Andris Lagsdin was inspired to create Baking Steel after reading about how steel conducts and stores heat well for baking pizza at home. He experimented by making pizza on steel from his family's steel plant and was impressed with the results. He launched Baking Steel on Kickstarter, exceeding his funding goal. The product was a success, partnering with retailers like Sur La Table and gaining praise from food reviewers. Baking Steel continues to grow and partner with companies like Modernist Cuisine to develop new products using Lagsdin's access and knowledge from the steel industry.
The document provides an overview of venture capital news from Russia and the US for the week. In Russia, amendments were passed to make it more profitable for startups to remain within the Russian legal system. Several startup events and competitions were also mentioned. In the US, IBM committed $3B to an Internet of Things unit, several funds raised money, and notable companies like Twitter and GoDaddy had financing news. The most significant deals of the week were also summarized for both countries.
Daniela V Mujica Ortega died at age 19 in 2095 from injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident involving a drunk driver. She was born in Venezuela and attended Pablo Romero schools, graduating in 2013, where she was a member of the student council and tennis team. She was studying Psychology at Marshall University and enjoyed spending time with friends and family, traveling, and volunteering with animals and orphans. She is survived by her parents and brother, as well as grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. Her funeral will be held on July 20th, 2095 at South Berkeley Chapel.
The English Club project involved high school students making short presentations on issues, watching related films, and discussing them weekly from March to June 2015. It was facilitated by Tamar Kasradze and aimed to improve students' English through presentations, film screenings and discussions on chosen topics.
Multiplicar con 1 cifra con 2 y con 3 cifras es fácil y sencillo: se multiplica la cifra de las unidades por cada cifra del número y se suman los resultados obtenidos.
The document provides an overview of recent venture capital news and deals in Russia and the US:
- In Russia, "Bars Ventures" and "Startobaza” emerged from an online accounts service called “Heaven”. "Renaissance Insurance" and IIDF will seek and develop insurance startups. The crisis may push development of p2p lending like in the US in 2008-2009.
- In the US, social media management company Sprinklr raised $46M and is now valued over $1B. Amazon launched a button-push shopping service called Dash. Cybersecurity, software, sales/marketing, big data and fintech are trending sectors for investors.
- Notable deals
The document provides an overview of venture capital news from Russia and the US for the week. In Russia, amendments were passed to make it more profitable for startups to remain within the Russian legal system. Several startup events and competitions were also mentioned. In the US, IBM committed $3B to an Internet of Things unit, several funds raised money, and notable companies like Twitter and GoDaddy had financing news. The most significant deals of the week were also summarized for both countries.
Daniela V Mujica Ortega died at age 19 in 2095 from injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident involving a drunk driver. She was born in Venezuela and attended Pablo Romero schools, graduating in 2013, where she was a member of the student council and tennis team. She was studying Psychology at Marshall University and enjoyed spending time with friends and family, traveling, and volunteering with animals and orphans. She is survived by her parents and brother, as well as grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. Her funeral will be held on July 20th, 2095 at South Berkeley Chapel.
The English Club project involved high school students making short presentations on issues, watching related films, and discussing them weekly from March to June 2015. It was facilitated by Tamar Kasradze and aimed to improve students' English through presentations, film screenings and discussions on chosen topics.
Multiplicar con 1 cifra con 2 y con 3 cifras es fácil y sencillo: se multiplica la cifra de las unidades por cada cifra del número y se suman los resultados obtenidos.
The document provides an overview of recent venture capital news and deals in Russia and the US:
- In Russia, "Bars Ventures" and "Startobaza” emerged from an online accounts service called “Heaven”. "Renaissance Insurance" and IIDF will seek and develop insurance startups. The crisis may push development of p2p lending like in the US in 2008-2009.
- In the US, social media management company Sprinklr raised $46M and is now valued over $1B. Amazon launched a button-push shopping service called Dash. Cybersecurity, software, sales/marketing, big data and fintech are trending sectors for investors.
