Greenville Business Magazine 2009 October : Page 62
››emerging companies BY KATRINA DANIEL PHOTO BY NILL SILVER ››Calicaro Wine How many of us get swept off our feet by a hobby, a project, a new found passion? Lots of us. How many of us actually have the courage to follow that passion? Not so many. But Greenville attorney Dave Ball went with his dream, and did exactly that. “Wine is addictive,” he says. And so the lawyer, whose day job is taken up with health care business transactions, has done a one-eighty and gone whole-heartedly into the romance of wine making, “A couple of years ago I was in California at a health law conference and we had a wine tasting. One of the other attorneys was pouring his own wine at the tasting. I thought, if he can do this then so can I,” he says. “I love practic- ing law but have always looked for ways to counterbalance that. Wine is so special and has such a rich history. The growing, harvesting, fermenting, aging, blending, it is made to be shared and enjoyed with family and friends.” Ball says he wanted to share his passion for good wines with Greenville, “ I wanted to create a pipeline for some really good wine to Greenville. A lot of the best wine does not make it to Greenville. It never leaves the state of California.” He has teamed up with California wine maker Chris Nelson to personally develop Pinot Noirs and a Caber- net Sauvignon, selling them in the Upstate to restaurants and selected distributors. The wines are already being carried by some of greater Greenville’s premier restaurants – Soby’s, Devereaux, Rick Erwin’s and the venerable Pointsett Club, where they’ll be available in November. Ball says, “We are trying to make exceptionally good wine and bring it here, with a real Greenville connection, including label names that tie directly to significant places and people here in our state. Our roots are in California but our heads and hear ts are here.” Consequently, the winery 62 GREENVILLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE | OCTOBER 2009 is named Calicaro, a hybrid of the words California and Carolinas. “Our specific bottling names will include place names and people including Poinsett, Liber ty Bridge and Paris Mountain. Our Cabernet will be called Charles Towne.” Ball heads to California to personally get his hands dir ty (rest assured, he is not doing a Lucille Ball thing and stomping the grapes personally, although that would make for great photos). But, he says he’s really a hands-on wine maker, “ We sor t out leaves, bad fruit, anything else that is not fruit, we do a second sor ting, the grapes are de-stemmed, and the berries move down the conveyor belt. Great fun and hard work, too.” For more information, visit www.calicaro.com
>>emerging companies
Katrina Daniel
››Calicaro Wine
How many of us get swept off our feet by a hobby, a project, a new found passion? Lots of us. How many of us actually have the courage to follow that passion? Not so many. But Greenville attorney Dave Ball went with his dream, and did exactly that.
“Wine is addictive,” he says. And so the lawyer, whose day job is taken up with health care business transactions, has done a one-eighty and gone whole-heartedly into the romance of wine making, “A couple of years ago I was in California at a health law conference and we had a wine tasting. One of the other attorneys was pouring his own wine at the tasting. I thought, if he can do this then so can I,” he says. “I love practicing law but have always looked for ways to counterbalance that. Wine is so special and has such a rich history. The growing, harvesting, fermenting, aging, blending, it is made to be shared and enjoyed with family and friends.”
Ball says he wanted to share his passion for good wines with Greenville, “ I wanted to create a pipeline for some really good wine to Greenville. A lot of the best wine does not make it to Greenville. It never leaves the state of California.” He has teamed up with California wine maker Chris Nelson to personally develop Pinot Noirs and a Cabernet Sauvignon, selling them in the Upstate to restaurants and selected distributors. The wines are already being carried by some of greater Greenville’s premier restaurants – Soby’s, Devereaux, Rick Erwin’s and the venerable Pointsett Club, where they’ll be available in November.
Ball says, “We are trying to make exceptionally good wine and bring it here, with a real Greenville connection, including label names that tie directly to significant places and people here in our state. Our roots are in California but our heads and hearts are here.” Consequently, the winery is named Calicaro, a hybrid of the words California and Carolinas. “Our specific bottling names will include place names and people including Poinsett, Liberty Bridge and Paris Mountain. Our Cabernet will be called Charles Towne.”
Ball heads to California to personally get his hands dirty (rest assured, he is not doing a Lucille Ball thing and stomping the grapes personally, although that would make for great photos). But, he says he’s really a hands-on wine maker, “ We sort out leaves, bad fruit, anything else that is not fruit, we do a second sorting, the grapes are de-stemmed, and the berries move down the conveyor belt. Great fun and hard work, too.”
For more information, visit www.calicaro.com
››At Cynthia’s Request
Cynthia Fryer launched her new event planning business because she had a reputation for getting things done – fast. “A woman called me up early one morning. She wanted me to decorate the church for her son’s wedding… taking place that night! I had a lot of tulle and bows already, I got calla lilies – thankfully it was a small, beautiful church – and by that night, I was ready. ”
Thus began At Cynthia’s Request, a name she picked because it reminded her of a more formal, polite era, when invitations included the words, “We request the pleasure of your company.”
At Cynthia’s Request is a full service event planning agency that plans, coordinates and designs every type of occasion or event.
Fryer, who has worked with the Greater Greenville Chamber and also as a court mediator, says she started this newest endeavor because she wanted to take a negative and turn it into a positive. “I found myself without a job in this economy. I took my natural talents and turned them into not only a way to earn income, but a business that I enjoy and which brings happiness to my clients.”
Fryer says if she could wave a magic wand and direct the dream for this new enterprise she would eventually have a team of different vendors throughout the world ready to set up special events for a wide range of clients from Hollywood film companies to medical enterprises and stockholder meetings.
Right now, however, for a business that isn’t even six months old, Fryer is having a blast organizing events like an Indian ceremonial baby shower for more than 300 guests, where she handmade diaper cakes as table decorations.
››ParkinSor
The idea for ParkinSor started a world away from Greenville when Clemson electrical engineering masters candidate Rahul Mitchell Jairaj’s grandmother in India showed signs of tremors and movement and stability problems. Her doctors found it hard to pinpoint exactly what was happening, to what extent the disease had progressed, or even exactly what the disease was..
“It was established that there was a dire need to create an accurate diagnostic tool for Parkinson’s disease,” explains Jairaj. “The existing diagnostic procedure is very subjective, consequently, a quantified, non-invasive diagnostic approach is required to aid physicians.” So he hand picked two fellow Clemson grad students to develop a comprehensive and non–invasive tool designed to help doctors diagnose and monitor patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease. About 50,000 Americans are diagnosed with the disease every year.
“The primary impetus to launch the company came from NextStart, a highly competitive summer immersion and entrepreneur development program,” says Jairaj. NextStart is a Clemson University program intended to attract and keep promising entrepreneurs in the Upstate. “We were one of four companies selected for the final program,” he says. “NextStart provided seed money, advice and mentoring (for us) to develop the idea into an impressive opportunity.” Jairaj is CEO, George Thomas, also an electrical engineering grad student, serves as CTO, and Sravya Durugu, whose field is bioengineering and whose specialty is designing medical devices, serves as the COO.
“Neurologists and medical centers will be our primary customer base,” says Jairaj, “they would acquire the unit from us and levy a nominal charge for each diagnostic run, thus helping provide a return on investment. It also helps them maintain detailed patient records, and accurately monitor symptom progression and regulate medication accordingly.” Right now, however, Jairaj and his partners are planning to raise more money to grow their fledgling company, “We are very optimistic about the future and hope to make a positive difference in the world,“ he says.
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