Haddon Heights, NJ : Innovation + Job News

Father's Day is every day with ManCaveKingdom

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, May 15, 2012

"There's no such thing as a typical man cave," says Joe Chiaccio, founder of ManCaveKingdom. The bootstrapped startup is in the business of creating safe havens for every man, no matter what his taste.

Maybe you're the kind of guy who's just waiting for beer o'clock. Or maybe you are more of a Super Street Fighter. Whatever your particular escape, ManCaveKingdom will help make it happen.

While Chiaccio, based in South Jersey, has full time designer Amanda Burke on staff, he explains it's more of a DIY thing. "Guys are traditionally not the decorators of the house. Typically women are the primary decorators. If a guy is lucky enough to get his own space, ManCaveKingdom makes it attainable for guys who have an idea of what they want," says Chiaccio, who adds that wives are often more than happy to hand over an area of the house where a guy can get as sloppy as he wants.

The target demographic for the fledgling company is pretty wide, ranging in age from men in their early 20s up to their 60s. "Younger guys live in apartments, and then there are guys who have been married 40 years and want a little bit of space," says Chiaccio. Most commonly, men are looking for a bar and a really nice TV viewing area. Add-ons include stand up arcade games, ping pong and pool tables.

How much is this going to set you back? "How much does a diamond ring cost?" jokes the recently married Chiaccio, citing a budget range from a few hundred dollars all the way up to the tens of thousands. In fact, it was Chiaccio's own experiences building out his man space that gave him the idea for the business.

Chiaccio reports that Philly Tech Week was great for business, and now counts among his clients a recently divorced local entrepreneur who does web analytics by day, but wants to get loose at night. We're not naming names, or even initials. What happens in the man cave stays in the man cave.

Source: Joseph Chiaccio, ManCaveKingdom
Writer: Sue Spolan

Rutgers-Camden prof gets $500K call, 'genius' status

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Jacob Soll was on his way to the library, which is one of his favorite places in the world, when he got the call that changed his life. "It was raining. I was suffocating. I thought, 'Oh God, what's this?' I thought it was a joke."

No joke: it was the MacArthur Foundation informing Soll that he was the recipient of the so-called genius grant, a $500,000 no strings attached gift. It was all quite unexpected. Soll, a professor of history at Rutgers University-Camden and West Philadelphia resident, says, "I just think it's really lucky. I work in a really interdisciplinary way, in all different fields and countries."

While the selection process is shrouded in mystery, Soll points to his 2009 New York Times Op-Ed piece as a possible call to attention for the Macarthur committee. Soll's research, at its most elemental, is about the juncture of numbers and letters. Beginning with Louis XIV's finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Soll redefines history, tracing the relationship between libraries and accounting and tracing the birth of information technology. The 16th to 18th century is where large scale libraries are invented, and where, says Soll, the modern computer comes from.

"It's the most fascinating thing," he says. "Colbert was an accountant by training. Accountants keep massive amounts of books. They're basically financial librarians. Colbert understood he could harness a library system for power. It's an incredible vision -- kind of dark -- it was used for repressive power. It was completely innovative. This guy invented the modern world."

These days, Soll laments that for the first time in history we are not that interested in our libraries. While he terms our country's founders 'real book people,' and points out that the Library of Congress sits across from the U.S. Supreme Court, the push is toward digitization. "Today, we're having financial crises, and no one asks how good are your accounting skills. Our founders thought that without that kind of knowledge, you wouldn't be effective at running an enlightened state. Political currents are running counter to those of the original founders."

While at the moment, Soll is overwhelmed with a life that "is literally like something out of a movie, "with 800 forms of people contacting me," he expects to be able to settle into a very comfortable routine of reading and writing, without having to worry about the electric bill, or paying the babysitter. "It's not just the money. It's also the moral force and the publicity. I've received a hundred emails from former students. They're all great emails, and make me feel like everything was worth it. I'm not going to second guess myself as much."

Soll is now at work on a book that traces the entwined history of politics and accounting, and is allowing himself to admit aloud that his dream is to write a series of books on how states work and what politics actually mean.

Source: Jacob Soll, Rutgers University
Writer: Sue Spolan

NJ farm-to-table distributor Zone 7 doubles sales, hiring

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, August 16, 2011

There's a whole lot of hiring going on in Zone 7. Lest you think you've slipped into a science fiction world, Fresh From Zone 7 is the name of a fast growing company that's, well, all about growing. Founded in 2008 by Mikey Azzara, the Cranbury, N.J.-based farm-to-table distributor serving Pennsylvania and New Jersey has doubled in sales every year.