- Notable deals
San Martín fue un militar argentino cuyas campañas ayudaron a liberar Argentina, Chile y Perú de España. Nació en Yapeyú y se crió en España, donde se unió al ejército. En 1812 regresó a Buenos Aires y lideró las fuerzas patriotas. Organizó el Ejército de los Andes y cruzó los Andes, liberando Chile en 1817-1818. Luego invadió Perú, declarando su independencia en 1821. Finalizó su carrera militar en 1822 después de ceder su ejército
Este documento trata sobre la clamidia, una infección bacteriana común que afecta principalmente a mujeres jóvenes sexualmente activas. Aunque a menudo no presenta síntomas, la clamidia puede propagarse a los órganos reproductivos internos y causar complicaciones como enfermedad inflamatoria pélvica o infecciones en recién nacidos. Se puede tratar fácilmente con antibióticos si se detecta temprano, pero de lo contrario puede aumentar el riesgo de cáncer cervical. La vacuna contra el VPH y
The document describes a project by English Club members at Tsikhisdziri to introduce English-speaking capitals. Volunteer club members in grades 9-12 chose a capital to research and present on weekly from March to June 2015. They created presentations, leaflets, a blog, and wall newspaper about the capitals. The project was facilitated by Tamar Kasradze and provided opportunities for students to learn about the English-speaking world.
EQUIPO 02 “INNOVADORES DEL NUEVO MUNDO”:
Guerra Cano, Giulliano
Ortiz Quispe, Mayra
Villegas Sanchez, Jessica
Levano Acosta, Consuelo
Angulo Sanchez, Victor
Bendezu Flores, Anahell
Roman Bravo, Martha
Smart Process Operations in Fuels Industries: Applications and Opportunities ...Brenno Menezes
The smart industrial revolution, the 4th after the mechanical, electrical, and digital ones, is a today’s process industry frontline research in terms of technology, but also in terms of the use of technology that implies in human behavior and resource issues to deploy new process-of-work. Smart operation makes use of new information and communication technologies (ICT) and advanced algorithms such as optimization[1], therefore there are requirements for high qualified and trained teams to handle such technologies[2].
Smart Process Manufacturing (SPM) also known as Industry 4.0 is an emerging field of research and refers to a design and operational paradigm involving the integration of measurement and actuation, safety and environmental protection, regulatory control, high fidelity modeling, real-time optimization and monitoring, and planning and scheduling[3]. It is the enterprise-wide application of advanced technologies, tools, and systems, coupled with knowledge-enabled personnel, to plan, design, build, operate, maintain, and manage process manufacturing facilities, where is expected reduced costs in inventories, manufacturing, logistics, maintenance, etc[4].
We present several applications and opportunities of smart operations to be explored in fuels industries. These operations improve the decision-making by (i) clustering crude oil arriving in the refineries as much as different they can be in terms of quality[5]; (ii) integrating cutpoint temperature optimization of the distillates (initial and final boiling points) with the final blending producing specified fuels[6] and (iii) hybrid real-time optimization considering steady-state gain in an LP modeling.
(1) Thornhill NF, 2015. In https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/smartops/Public/ENERGY-SMARTOPSOverview.pdf
(2) Christofides PD, David JF, El-Farra NH, Clark D, Harris KRD and Gipson JN. Smart plant operations: vision, progress and challenges. Aiche Journal, 2007, 53 (11), 2734–2741.
(3) Davis JF and Edgar TF. Smart Process Manufacturing – A Vision of the Future. In Book: Design for Energy and Environment. Ed. El-Halwagi MM, Linninger AA, 2008, 150-165.
(4) David JF, Edgar T, Porter J, Bernaden J and Sarli M. Smart manufacturing, manufacturing intelligence and demand-dynamic performance. Comput Chem Eng, 2012, 47, 145–156.
(5) Industrial Algorithms LLC., 2015. In http://pt.slideshare.net/alkis1256/ctap-imf.
(6) Kelly JD, Menezes BC, Grossmann IE. Distillation Blending and Cutpoint Temperature Optimization using Monotonic Interpolation. Ind Eng Chem Res, 2014, 52, 18324-18333.
William R. DeForest III has over 23 years of experience teaching graphic design and fine arts at the college level. He holds Masters degrees in Medical Illustration and Printmaking/Drawing and a Bachelors in Printmaking/Drawing. He is currently the Program Director for the Graphic Design program at Bryant & Stratton College where he oversees the curriculum, teaches courses, and advises students. He has a record of developing strong academic programs and preparing students for careers in graphic design.
