added: A Chat With Eric Hovde
Most Fridays I walk from my office over to the The Palm restaurant a few blocks away, where I reward myself with a nice lunch. It's something I started 10 years ago to help me get through the week. People usually oohh and aahh when I tell them I...
By Dan Beyers | April 22, 2008; 04:40 PM ET | Comments (3)
Value Added: Betting Big
Here's Tom Heath's latest column on Washington's successful business people: One of my favorite books is Joseph Frazier Wall's 1970 biography of Andrew Carnegie, who built a steel empire before selling it to J.P. Morgan for $600 million in 1901. I admire Carnegie's entrepreneurial genius, which included rolling most of...
By Dan Beyers | April 15, 2008; 03:45 PM ET | Comments (8)
Value Added: Life After Radio
I didn't like Bennett Zier much when I first met him a couple of years ago over breakfast at The Four Seasons in Georgetown. He and Redskins icon John Riggins were pushing their new Redskins Radio venture - called Red Zebra -- under the team's owner Daniel Snyder. Zier...
By Dan Beyers | April 8, 2008; 01:37 PM ET | Comments (15)
Value Added: Social Networking 101
Here's Tom Heath's latest column on Washington's successful business people: Seven years ago I somehow was selected for a fellowship to study at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, where I learned lots of cool stuff like accounting, the discount rate and the definition of moral hazard. But the...
By Dan Beyers | April 1, 2008; 01:19 PM ET | Comments (23)
Value Added: "Building Something Pretty Spectacular"
Here's Tom Heath's latest column on Washington's successful business people: Alba Alemán says she is "really stuck in the sandwich." That's yuppie-speak for supporting your parents and children at the same time. The 40-year-old founder of a Chantilly computer company has the means to do it. Her company, called Citizant,...
By Dan Beyers | March 25, 2008; 12:03 PM ET | Comments (22)
Value Added: Making Money From Fast Food
Here's Tom Heath's latest column on Washington's successful business people: I can't get enough of the fast food business, so I recently phoned Bob Phillips, president of California Tortilla Group, one of the fastest growing chains in the Washington region. Cal-Tort, as the employees and regulars fondly refer to it,...
By Dan Beyers | March 18, 2008; 12:00 PM ET | Comments (11)