Right now, there are five job openings for energetic people who are committed to providing local food to local eaters: sales, warehouse crew, warehouse crew leader, drivers (multiple) and a sales team intern. While the positions are primarily part time, the right candidate could combine several to create a full time gig. Currently there are 9 people on staff, and the new hires would represent about a fifty percent increase. The company began with just two employees in 2008.

Azzara reports that each week of the 2011 season, Zone 7 has been adding deliveries at an almost explosive rate and at this point is maxed out in terms of staffing.

"On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, all three of our trucks are out," says Azzara of the fleet that picks up from all over New Jersey and Pennsylvania, delivering to over 80 establishments, including The Farm and Fisherman, Southwark, Garces Trading Company, Weaver's Way, Greensgrow and the Fair Food Farmstand in Philadelphia. The New Jersey territory stretches from Atlantic City to West New York, NJ.

The 40 farms that supply Zone 7 include Blooming Glen, Jah's Creation Organic, Griggstown Farm Market, and Branch Creek, where the original seed for Zone 7 was planted.

Azzara had been working for the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey for five years when he sat down at the table of Mark and Judy Dornstreich, pioneers of the local food movement and founders of Branch Creek Farm, which has been growing and delivering organic produce to Philadelphia restaurants since the 1970s. "They supplied me with the truck, the name and the idea," says Azzara.

Zone 7, named for the USDA Hardiness Zone in which we live, is a 52-week-a-year operation, says Azzara, and its busiest months, surprisingly, are November and December. "Our time to catch our breath is January, February and March." Starting in April, asparagus and swiss chard are the first crops to harvest.

Source: Mikey Azzara, Zone 7
Writer: Sue Spolan

Industry recognition, validation for Cherry Hill's icueTV and its t-commerce platform

Flying Kite Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Being at an awards dinner with cable giants like Showtime and Starz was a thrill for the self-professed TV junkies at Cherry Hill's t-commerce solution company icueTV. But standing next to them on the podium as finalists for the same award took this gratification to a new level.

At the New Orleans, LA banquet this week, icueTV was announced as a finalist for Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM)'s "Get Interactive" Awards. icueTV creates a sales portal for advertisers to connect directly with TV viewers as they watch. Watching Shark Week on Discovery? You can buy the DVDs right from your remote. icueTV has been steadily expanding, now represented within the six largest cable providers in the nation. But even with great traction, this is still a new technology and icue hopes this award signals recognition from the cable television industry that it's time to make a move.

"For years, people have thought about using the TV remote to buy products," says icueTV VP of Business Development Ralph Nieves. "We feel that this award signals that t-commerce is an idea who's time has come."

Starting out in political polling and other on-screen data tracking applications, icueTV developed a platform that expedites the purchase process, integrating a PayPal account, e-mail connectivity and one-touch purchasing. And while this is still an emerging technology, no one told icueTV. They have already begun hiring engineers tasked with finding new applications and clients as if this platform was old news. The company hopes this award will cement them as an industry leader as its technology becomes standard in digital sales and marketing.

"Our customers know who we are but to become certified and vetted took us four years," says Nieves. "We are not arrogant enough to think competition doesn't exist already but we are confident that no cable labs are examining commerce applications in the way we are."

Source: Ralph Nieves, icueTV
Writer: John Steele

Interactive mapping platform launched to connect Philadelphians to their local communities

Flying Kite Tuesday, September 28, 2010

It's one of life's great mysteries: you can travel to a thousand cities and eat at a hundred fancy restaurants and drink a dozen craft beers at each of the bars along the way. But a meal never tastes as good as one at your favorite neighborhood haunt. And according to Philadelphia's sustainability leaders, this phenomenon is not just good for your appetite, it can be good for your neighborhood and your city as well.

Based on a concept created by the William Penn Foundation, partners from the Sustainable Business Network, Azavea and NPower created Common Space, a new mapping platform that creates a network of neighborhood establishments within a certain walkable, bikeable or busable distance to help residents support local business.

"The really cool thing is, I can map my friend's common space as well as my own," says SBN Executive Director Leanne Krueger-Braneky. "So if I am leaving from my office in Center City and meeting my husband who is coming from our house in West Philadelphia, he could say he is going to bike for 15 minutes and I could say I was going to walk for 20 minutes and Common Space will map the area where we would be able to meet up and map local culture events and businesses in that field."

Partnering with tastemakers like UWISHUNU and Yelp, Common Space shows you the best spots in your transit area, allowing you the most sustainable way possible to hit your next favorite haunt. After their trial run, organizers hope to partner with citywide festivals and cultural events like LiveArts and Philly Beer Week.

"Sustainability was one of the values William Penn outlined, which is why they wanted to partner with us," Krueger-Braneky says. "Because the application does encourage walking, biking, and public transit, it's a way of showing what's going on in the city while encouraging alternative transit."

Source: Leanne Krueger-Braneky, SBN
Writer: John Steele