Este documento describe cómo las casas construidas con contenedores de envío reciclados se han vuelto populares debido a su bajo costo y sostenibilidad. Los contenedores normalizados se unen para crear viviendas funcionales a un 30% menos del costo de una casa tradicional. Sin embargo, las casas de contenedores probablemente tengan una vida útil más corta que otras opciones, ya que el material base ya ha sido utilizado durante aproximadamente diez años.
El documento ofrece consejos para cerrar más ventas mediante la prospectación efectiva de clientes potenciales, agendando citas y usando técnicas como escuchar activamente, hacer preguntas, presentar propuestas y manejar objeciones. Además, recomienda utilizar una agenda y la metodología 10x3 para aumentar el número de llamadas, citas y cierres de ventas.
This document provides an overview of volunteering in America based on a report from the Corporation for National and Community Service. Some key points:
- 26.5% of American adults volunteered through an organization in 2012, totaling 64.5 million volunteers and 7.9 billion hours of service worth an estimated $175 billion.
- Volunteering remains strong across generations, with Generation X showing the highest rate at 33.5% and those over 65 volunteering the most hours per year on average.
- Working mothers volunteer at a higher rate than the overall population, at 33.5% for those with children under 18 compared to 26.5% overall.
NOC to SOC: A Next-Gen Approach to Understanding and Proactively Assuring Cus...Alex Johnson
Operators are moving from a Network Operations Center (NOC) model focused on network performance to a Service Operations Center (SOC) model focused on understanding customer experience with different services like Facebook, YouTube, and phone calls. A SOC provides real-time insight into how customers are using services and experiencing issues in order to quickly fix problems and improve customer satisfaction. Implementing a SOC requires analyzing vast data sources using big data solutions to understand customer behaviors and service performance. This allows operators to make smarter operational and business decisions based on customer intelligence.
Empirix's Top Metrics to Achieve Contact Center AssuranceAlex Johnson
This document discusses metrics for achieving contact center assurance and quality customer experience. It describes Six Sigma techniques used in manufacturing for quality assurance but notes these may not align well with agile software development models used by many contact centers today. The document then outlines some key metrics for contact centers, including critical-to-quality trees to identify customer needs and measure how well sub-processes meet those needs, and critical-to-customer metrics to determine what customers want and measure experience quality. It also discusses agile methodology metrics like burn down rate and velocity.
This document provides an overview guide to the towns of Cape Cod, including statistics and information about each town and village. It begins with an introduction describing the purpose and contents of the guide. The bulk of the document consists of multi-paragraph entries for individual towns/villages that describe their history, geography, character, points of interest, education, arts/culture, demographics, housing data, and real estate values. Photos accompany many of the entries.
Falmouth Energy has operated in Falmouth, Massachusetts for over 100 years, originally beginning as the Falmouth Coal Company in the late 1800s. It is now owned and operated by the fourth generation of the same family. While still called Falmouth Coal Company Inc., the company rebranded itself as Falmouth Energy a few years ago to reflect its expansion into solar energy installation. Falmouth Energy has grown from solely delivering coal and fuel to also providing HVAC, generator, and solar services through reinvention and adapting to market trends. The company emphasizes ongoing training to keep its employees knowledgeable about the latest energy and technological advancements.
Father and son Aaron and Wayne Sawchuk started data center firm ColoSpace in 2001 to provide IT infrastructure services to small and medium businesses. ColoSpace operates four data center facilities that house computer systems and provide reliable storage and access to corporate customers. While other data center firms focused only on dot-com companies, ColoSpace focused on traditional businesses and provides superior customer service. Aaron and Wayne have been successful due to their complementary skills and perspectives, with Aaron focused on technology and Wayne bringing experience in facilities management.
Lapels Dry Cleaning is bringing innovation to the dry cleaning industry. Founded in 2000, Lapels has grown to over 50 locations across 14 states through its franchise model. Michael Eisner, Director of Sales and Real Estate for Lapels, describes how the company focuses on training and supporting franchisees through various programs. Lapels aims to modernize dry cleaning through environmentally friendly practices and using new technologies like social media to engage customers. This innovative approach has helped Lapels expand while maintaining stable franchisee relationships.
