In 2005 Columbia Business School graduate and entrepreneur Julie Flakstad teamed up with long-time friend Jennifer Denton and beauty expert Stuart Sklar to found Blow, a new concept in hair care services called 'blow-dry bars' that specialized in blowouts for women. In 2009 Blow management pondered how to best allocate an additional injection of capital from investors: should they focus on opening new salons or on expanding distribution of the company's product line?
Professor Schorer is a serial entrepreneur who specializes in the start-up acquisition and development of small and mid-sized companies. He focuses on businesses with unique ideas or technologies that are in need of guidance during their initial growth phases. Cliff has been involved with companies in the high tech arena, his last position being CEO of GeoVideo Networks, a Lucent Technologies Venture. Prior to that his career included businesses in the real estate, office-supply and health care industries. During the early 1990's he spent a considerable amount of time in Russia using his entrepreneurial approach to assist in the privatization process During his extensive professional career, Schorer has lectured in numerous business and academic forums both in the United States and abroad. He has developed financial management software programs for business education through his publishing company Bized.