February 27, 2024

		

Stephen Nellis


| Friday, November 8th, 2013

Venture capital firm hungers for health-foods startups

Banking & Finance, Top Stories

Santa Barbara-based venture capital firm NGEN Partners has a new investing focus on a somewhat unlikely sector: healthy, environmentally friendly food.

Since its founding in 2001, NGEN has had a focus on funding sustainability-oriented companies. Its early focus was on energy and materials. Catalytic Solutions, a nanotechnology firm spun out of UC Santa Barbara that made emissions scrubbing cheaper and more effective in automobiles, was an early investment. Soraa, an LED lighting firm created by several UCSB professors that has gone on to receive big money from Khosla Ventures and others, remains active in the firm’s portfolio.

| Friday, November 8th, 2013

Appellate attorneys lend eye for legal issues to trial lawyers

Columns, Law & Goverment, Top Stories

Let’s face it: Sometimes you lose. And sometimes, it’s really not your fault. Judges and juries are only human and can misapply the law to the facts. That’s where appellate attorneys come in. The region has a number of bar-certified appellate law specialists who work closely with trial attorneys on whether and how an appeal can be pursued.

| Friday, November 1st, 2013

Court launches bids for eight Nesbitt hotels

Real Estate, South Coast, Top Stories, Tourism

Montecito hotel magnate Pat Nesbitt could lose as many as half of his Embassy Suites properties under a recently approved bankruptcy reorganization plan.

Nesbitt and his company, Windsor Capital Group, parked a portfolio of eight Embassy Suites hotels in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing more than $100 million in debts, after being unable to work out a deal with his servicer, New York-based Torchlight Investors. Nesbitt’s Embassy Suites properties in Lompoc and San Luis Obispo were not involved in the case.

Court documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Barbara indicate the eight hotels in the bankruptcy are now slated to go to the auction block.

| Friday, November 1st, 2013

With merger and TechPitch win, SLO’s startups are on the fast track

Central Coast, Columns, Small Business, Technology

In the past couple of weeks, Alex Minicucci has successfully merged his fast-growing mobile marketing company with a publicly traded firm out of Iowa. Meanwhile, an entrepreneurial emergency room doctor from Nipomo came up a with a brilliantly simple solution for holding an iPad one handed that swept the most comprehensive tech pitch night on the Central Coast to date.

| Friday, November 1st, 2013

Out of this world: Santa Barbara company produces saucer-shaped UAVs

Features, Technology, Top Stories

Flying saucers have landed in Santa Barbara.

Aerobat Aviation, a Santa Barbara firm with ties to Georgia, is planning to take its saucer-shaped unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, on the road in the coming months hoping to raise $5 million from investors.

| Friday, November 1st, 2013

Tracking liquid assets: Groundswell creates Web-based water maps

Agribusiness, Latest news, Top Stories

Santa Barbara-based Groundswell Technologies makes Web-based software that can integrate data from any source — whether it’s a cutting-edge sensor connected via satellites or historical records — and generate “heat maps” of water supply or contamination on demand. The key is leveraging powerful computers in the cloud to handle lots of data and generate reports that used to take weeks in a matter of seconds.

| Friday, October 25th, 2013

Water woes: Publishing of nitrate data at issue

Agribusiness, Central Coast, Features, Tri-County Economy

This article is only available to Business Times subscribers Subscribers: LOG IN or REGISTER for complete digital access. Not a Subscriber? SUBSCRIBE for full access to our weekly newspaper, online edition and Book of Lists. Check the STATUS of your Subscription Account.