San Martín fue un militar argentino cuyas campañas ayudaron a liberar Argentina, Chile y Perú de España. Nació en Yapeyú y se crió en España, donde se unió al ejército. En 1812 regresó a Buenos Aires y lideró las fuerzas patriotas. Organizó el Ejército de los Andes y cruzó los Andes, liberando Chile en 1817-1818. Luego invadió Perú, declarando su independencia en 1821. Finalizó su carrera militar en 1822 después de ceder su ejército
Este documento trata sobre la clamidia, una infección bacteriana común que afecta principalmente a mujeres jóvenes sexualmente activas. Aunque a menudo no presenta síntomas, la clamidia puede propagarse a los órganos reproductivos internos y causar complicaciones como enfermedad inflamatoria pélvica o infecciones en recién nacidos. Se puede tratar fácilmente con antibióticos si se detecta temprano, pero de lo contrario puede aumentar el riesgo de cáncer cervical. La vacuna contra el VPH y
The document describes a project by English Club members at Tsikhisdziri to introduce English-speaking capitals. Volunteer club members in grades 9-12 chose a capital to research and present on weekly from March to June 2015. They created presentations, leaflets, a blog, and wall newspaper about the capitals. The project was facilitated by Tamar Kasradze and provided opportunities for students to learn about the English-speaking world.
EQUIPO 02 “INNOVADORES DEL NUEVO MUNDO”:
Guerra Cano, Giulliano
Ortiz Quispe, Mayra
Villegas Sanchez, Jessica
Levano Acosta, Consuelo
Angulo Sanchez, Victor
Bendezu Flores, Anahell
Roman Bravo, Martha
Smart Process Operations in Fuels Industries: Applications and Opportunities ...Brenno Menezes
The smart industrial revolution, the 4th after the mechanical, electrical, and digital ones, is a today’s process industry frontline research in terms of technology, but also in terms of the use of technology that implies in human behavior and resource issues to deploy new process-of-work. Smart operation makes use of new information and communication technologies (ICT) and advanced algorithms such as optimization[1], therefore there are requirements for high qualified and trained teams to handle such technologies[2].
Smart Process Manufacturing (SPM) also known as Industry 4.0 is an emerging field of research and refers to a design and operational paradigm involving the integration of measurement and actuation, safety and environmental protection, regulatory control, high fidelity modeling, real-time optimization and monitoring, and planning and scheduling[3]. It is the enterprise-wide application of advanced technologies, tools, and systems, coupled with knowledge-enabled personnel, to plan, design, build, operate, maintain, and manage process manufacturing facilities, where is expected reduced costs in inventories, manufacturing, logistics, maintenance, etc[4].
We present several applications and opportunities of smart operations to be explored in fuels industries. These operations improve the decision-making by (i) clustering crude oil arriving in the refineries as much as different they can be in terms of quality[5]; (ii) integrating cutpoint temperature optimization of the distillates (initial and final boiling points) with the final blending producing specified fuels[6] and (iii) hybrid real-time optimization considering steady-state gain in an LP modeling.
(1) Thornhill NF, 2015. In https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/smartops/Public/ENERGY-SMARTOPSOverview.pdf
(2) Christofides PD, David JF, El-Farra NH, Clark D, Harris KRD and Gipson JN. Smart plant operations: vision, progress and challenges. Aiche Journal, 2007, 53 (11), 2734–2741.
(3) Davis JF and Edgar TF. Smart Process Manufacturing – A Vision of the Future. In Book: Design for Energy and Environment. Ed. El-Halwagi MM, Linninger AA, 2008, 150-165.
(4) David JF, Edgar T, Porter J, Bernaden J and Sarli M. Smart manufacturing, manufacturing intelligence and demand-dynamic performance. Comput Chem Eng, 2012, 47, 145–156.
(5) Industrial Algorithms LLC., 2015. In http://pt.slideshare.net/alkis1256/ctap-imf.
(6) Kelly JD, Menezes BC, Grossmann IE. Distillation Blending and Cutpoint Temperature Optimization using Monotonic Interpolation. Ind Eng Chem Res, 2014, 52, 18324-18333.
William R. DeForest III has over 23 years of experience teaching graphic design and fine arts at the college level. He holds Masters degrees in Medical Illustration and Printmaking/Drawing and a Bachelors in Printmaking/Drawing. He is currently the Program Director for the Graphic Design program at Bryant & Stratton College where he oversees the curriculum, teaches courses, and advises students. He has a record of developing strong academic programs and preparing students for careers in graphic design.
