Over the course of the 2016 presidential election, then-candidate Donald Trump asserted the election was going to be “rigged” by unspecified actors. No evidence was ever offered to support that claim, and his concerns about election integrity curiously seem to have evaporated on November 9. But the uncertainty and doubt generated by those statements, and […]
In a town with 400 restaurants, one might be forgiven the occasional restaurant-ownership fantasy. And some of us actually take the plunge, becoming the lucky owners of diners, Chinese takeout joints or high-end date spots. But what do you actually get when you buy a restaurant? That depends. Primarily, says business broker Stu Rifkin, “You’re […]
Greater productivity is good for business. What if the materials that comprised your products could be used—and reused—more productively over their entire life cycles? No matter what your business makes, you have potential to get more value out of your materials. Charlottesville-based nonprofit GreenBlue can help. Its mission is to foster “a resilient system of […]
The words “back to school” don’t mean the same thing for everyone—it’s not all sharpened pencils and shiny red apples for the teacher. For many, it means scraping together tuition for college. But, school is a time for personal development (and not financial anxiety), which is where Virginia’s 529 plan comes into play. Named after […]
How do you get kids to learn math and science? It’s a question that has vexed many a teacher, but Charlottesville-based ExploreLearning has some pretty good answers. Founded in 1999 by UVA math Ph.D. David Shuster, the company develops online learning tools that are now used around the country. The key, says EL’s Tammy Weisman, […]
At the Chancellor Street Preschool Co-operative, the business manager is a parent. The person who refills the supplies and maintenance closet with soap and toilet paper is also a parent. Parents administrate admissions and provide diversity outreach. Parents set the tuition, design the schedule and make strategic decisions about the school’s future. “Every job is […]
Refugees flee violence and persecution to rebuild their lives—and careers—in new places, and over the years, the Charlottesville area has been the initial home for more than 3,500 refugees from 32 countries. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps them integrate into the workforce by partnering with local businesses. Design Electric, a 250-person company that builds […]
Cristine Nardi asks us to imagine Charlottesville without the nonprofit sector. No Paramount Theater or Discovery Museum on the Downtown Mall. No WNRN to listen to in the car. No Thomas Jefferson Foundation to open the doors of Monticello. No Jefferson School to preserve the legacy of the African-American community. No University of Virginia or […]
Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. At least, it was for Margaret Murray Bloom, who as a local event planner (and a woman tired of hauling around a purse all day) needed a solution to keep her hands free. “I developed the idea from a true pain point,” Bloom says. “I never […]
Late in the evening of Halloween 2008, the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakomoto published a white paper to an obscure email list. The paper described a new system of exchanging value, named “Bitcoin,” which wouldn’t require the involvement or intervention of a third party. At the time, the paper was largely ignored. But nearly 10 years later, […]
Custom Ink has been operating out of Charlottesville for nearly a decade, but the company has only recently put its name up for all to see. The custom design and printing firm, which has shown staggering growth over the last 15 years, focuses on its online audience. Wherever you are in the country, if you […]
Remember when there was so much talk about supporting the coal industry in West Virginia and it turned out that coal only employed about 12,000 people in a state with a population of 1.8 million? When we make decisions about our community, it’s important to know where we invest our labor force. The university, hospitals, […]
The Virginia state legislature recently passed a bill that will allow farmers to grow hemp statewide. So area kombucha fanatics and music festivalgoers can now update their wardrobes with local goods just like the rest of us. This, of course, is just the type of joke industrial hemp advocates abhor. Hemp, they say, is a […]
During the autumn of 2017, our newspapers and newsfeeds were filled with stories about sexual harassment in the film business, television and other industries where powerful men behaved badly. In December, “the silence breakers” of the #MeToo movement were named Time magazine’s Person of the Year. The sheer number of cases reveals a pattern that […]
The University of Virginia’s i.Lab is where good business ideas go to become great ones. Local entrepreneurs and their teams apply for the incubator program in January, and if they’re one of about 20 groups selected after a Shark Tank-style round of pitches, they’ll be admitted into a 10-week program where their start-ups are provided […]
Bicycles are a great way to get around. They’re economical, eco-friendly and good exercise. But their design never made much sense to television and film editor and director—and lifelong bike rider—Scotty Wilson. Bikes are big, bulky and not easily transported from one place to the other (unless the bike is the transportation); they’re a pain […]
Talking with Chris Newman about the farm he runs with his wife, Annie, you get the feeling you’re glimpsing the future. Newman likes to think ahead; he was still in his 20s when he and Annie began planning to become farmers after retirement, which was decades away. They lived in Washington, D.C., then; he worked […]
In December, the Republican-led Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal its own 2015 ruling about how Internet service providers should be regulated, saying it was eliminating “heavy-handed micromanagement” of the Internet. Many users saw it differently, and lamented what they saw as a loss of important safeguards. At the heart of the FCC’s ruling is […]
Thinking of making the leap to entrepreneurship in Charlottesville? Your first stop ought to be the Office of Economic Development, which offers a broad menu of services to would-be business owners. We spoke with Jason Ness, business development manager, about what he and his colleagues can do to nudge your startup dream closer to reality. […]
When Dr. Casey Kerrigan, who was working for one of the top three shoe manufacturing companies in the world, realized her employer wouldn’t be able to develop the biomechanically engineered shoe that she knew she needed to make, she quit her job and did it herself. “I had to figure out how to do it […]