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They met. They danced. One thing led to another, and before long a relationship--and a business model--was born: Bobby Farahi, 41, and Shaudi "Shoddy" Lynn, 28, leveraged his business acumen and her fashion sense to design and import edgy, risqué outfits and sell them on a website called Dollskill.com ("Doll "for playing dress-up, "kill" to make "doll" sound edgy). They got married two years ago, and last year they rang up $7.6 million in sales, earning them the No. 33 spot on the Inc. 500 , an annual list of the fastest-growing private companies in America. Here, Farahi tells the story of how their relationship became so profitable: She was a DJ. I was partying. We met at a rave in LA and started dating. I had just sold my last business, Multivision (a broadcast monitoring service), and was looking for the next thing. She was traveling a ton, but wasn't really making much money off the DJ thing. Actually, she was making more money selling clothes on eBay. … [Read more...] about The Quirky $8 Million Fashion Business That Started at a Rave

In 1998, on a riverboat casino on the Red River in Shreveport, Louisiana, the MIT Blackjack Team took the house for $80,000 in just a few hours. It was just one of many such big nights for Jeff Ma, who was a member from 1993 through 2001. Ma says he won about $2 million during that period, and his story was adapted into Ben Mezrich's book Bringing Down the House and the film 21 . Eventually, the casinos refused to let the team--which won so frequently by using sophisticated (and perfectly legal) card-counting techniques--play anymore. But Ma's story was far from over. He used his skills at blackjack to launch, build, and sell three different startups. After selling the first two to Yahoo and Virgin, earlier this month he sold developer-management tool tenXer to Twitter for close to $50 million. Inc . caught up with Ma to talk about the skills he transferred from the casino table to the boardroom table. Blackjack and entrepreneurship Like many startups, the MIT … [Read more...] about How Blackjack Helped Jeff Ma Sell His Startups to Yahoo, Virgin, and Twitter

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin In the last few weeks, I’ve had two cultural experiences that I’m still trying to get my head around: Bob Dylan on his ‘Rough and Ready Ways” Tour and Baz Luhrmann's “Elvis.” Each, in their singular way, speaks to the struggle for authenticity in one’s art. Bob Dylan, who recently turned 81, performed three nights at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. I attended the first night’s performance: Dylan spent most of the night behind the piano, occasionally venturing beside his piano to sing, play harp, and occasionally play guitar. He was clean-shaven and still has a full head of hair (although it can’t really be that dark). Dylan was dressed in one of his Western suits. Whether this was an actual Nudie confection or another’s – it spoke to Dylan being of the West, and at the same time, being a creature of Showbiz with a nod to those other rhinestone cowboys such as Hank Williams. Dylan didn’t seem as sure footed on stage as he … [Read more...] about Bob Dylan & Elvis Stay True

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin From the shady terrace of the poolside bar, guests of Castelfalfi Resort can gaze across the verdant landscape of the hotel's 2700-acre estate over to the restored medieval castle in the adjacent village. Having undergone an aesthetic and sustainable revamp, the five-star resort has opened its doors to summer visitors with a stylish new interior design and an impressive roster of activities in the stunning natural surroundings. Castelfalfi lies equidistant between the art cities of Florence and Siena, deep in the Tuscan countryside . The complex comprises a recently constructed hotel with 120 rooms, a spa and two pools, situated just down the road from the historic village of Castelfalfi. The hamlet, which was a ruin just a couple of decades ago, has been fully restored and its houses sold to new occupants. Together, the hotel and village, along with villas for rent dotted around the estate, give guests a … [Read more...] about A Plastic-Free Bee-Friendly Hotel In Tuscany For Your Next Italy Vacation