Este documento describe cómo las casas construidas con contenedores de envío reciclados se han vuelto populares debido a su bajo costo y sostenibilidad. Los contenedores normalizados se unen para crear viviendas funcionales a un 30% menos del costo de una casa tradicional. Sin embargo, las casas de contenedores probablemente tengan una vida útil más corta que otras opciones, ya que el material base ya ha sido utilizado durante aproximadamente diez años.
El documento ofrece consejos para cerrar más ventas mediante la prospectación efectiva de clientes potenciales, agendando citas y usando técnicas como escuchar activamente, hacer preguntas, presentar propuestas y manejar objeciones. Además, recomienda utilizar una agenda y la metodología 10x3 para aumentar el número de llamadas, citas y cierres de ventas.
This document provides an overview of volunteering in America based on a report from the Corporation for National and Community Service. Some key points:
- 26.5% of American adults volunteered through an organization in 2012, totaling 64.5 million volunteers and 7.9 billion hours of service worth an estimated $175 billion.
- Volunteering remains strong across generations, with Generation X showing the highest rate at 33.5% and those over 65 volunteering the most hours per year on average.
- Working mothers volunteer at a higher rate than the overall population, at 33.5% for those with children under 18 compared to 26.5% overall.
NOC to SOC: A Next-Gen Approach to Understanding and Proactively Assuring Cus...Alex Johnson
Operators are moving from a Network Operations Center (NOC) model focused on network performance to a Service Operations Center (SOC) model focused on understanding customer experience with different services like Facebook, YouTube, and phone calls. A SOC provides real-time insight into how customers are using services and experiencing issues in order to quickly fix problems and improve customer satisfaction. Implementing a SOC requires analyzing vast data sources using big data solutions to understand customer behaviors and service performance. This allows operators to make smarter operational and business decisions based on customer intelligence.
Empirix's Top Metrics to Achieve Contact Center AssuranceAlex Johnson
This document discusses metrics for achieving contact center assurance and quality customer experience. It describes Six Sigma techniques used in manufacturing for quality assurance but notes these may not align well with agile software development models used by many contact centers today. The document then outlines some key metrics for contact centers, including critical-to-quality trees to identify customer needs and measure how well sub-processes meet those needs, and critical-to-customer metrics to determine what customers want and measure experience quality. It also discusses agile methodology metrics like burn down rate and velocity.
This document provides an overview guide to the towns of Cape Cod, including statistics and information about each town and village. It begins with an introduction describing the purpose and contents of the guide. The bulk of the document consists of multi-paragraph entries for individual towns/villages that describe their history, geography, character, points of interest, education, arts/culture, demographics, housing data, and real estate values. Photos accompany many of the entries.
Falmouth Energy has operated in Falmouth, Massachusetts for over 100 years, originally beginning as the Falmouth Coal Company in the late 1800s. It is now owned and operated by the fourth generation of the same family. While still called Falmouth Coal Company Inc., the company rebranded itself as Falmouth Energy a few years ago to reflect its expansion into solar energy installation. Falmouth Energy has grown from solely delivering coal and fuel to also providing HVAC, generator, and solar services through reinvention and adapting to market trends. The company emphasizes ongoing training to keep its employees knowledgeable about the latest energy and technological advancements.
Father and son Aaron and Wayne Sawchuk started data center firm ColoSpace in 2001 to provide IT infrastructure services to small and medium businesses. ColoSpace operates four data center facilities that house computer systems and provide reliable storage and access to corporate customers. While other data center firms focused only on dot-com companies, ColoSpace focused on traditional businesses and provides superior customer service. Aaron and Wayne have been successful due to their complementary skills and perspectives, with Aaron focused on technology and Wayne bringing experience in facilities management.
Lapels Dry Cleaning is bringing innovation to the dry cleaning industry. Founded in 2000, Lapels has grown to over 50 locations across 14 states through its franchise model. Michael Eisner, Director of Sales and Real Estate for Lapels, describes how the company focuses on training and supporting franchisees through various programs. Lapels aims to modernize dry cleaning through environmentally friendly practices and using new technologies like social media to engage customers. This innovative approach has helped Lapels expand while maintaining stable franchisee relationships.
