The lowdown on 2012's startups

In July, BizSense covered Steve Haas, a staple at the local farmers markets who forages for wild mushrooms in the woods of Central Virginia. Last time we chatted, Haas was working on a salad dressing product to get on grocers shelves.

"Now that the farmers markets are done with, we're going to focus on getting the dressings to the grocery stores," Haas said.

In November, Haas went to Maui to pick mushrooms, and he's ginning up plans to lead foraging forays on the Hawaiian island for tourists. He's also in discussions with the Cooking Channel to shoot a pilot that follows him on mushroom forays.

In September, we talked to Michael Hild, the head of the Midlothian-based Live Well Financial who spends almost every second of his free time running his other business: Anderson's Neck Oyster Company, based in King and Queen County.

Hild was trying to get the myriad of permits required to sell oysters for human consumption. He was also trying to get permission from various regulators to create floating oyster nurseries called "oysterplexes" crucial to scaling up his business.

Today, Hild's oysters are in restaurants all over town, including the Roosevelt, the Magpie, Mezzanine, 525 at the Berry Burke and Bistro Bobette. And, in December, Hild received approval from the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to start building his floating nursery, although he still has a few more hoops to jump through.

Also in September, BizSense told you about Jason Lefton and his laser-etching business, Big Secret, which he had just moved to a storefront in Jackson Ward. Along with the bigger space, Lefton had ordered a much larger laser-engraving tool.

Lefton had his $50,000 laser tool delivered Nov. 30, and business has been blowing up like the Death Star at the end of Return of the Jedi.

"We're booked through January 15," he said. "We've got the holiday rush and some things we are working on for the ad agencies and art directors around town. It's been great."

Lefton said he is still working out the kinks with the new laser – it uses different software than his other, smaller laser – but overall, he's thrilled with the results.

In July, we got to know Valerie Paul, an Ashland native and dog trainer who had just signed a lease on a building off of West Broad Street for her business, Impawsible Pups.

Paul runs her training and dogsitting service out of the location, and business is growing about as fast as she had anticipated. She ran a Living Social deal but is trying to figure out how to turn coupon users into repeat customers.

"Obviously we'd like to be full every night, right from the get-go," she said. "But we are about where I expected to be. I think if we continue to grow at this pace we'll be where we need to be in six months."

It's been about six months since former VCU field hockey coach Kelly McQuade hung up her whistle and launched ZingerFit, a personal training business aimed at women in the Tuckahoe Shopping Center off of Ridge Road in the West End.

She started the business in November out of another gym with two clients, and by the time she opened her location it had grown to 35.

McQuade said the business continues to grow. She now has more than 60 clients, mostly women from the neighborhood.

"I could always use an extra client or two," she said. "But I'm happy with how it's grown. I made a personal commitment that I wasn't going to give myself a raise until I've saved up three months' rent."