StartOrganic Announces Northern California Growth Plans

San Jose, CA - July 9, 2012 - Building healthy communities just got a little bit easier in the Bay Area with the successful launch of startup, StartOrganic.  A fresh-faced, service-based organization, StartOrganic provides turnkey residential gardening services in which they build, maintain and harvest organic gardens for residents across the Silicon Valley.  

Far from your run-of-the-mill gardening service, StartOrganic is a values-based organization founded by two University of California, Santa Barbara alumni and long time friends, Josh Levine and Troy Smothermon.  With a shared passion for driving widespread cultural change Smothermon speaks to their mission, “With a health crisis that has reached critical mass, greater transparency across the food chain, and sustainability increasingly woven into the country’s social fabric, individuals, families and communities are armed with information and hungry for change.  StartOrganic is empowering people to take their food supply into their own hands and homes.” 

Converting virtually any usable space, from backyards to front lawns, into productive organic gardens, Levine and Smothermon attribute the rapid expansion of StartOrganic to its largely grassroots fanfare.  “When we work with customers, it’s amazing to see the organic gardening experience take hold in their community.  Instantly, friends and neighbors are talking about our gardens and asking how they can grow one of their own,” says Levine. 

Taking the process a step further, Levine and Smothermon have also established produce share events in which customers are invited to bring gardening surpluses to a community produce exchange, simply trading one’s own crop for another’s.  Produce, not dollars and cents, is the only thing that changes hands.  

As the market for organic, sustainable products continues to mount, StartOrganic provides a simple, yet innovative, solution.  Grow your own.  Equipping customers with the infrastructure and ongoing service required to be successful, StartOrganic brings new meaning to localizing the food source.  Looking ahead, Levine says, “Backyard gardens are for everyone, and our mission is to pollinate StartOrganic principles within our local community and beyond.”

About Start Organic
Founded in 2011 by partners Josh Levine and Troy Smothermon, StartOrganic provides residential organic gardening service to the Silicon Valley, with plans to expand throughout the California market.  With a hands-on approach, StartOrganic works with customers to build, maintain and harvest organic home gardens, enabling gardeners of any experience level to enjoy the fruits of their labor – homegrown, pesticide-free, seasonal produce throughout the year.  
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Link:
http://startorganic.org/StartOrganic_Announces_Northern_California_Growth_Plans_2.html

Bent Knee Comes to San Jose Aug 11th

Bent Knee is a Boston-based alternative rock band that is kicking off their third west coast tour in Downtown San Jose at SLG Publishing's Art Boutiki and Gallery (cool venue inside of a comic book publishing house). To sample the band's music click here, or watch any of the Youtube videos below.

Event Details:
Date:  Aug. 11th, 2012
Location:  SLG Publishing's Art Boutiki and Gallery
577 S. Market St San Jose, CA 95113
Bands:  Bent Knee, Contra Ville
Time:  7pm-11pm

Wednesday Wishlist: Downtown Electronics Store

One of the top items on my wishlist is some sort of electronics store in the Downtown area. There are a couple repair shops, but they are not true electronics stores where you can walk in and browse a traditional assortment of electronics. It doesn't have to be a Fry's (although I wouldn't object to one), but just a small 4,000 sqft boutique store with great customer service and late hours would do. 

Speaking of late hours, not a single 24 hour electronics store exists in the Bay Area. New York has several, including an Apple store and Best Buy. If someone could manage to open a gadget shop Downtown that was open around the clock, there could be a market for this given the strange hours of Silicon Valley engineers. I know I've had times in my career where I could have used a USB cable or extra Hard Drive at 2am. We are in the middle of Silicon Valley and the entrepreneurial center of the universe... we need to have instant resources available for those the people that are changing the world (or those that simply want to buy gadgets in the middle of the night).

Santana Row Timeline

The 10 Year Anniversary of Santana Row is coming up this November and their marketing staff was kind enough to send over a historical timeline. Santana Row has become one of, if not the most successful mixed-use project in the world and that is surely something for us to be very proud of.

Particularly interesting in the timeline below is the part labelled "FUTURE." We knew about the 220,000sqft office building and 600 parking spaces, but what is new to me is the "Capstone Building" at the very end of the Row which will feature a plaza, additional retail, more office space, and underground parking. This will be visible from just about any point along the main street, so I'm expecting an impressive building to cap off one of the most active streets in San Jose.

Please click the image below to expand it (and make the text legible).

"Epic" Apartment Complex Begins Phase 2 in North San Jose

A 769 unit apartment project on River Oaks Parkway in North SJ is starting it's second phase. This will add 289 new units to the 280 that already under construction and are expected to start leasing in May 2013. No news on when the third and final phase is estimated to start. All of the units are either studios, 1 bedroom, or 2 bedrooms. The entire project is going to cost $192M.

This along with the many other massive apartment projects in the area will help us get toward the density we need in North San Jose in order to justify pedestrian-oriented retail and expanded transit.

Source: SJBJ

A10 Networks Has a New San Jose HQ

A10 Networks is an application networking company that was recently named the 2nd fastest-growing private company in Silicon Valley. They have just moved into a new North San Jose Headquarters at 3 W. Plumeria Drive. The office is 79,800 sqft--double the size of their previous home--and with the new space comes additional headcount. They are planning to hire over 100 new workers over the next year. It's always great news to hear about additional workers in San Jose, especially denser areas with transit like North San Jose.

Source: SJBJ

Saturday Stats: San Jose Area Tops US Pay by Huge Margin

The private sector in the San Jose area is on fire right now. I have done quite a few Saturday stats proclaiming how our salaries have nudged out other regions such as New York and San Francisco. However, today I'm not just going to tell you that our salaries are the top in the nation... no, I'm going to tell you that they are higher by a substantial and perhaps even dramatic margin.

For private sector jobs, average pay in New York is $63,400. For our neighbors in San Francisco pay sits at $64,800. The runner up, Bridgeport-Stamford, Connecticut, raked in $76,700 per private sector employee.

San Jose? A staggering $85,100 average salary per private sector worker. This is substantially higher than last year's record breaking number, which was also set by San Jose: $75,800.

Now the challenge is going to be keeping as much of that money as possible invested in San Jose instead of having all that wealth being handed to other communities outside of Santa Clara County.

Source: SJBJ

Nanosolar Prints Out $70M

A hot San Jose greentech company that specializes in printing solar sheets that are as thin as aluminum foil has just grabbed a cool $70M in their latest round. Not only are they producing the thinnest solar "panels" around, but they also claim to have the least expensive in the world. Perhaps one day you'll even see these types of panels outside of the residential/commercial energy space. I could see wrapping handheld electronics, laptops, cars, and even airplanes with this tech.

Source: SJBJ