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Success stories

Snap Shot, Livermore

Company Profile:
"Being an avid Scrapbooker, I was frustrated at the lack of organizational tools" says Judy Galletti. "There were totable items that everyone was using. These items were, usually, on wheels in the form of luggage. When you arrived at your destination, you had to bend over, unpack, organize, clear the tabletop (of things that you just unpacked) and begin. It used to take me forever to get started (sometimes up to an hour and a half). About three years ago, I made myself an organizing system. The idea was to have everything in a transparent tote that could be placed on the tabletop and, in one action, I'd be ready to work. I was so relieved to spend my time scrapping and NOT setting up. Friends told me to patent it. I thought they were crazy. How could I possibly do that? Then I saw you on TV. You had several women with you. They each had an invention, created to make their lives easier. They were ordinary people who were just trying to solve one of the problems they had. AND they had succeeded."

Rejuvenation and Well Being, Cotati

Rejuvenation & Well Being is a holistic bodywork and nutritional counseling business located in the small town of Cotati, CA. Initially the owner was a Jin Shin Jyutsu (holistic body work) practitioner and her entire revenue stream was her fee for service private practice. The business model has shifted over the past two years. Currently, the business is primarily a nutritional counseling business that derives a significant amount of revenue from product sales. Jin Shin Jyutsu provides a small amount of revenue and is a far second to the nutritional counseling business.

Present Life Counseling of Marin, Kentfield

Marion Barnett is a licensed psychotherapist (MFT) in private practice devoted to working with individuals and families who may be: depressed, anxious, have chronic or acute physical illness, or troubling life transitions.

Market Rates Insights, San Anselmo

Company Profile:  Rick Barham established Market Rates Insight (MRI) in 1985 by to provide competitive rate information to financial institutions. MRI started as a one-person operation, but now employs 34 FTE, in San Anselmo California. Rate information, such as interest rates for loans and deposits, is very important to financial institutions because they directly impact business volume. In the early days of MRI, the competitive rate information was delivered to customers via direct-dial modem (very innovative for 1985) or by fax.  Through the years this process was improved by leveraging the Internet, but the business model relied heavily on manual procedure and a fragmented product-delivery system.