1. 28 Cape & Plymouth Business | January 2014 | capeplymouthbusiness.com
passion for food
together, open-
ing test kitch-
ens in Seattle to
study food and
how it changes
during the cook-
ing process.
“In that
book,” Lagsdin
says, “it talked
about how do
you make pizza
at home? We all
have that chal-
lenge with tra-
ditional pizza
stones. What
intrigued me is
that he said we
all know that
steel conducts
heat very well,
but it also stores
energy very well.
Once it gets hot,
it’s going to stay
hot.” Lagsdin, a pizza fanatic, was charged by
this serendipitous news. “So I was reading that,
and I’m thinking, are you kidding me? So I run
out to my plant, having a steel background,
grabbed some steel that we used for Caterpillar
parts. I brought it home that week and made
some dough and made some pizza on it, and I
was blown away by the results.”
Lagsdin describes the cooking-on-steel pro-
cess: “What happens is once that steel gets up
to temperature, that steel stores that energy, the
heat from the oven all goes into that steel and
when you put your dough on it, it pops off, if
you will. It creates oven spring and charring.”
In other words, says Lagsdin, steel stores energy
18 times better than stone, and this is good for
pizza and breads. The seed of invention had
been planted with this early prototype.
Kick-starting Baking Steel
Even though Lagsdin’s first draft worked very
well, there was still work to do before he had a
product. Fortunately, Lagsdin just happened
to have access to a fully operating steel produc-
tion plant. It meant that, unlike many other
entrepreneurs, Lagsdin wasn’t looking for inves-
tors – he already had his means of production.
“Our business story is great because we had a
million dollars’ worth of equipment that could
produce this Baking Steel, so it didn’t require
any major investments.” Despite having the
ability to launch the startup without requiring
investors, priming the operation was still a team
effort – one
that benefitted
from already
having a well-
oiled machine
in place. “My
brother was
instrumental in
the back end of
things, organiz-
ing our plant,
trying to get a
new product
out the door.”
About six
months later,
Lagsdin had
his Baking
Steel packaged
and ready to
go. However,
marketing the
product became
a bigger ques-
tion than how
to produce it.
“It came time
to flip the switch and we’re like, God, how in
the world is anyone going to see our website?”
While Lagsdin had already decided he didn’t
require traditional investors to launch his prod-
uct, he realized he needed to do something to
get the product in the public eye, to create some
buzz, and to sell some preorders.
“My initial gut was that I don’t need inves-
tors in my company, but Kickstarter doesn’t
work that way – it’s basically finding micro-
investors, and the micro-investors basically pre-
order your product.” Baking Steel was accepted
into Kickstarter and Lagsdin set the modest goal
of $3,000 – just enough to create some buzz
and sell some units. Twenty-four hours later,
this goal had already been reached and, by Sep.
1, 2012, 472 backers had pledged over $38,000
to the startup.
“During this time, a lot of crowdsourcing
people were seeing this, they were contact-
ing me, they wanted samples,” says Lagsdin.
Prominent food bloggers began to reach out,
notably Kenji López-Alt of Serious Eats. “He
tried out my product and got back to me. He
said, ‘Andris, this thing blows away any stone
I’ve used. It’s probably the best home pizza
product I’ve ever tested.’” Shortly after López-
Alt reviewed Baking Steel, Lagsdin’s Kickstarter
surged from about $17,000 to the over $38,000
the Kickstarter project closed with. “It’s been
crazy ever since. This is our first full year in busi-
ness doing this,” says Lagsdin.
FeatUreStory
Baking Steel heats up
By Alex Johnson
Perhaps the purest manifestation of the entre-
preneurial spirit is when an entrepreneur is
able to return to his or her roots in order to
pursue their passion on their own terms. Andris
Lagsdin, owner of Baking Steel, has been doing
just that with his revolutionary – and elegantly
simple – kitchen invention.
For Lagsdin, it all started with a love of the
culinary arts that began over 15 years ago. “I
studied culinary arts, I worked in restaurants,
you know, in my younger life, that’s all I did.”
But the restaurant industry is a notoriously
tough one, and sacrificing nights and weekends,
and life in general, wore thin for Lagsdin.
“My last stop was with Todd English in
Boston,” says Lagsdin of time spent working
under the celebrity chef. After this, Lagsdin
left the food industry behind to work for
the Hanover-based Stoughton Steel Company,
started by his father in 1974. “I left there and
came to work with my dad’s business, which
was growing at the time.” Stoughton Steel
Company designs and manufactures products
for large construction equipment companies,
and Andris continues to work there today,
as Vice President, as well as being founder of
Baking Steel.
