Software theft hits Solid Oak
Brian Milburn, founder of Santa Barbara-based Solid Oak Software, thought it was going to be a slow Friday, that he might take off early. Instead, he ended up in the middle of an international debate over Internet censorship in the world’s most populous country. On June 12, Milburn learned that fragments of his company’s software, Read More →
Project to grow biotech cluster pays off
When Amgen announced hundreds of layoffs at its Thousand Oaks headquarters in 2007, Ventura County’s movers and shakers came together in an effort to transform the blow into an opportunity to foster a biotechnology cluster along the Highway 101 corridor — and they now have a tangible deal to show for it. Camarillo startup PBS Read More →
One step back, one leap forward – Entrepreneur turned layoff into success
Getting laid off was the best thing that ever happened to Barbara Rosenblum. It was the 1990s, and Rosenblum, a registered nurse, was running a home health care pharmacy, an in-home service for patients with chronic illnesses such as AIDS. After she lost her job, she went back to school and founded Santa Barbara-based Strategic Read More →
Construction hammered – Home building in Paso Robles at a standstill
With housing construction in Paso Robles in a free-fall, the city’s growing populace may soon have to look elsewhere for a place to call home. Residential building permits have come to a virtual standstill. And although the population is still growing at 1 percent annually, the days when Paso Robles dreamed of surpassing San Luis Read More →
Lawsuit seeks $250,000 in legal fees
A San Luis Obispo-based action sports media company faces a lawsuit from its lawyers alleging it failed to pay more than $250,000 of its $1 million legal bill for disputes with its founders and distributors. San Luis Obispo business law firm Sinsheimer Juhnke Lebens & McIvor is suing VAS Entertainment for $256,678.80 plus interest, according Read More →
A long fall from the top of the bubble
In the heyday of the housing boom, Bob Fowler and Ron Hertel cut a wide swath across the West Coast. By Fowler’s own account, their flagship company, R.W. Hertel & Sons, built some 1,100 homes in and around the tri-county region. They were active as far north as Oregon and as far south as Woodland Read More →
