Crains New York - February 11, 2013 - (Page 25)

INSIDE HELLUVA TOWN Source Lunch Weighing the future of NY hospitals PAGE 26 Out and About A modern version of Noah’s Ark PAGE 27 Who needs popcorn anyway? Stacey Boyd was tired of buying wrapping paper, popcorn and other assorted stuff she didn’t want. Yet she felt compelled to purchase the wares from school fundraisers because so many schools are suffering from budget cuts. So last year the former middleschool teacher and principal started Schoola.com—a sort of Groupon for school fundraisers that’s becoming popular in New York City thanks in part to a tie-in with Magnolia Bakery and The Berenstain Bears Live! in Family Matters, the Musical. Using Schoola, fundraisers create a website that allows supporters to buy discounted merchandise or services from retailers who have agreed to make a donation to the institution with each purchase. “At least people are buying something they actually want,” said Ms. Boyd, chief executive of the San Franciscobased company. She said she noticed that fundraisers in New York were starting to use the site, so she decided to help by reaching out to Magnolia and the musical. She doesn’t always help those who find their own donors. But Ms. Boyd has an incentive to help. She gets 15% of the revenue the retailers collect from the promotion. Ms. Boyd said fundraisers from 136 city schools are holding sales through March 15, the period during which Magnolia is offering discounts and donations. The musical’s promotion lasts until mid-April. G’DAY MATE: Lisa Winning moved from Sydney to New York to start the dating-advice site HeTexted.com. Face the music Vincent Gardino, the orchestra’s executive director. —theresa agovino A laptop and a dream Wannabe tech entrepreneurs the world over flock to New York, not to climb the corporate ladder but to build it L buck ennis It’s never been cheap being a performing artist in New York. Besides the rent, there are expenses like acting lessons, singing instructions and such. For those who play in the American Classical Orchestra, the cost can be especially high. That’s because the ACO requires its musicians to perform using instruments made during the period when the music was composed. Since the orchestra focuses on music from the baroque, classical and romantic periods, spanning 1600 to 1910, the instruments—which the musicians must buy or rent themselves—can come with hefty price tags. When the orchestra played a concert at Alice Tully Hall last week, the aggregate value for its 43 instruments was $2 million, or an average of $46,511. A 1780 Bergonzi bass was valued at $250,000, and a circa-1690 Giovanni Battista Rogeri violin at $175,000. In contrast, an especially good concert violin made in the past few years could cost about $10,000, experts said. “The instruments just sound richer,” said WE’RE NO. 2 BY MATTHEW FLAMM isa Winning, an Australian with a degree from the London School of Economics, was back home in Sydney in 2011 when she decided to move to New York City and start a tech company. She landed in December, and by the following October had launched HeTexted.com. ¶ The young women’s dating-advice site, which invites comments on guys’ post-date text messages, now has 1.2 million registered users and is attracting investor interest. In addition, Ms. Winning and her co-founder, former Glamour beauty assistant Carrie Henderson McDermott, have a deal with Simon & Schuster for a book based on the site and are hiring a staff. ¶ The book and an appearance on Good Morning America wouldn’t have happened anywhere but in the media capital, Ms. Winning believes. But she also came to New York for an environment that nurtures people like her, who show up with a laptop and a dream—and sometimes, barely a clue about technology. ¶ “There’s a whole suspension of disbelief here that doesn’t exist in other places,” said the 29-year-old entrepreneur, who had See LAPTOP on Page 26 previously done consulting work in New York between stints in Venture-capital deals in 2012 California 1,380 353 333 New York Massachusetts Source: CB Insights February 11, 2013 | Crain’s New York Business | 25 http://www.HeTexted.com http://www.HeTexted.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - February 11, 2013

IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
CORPORATE LADDER
OPINION
GREG DAVID
REPORT: SMALL BUSINESS
THE LIST
CLASSIFIEDS
DIGITAL NY
FOR THE RECORD
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - February 11, 2013