NewHavenBIZ

26 n e w h a v e n B I Z n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m Barbier, and Mike Nicklas, president of Back- flips Inc., are advisors. "We're in really great hands. We have great advisory board and even though we're all young, we've learned a lot as we go," says Pitruzzello. "Our revenues are picking up, too, and we've been growing." He adds that the company plans to relocate to a larger workspace soon. And at Solutech, thinking big isn't restricted to real estate alone. "We want to be able to go public with this thing," Pitruzzello says. "e goal is be the default go-to for blockchain for enterprise. We want to be able to build distributable ledgers for any business that is looking to integrate them." e company also projects a workforce ex- pansion to about 50 employees by the middle of next year. Putting the (Food) Cart Before the Horse When New Haven-born and -bred Emilio Cucciniello isn't in class at Gateway Commu- nity College, he can be found on Cedar Street with his food cart, which features Italian and Puerto Rican meals. e cart is called Mi Tesoro, Spanish for "my treasure," and is run under the business name Cucina Casareccia, or "homestyle kitchen" in Italian. He says he got the idea from friends who would come over and rave about how good his grandparents' and parents' cooking was. "I was like — okay, I guess I have to capitalize on our culinary intuition!" Cucciniello recounts. So he invested some of the money that he had earned while working as bartender and server in local establishments in a food cart that he bought from "a guy in New York." He started the legal process last July and the cart opened for business about a month ago with a so opening at Edgewood Skate Park in New Haven. "Everyone loved the food — we sold out on everything!" Cucciniello reports. e menu features Puerto Rican and Italian cuisine and includes empanadillas, a savory pastry with meat inside a flaky crust, and homemade pasta with three types of sauce. "I work on Cedar Street and most of the lunch breaks are only 30 minutes, so it needs to be a good quality food that they can get fast," he explains. e permitting process is formidable, as a vendor's license requires tax and health per- mits. First Cucciniello had to create a limited liability corporation (LLC) registered with the secretary of the state's office in Hartford. From there, he applied for a space in the New Haven Special Vending District, for which competi- tion is keen. "It was a lottery, and I was lucky to get picked for the Special Vending District on Cedar Street. en I had to get a $1 million insurance policy and I pay $1,000 annually for the spot," the 23-year-old Cucciniello says. With the costs of starting the business already out of pocket, he hopes to see a return on his investment soon. "I'm about $7,000 in the hole, so I need to start making money now. e hard part is over. Now I have to work around my school schedule, which is morning and night classes," he says. Some day, he'd also like to open a restaurant in New Haven and find a way to give back to the community where he was born and raised. "e thing about food is you can focus on quality, you can focus on people, but when people enjoy their food, they'll come back," Cucciniello says. "e food world can be all about money and I'm trying to change that and make it more of a community involvement." Emilio will graduate from Gateway in the spring with two associate's degrees: one in business management and the other in liberal arts and sciences, along with certificates in administration and management. From there, he'll transfer to Quinnipiac, where his mother works. ere, he will study international business and computer science and has hopes to continue to law school aerwards. "I try to start off small with my goals and will work toward my bachelor's," Cucciniello says. "I really do want to pursue law — but you never know where life leads you." Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow Cameron Burbank graduated from Quinnipiac University this May aer just three years, earning a bachelor's degree in entrepreneurship and small business management. Now, the Ithaca, N.Y. native is already working on his second entrepreneurial venture. He started his first business, Burbank's Mobile Barber Shop, soon aer arriving at school and realizing that without a car, there was no place for him to get his haircut anywhere near the Mt. Carmel campus. So Burbank enlisted the advice and encouragement of his professors at Quinnipiac's School of Business to build the new venture from the ground up. "I wasn't a business owner and a student on the side, or a student with a business on the side," Burbank explains. "It was a hand-in-hand operation, thanks to the resources that I got from the school." He pitched his idea for a mobile barber shop to Dale Jasinski, an associate professor of entrepreneurship and strategy at Quinnipiac. Pitruzzello (center) at the September TechCrunch Disrupt trade show in San Francisco. 'Everybody loved our stuff,' he reports. F O C U S : H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N Continued on next page Continued from previous page

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