Biz Buzz: SLO business owner wins 15-county competition

Rick Stollmeyer of Mindbody Inc. is Small Business Person of the Year for Central California

Comments (0) |

E-Mail

Text Size:

tool goes here

A San Luis Obispo businessman has been named Central California Small Business Person of the Year for 2009.

Rick Stollmeyer, chief executive officer and founder of Mindbody Inc., an online business management company, competed with other businesses within the 15 Central California counties served by the Fresno Small Business Administration office. The business was nominated by Mission Community Women�s Business Services in San Luis Obispo.

�The Small Business Administration is very proud of the tremendous growth and success that Mindbody Inc. has achieved,�� said Carlos G. Mendoza, district director for the Fresno SBA office, adding that the business is a role model for other �small business entrepreneurs.�

Mindbody recently announced a $5.6 million cash investment from Catalyst Investors, a New York-based private equity firm. The business plans to use the fresh capital to expand and fund accelerated software development.

Stollmeyer will be presented with an award at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Creekside Career Center, 4111 Broad St. in San Luis Obispo. The award coincides with National Small Business Week, which ends Saturday.

� Julie Lynem

Strasbaugh Co. honors employees

Strasbaugh, a San Luis Obispo-based high-tech company, recently honored employee Tom Walsh for 50 years of service and Pete Vander Meulen for 40 years of service. Vander Meulen began as a painter in 1969 at Strasbaugh, and eventually rose to production manager. Walsh began working at Strasbaugh on the Monday after he graduated from high school in 1959. He rose from welder to vice president of engineering.

Strasbaugh specializes in the design and manufacturing of advanced surfacing technology for the semiconductor, computer, telecommunications and optics industries.

� Julia Hickey

About comments

Reader comments on SanLuisObispo.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Tribune. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.

What you should know about comments on SanLuisObispo.com

SanLuisObispo.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. See our full terms of service here.

Here are some rules of the road:

Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and leave him a public message.
Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.

You should also know that The Tribune does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.

If you submit a comment, the username of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.