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SF SBDC Client is National Cover Story in BizJournals

Photo: Paolo Vescia

Minding her peas and carrots wins investors
by Susan Smith Hendrickson

Jill Litwin, founder and CEO of a healthy frozen-food company for growing kids, is a typical entrepreneur in many ways. She works (all the time). She gets overtly excited about the launch of her third product, Peas of Pie pizza with vegetables baked into the crust (and stresses about it). And, like most small-business owners, she has to, by default and natural desire, have her hands, or at least her head, in all aspects of her company, from product development to checking whether the delivery trucks are on running on time.

Read more: Business Success Stories - SBA Small Business Administration

Read the original SF SBDC Success Story

Jellyfish Art, LLC, San Francisco

Alex Andon, Owner of Jellyfish Art became a member of the San Francisco Small Business Development Center’s Youth Entrepreneurship Program in June 2008.  He was in the early stages of starting his business when he was introduced to the SBDC and began making use of its services.  

Valle Translations, San Francisco Bay Area

Valle Translations is a woman-owned, SBA 8(a) certified business that provides English-Spanish translation services globally.  What began in 1994, as a translation company focused on birth certificates and other forms of personal documentation has grown into a sophisticated business serving some of this country’s best known companies including Blue Shield and Oakwood Worldwide.

Pupuseria Gemelos, San Francisco

Maribel and Luis Ochoa (owners) of “Pupuseria Gemelos” are the first and newly assigned food concession operators for the Crocker Amazon Soccer Fields in San Francisco. By the end of this summer 2008 “Pupuseria Gemelos” will be operating at a newly built food concession stand located within the Crocker Amazon Soccer Fields; Maribel and Luis Ochoa will be the only food vendors allowed to operate at the field. The food concession will serve refreshments, snacks, and healthy ethnic and local dishes to all the soccer teams and patrons visiting the fields.

Peas of Mind, San Francisco

Helping a friend feed her toddler something much healthier than canned green beans turned into a full time job for Jill Litwin, creator and CEO of Peas of Mind.   The energetic and savvy entrepreneur quickly realized that she was creating more than just a product, she was creating a niche, a rare circumstance in today’s crowded marketplace.  There were baby foods and adult foods but nothing for the in-between “growing child” stage as Jill calls it.  Moms had little more than Cheerios and Goldfish for their 1 - 8 year olds to snack on; Jill Litwin soon had a tasty line-up of healthy and tasty Puffets, natural and organic wholesome meals for moms to feed their delighted growing kids.

Savantis Group, Inc., San Francisco

When Deniz Mater came to the SBDC in late 2006, she and her husband, Roel Deuss, were managing a one year old company, SAP Headhunter, Inc., from their home office. The company provides IT services to customers of SAP, a German company that is one of the leaders in Enterprise Resource Planning software. Deniz and Roel are providing consultants to these customers and conducting job searches for them. They also engage in a number of in-house projects for their clients. They were receiving a reasonable amount of revenue but the SAP market presented them an excellent opportunity for growth.

Regalito Rosticeria, San Francisco

Thomas Pena had spent several years refining family recipes and, as he was preparing his restaurant project, he traveled for months in Mexico researching new menu items and cooking techniques. He also had studied baking and pastry at the California Culinary Academy.

San Francisco Guitarworks, San Francisco

Company Profile - SF Guitarworks is a guitar repair business in San Francisco that specializes in all types of guitar repairs and a large client base in the local entertainment industry. Owner Geoff Luttrell opened the business in 2002.

Zadin Restaurant, San Francisco

We Are Family - Zadin

Truc Tran and Bao Phan signed up for San Francisco Small Business Development Services in 2006, approximately one year prior to launching their successful, upscale Vietnamese Restaurant, in March of this year, in the Castro.