Always a foodie at heart
Though Lagsdin had made a switch from the
culinary to steel industries, he never left his past
behind. “I’ve always been a foodie, even though
I left the restaurant business and came to work at
Stoughton Steel Company. I’ve always stuck my
nose in cooking.” Lagsdin’s passion for cooking,
and particularly for making homemade pizzas,
continued unabated, and was even strengthened
by the inspiration he found in a book.
“I was reading about the launch of a book
called Modernist Cuisine in The Wall Street
Journal. What intrigued me about the book
is that it was really one of the first of its kind
to study the art and science of cooking like
nobody else ever has.” Lagsdin was inspired by
author and former Microsoft CTO Dr. Nathan
Myhrvold’s scientific approach to understand-
ing the cooking process. Myhrvold, having left
Microsoft, brought his own scientific skillset and
Andris Lagsdin, founder of Baking Steel
2. capeplymouthbusiness.com | January 2014 | Cape & Plymouth Business 29
And it’s been a busy first year. In addition
to receiving rave reviews and exceeding the
Kickstarter goal, Baking Steel garnered the
attention of national kitchenware retailer Sur
La Table. “They were contacting me to have
me sell Baking Steel to them, and I was reluc-
tant at first because I wanted to make sure we
could handle the production.” His reservations
subsided, Lagsdin signed on with Sur La Table
in June 2013, cobranding a special version of
Baking Steel for all of their stores. “It’s been
their number two seller in our category, which
is amazing,” says Lagsdin.
Coming full circle
The relationship with Sur La Table isn’t
Baking Steel’s only partnership. The team
behind the book that inspired Lagsdin’s reentry
into the professional culinary world – Modernist
Cuisine – took an interest in Baking Steel. “I’ve
been talking to them throughout this whole
process, they were really excited that one of the
readers of their book was creating a product.”
In April 2013, Baking Steel partnered with the
Modernist Cuisine team to create a cobranded
Modernist Cuisine Baking Steel. “My thoughts
were,” explains Lagsdin, “that we’re strategically
finding real solid partnerships with companies
because they help give us credibility. We spun
off bakingsteel.com on its own, away from
our main business, because we wanted to have
something very consumer friendly, because it’s a
whole different line of business for us.”
It appears to be working – the Baking Steel
brand is growing quickly, and Lagsdin’s team
has produced variations on the original design
to meet customer demand. Currently, Baking
Steel features three models of identical footprint
(14” x 16”), but varying thickness and weight.
The idea is that more thickness results in greater
stored energy. The partnership with Modernist
Cuisine and their cutting edge testing facilities
comes in handy here, as they provide extensive
testing for upcoming Baking Steel products.
“I think the future looks great for us,” says
Lagsdin. “I think we’re just scratching the
surface as far as educating people on how our
product works. We’re looking at getting into
more retail next year, we’ve been in contact
with Crate & Barrel, and we’re moving forward
with King Arthur Flour, another retailer.” A
successful launch and first year aside, it’s easy
to see that Lagsdin is excited to be firmly back
to his roots in the culinary world. “We’ve been
covered by Food & Wine Magazine, Bon Appétit
Magazine, and Men’s Health. Cooking Light
Magazine called us one of their favorite prod-
ucts of 2013.”
“The feedback we’ve had on our product is
just mind-blowing,” says Lagsdin.
arts Foundation of cape cod awards $28,000 in grants
On november 18, the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod awarded grants
totaling $28,095 to 33 local artists and organizations at a recep-
tion at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod in Yarmouth. In this Fall grant cycle, the Arts Foundation
received 39 applications for arts projects spanning the entire Cape. Included in the 33 projects that
received funding were the Cultural Center of Cape Cod for their ‘Rise and Shine’ program for at-
risk youth, the harwich Junior Theater to fund their touring Junior and Senior Player troupes and
the Thornton Burgess Society to establish a permanent exhibit at the Green Briar nature Center.
CapeCodCan! also received a grant for their second annual production featuring performers with
disabilities. The Community Workforce Investment Board will continue their ArtWorks program
pairing high school students with mentors.
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