She Owns It

Portraits of women entrepreneurs.

In April, I wrote about the Pipeline Fund Fellowship, which is training its inaugural group of 10 female fellows to become angel investors. Since then, the fellows have moved several steps closer to choosing the business that will receive their pooled resources of $50,000. During a daylong event held last month at Eileen Fisher headquarters in Irvington, N.Y., they heard pitches from 10 start-ups seeking financing and narrowed the field to three.

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With market gossips enjoying a busy start to the week, takeover tales continued to dominate investors’ attention yesterday as bid rumours pushed forwards a number of companies.

IMI was one of the biggest risers on the top-tier index after being driven up 41p to 1,119p thanks to reheated hopes it could become a target, with vague speculation discussing a potential approach worth 1,600p a share.

The engineer has been linked with a number of possible aggressors in the past, including Honeywell International, and last night the talk, played down by traders, suggested that General Electric – one of the world’s biggest companies – could be interested. How

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Lenders say they have money for those seeking mortgages, but federal guidelines put in place after the housing crisis are forcing potential buyers out of the market or into less expensive properties.

The Federal Housing Authority guidelines make it downright tough — or even impossible — in many instances for applicants to secure federally guaranteed loans, which are used by a large percentage of buyers, because the insured loans allow banks to take greater risks.

However, in response to the recent housing market crash, FHA clamped down on numerous requirements, including credit scores.

While credit scores as low as 580 were acceptable last year, starting last October applicants needed a score of 620 to 640, said Joe Salpietra of Newburgh, who for 28 years has helped consumers acquire FHA loans.

“Applicants are still looking for no-down-payment loans, and if they have blemished credit, chances are they will need to improve their credit scores and save for a down payment,” said Monica L. Sti

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Start-Up Chronicle

Getting a restaurant off the ground.

Tokyo turnips. French radishes. The light and the land of Bridgehampton can grow anything. Lemon balm. Thai basil. When Paul Hamilton is the gardener, throw in sugar snaps and heirloom eggplants. When his makeshift staff includes four chefs with green thumbs and a closed-down kitchen, you can depend on lovely sorrel and Vietnamese coriander.

The garden blossoms. The owner wilts. Last week, I found myself singing the permit perdition blues to Paul Hamilton as he planted red chili peppers.

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It takes a creative mind to see the art in a few pieces of metal. Often a really creative person can create a functional piece of art that people will love. However, it takes a great business mind to see the opportunity these pieces hold. David Krieger is that man.

David was first inspired when he came across the unique pieces of art by accident. He saw the potential they had, so he contacted the company behind the sculptures and brought them to the Internet. Since launching Metal Imagination, he has successfully landed clients in various parts of the country.

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State agents made a pile several feet tall of the narcotic pills they seized Tuesday from pain clinics in South Florida, as they began enforcing the state’s new ban on doctors and clinics selling pain pills.

More than 40,000 pills were removed from 13 of the area’s busiest pain centers 24 statewide that had leftover pain drugs they can no longer sell because of the new law, law enforcement officials said.

“Florida will not be known as the pill mill capital of the world,” said Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who came to Fort Lauderdale for a news conference on the pill seizures.

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Karoon Gas has received federal environmental approval to commence drilling at its Browse Basin gas permits off the Western Australian coast.

The company announced this morning that it had received the nod to commence drilling from the federal Department, of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities and it was moving quickly to commence its drilling programs.

Karoon said final drilling contracts for a five-to-eight well campaign were being negotiated, and it expected drilling to commence during the fourth quarter of this year.

“At least four wells are planned for the WA-315-P and WA-398-P permits, which contain the previously announced Poseideon and Kronos gas discoveries, with one well planned for the WA-314-P permit,” Karoon’s statement said. Get full info…

The day Google+ launched, I sent a friend at Google who was involved in building the service an email requesting an invite. I got the invite late that day and started playing with the service. Here’s my profile. I’m not sure if this page is public or you need a Google+ login to see it. At some point Google will open the service to everyone and I expect this page will be public, but I’m not sure.

In any case, I hope Google+ succeeds. Given the blog posts saying this will kill Tumblr, Twitter, Foursquare, etc, you might wonder why I feel that way. Well first, I don’t think competitors kill companies and services. I think the vast majority of “deaths” are self inflicted.

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