Business

Photo courtesy of Edson Munekata

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Edson Munekata is the owner of Cowboy Brazilian Steakhouse, located in the heart of Downtown Columbia. The restaurant is an authentic “Churrascaria,” a place where meat is cooked in “churrasco” style, which translates roughly from the Portuguese for “barbecue.”

Edson is originally from the city of São Paulo, Brazil, and has been living in the U.S. for over 30 years. He has been living in Columbia, S.C. for a little over one year.

52Inc is an app-development company based in Columbia, S.C. Their focus is quality custom apps on a deadline. Carolina Money contacted co-founders Brendan Lee and Christopher Thibault to find out more about what 52Inc has to offer to businesses in the Richland and Lexington County areas. The 52inc team as a whole responded to our questions. 

Q: What was your inspiration for creating this company? Why “52inc”?

Chris Thibault & Brendan Lee (Co-Founders): 

Jake Johnson is an eleventh grader at River Bluff High School in Lexington, S.C., but he has been involved in business from a much earlier age. At age 8, he and his sisters came up with the idea for Flipoutz, a silicone bracelet that holds coins that kids can trade and track online. As part of Flipoutz, Jake appeared on Season 2 of ABC’s Shark Tank, where they made a deal with 3 of the 5 venture capitalists.

As Richland County continues to thrive and develop as a hub for innovations in science, technology, education, and research, recruiting international business to the County—and to South Carolina as a whole—continues to be a top priority for state and city leaders.

Nelson Lindsay is the director of economic development for the Richland County Economic Development Office (RCEDO). RCEDO works to assist new companies considering locating in Richland County and existing companies considering expanding their operations. 

Karen Ayala loves thinking of new ways of doing something.

Originally from Miami, Ayala has been living in Lexington, S.C., for 13 years. She started her business, Moda y Arte, in 2012, while selling handmade and reworked jeans shorts.

As Carolina Money previously reported, Wells Fargo recently named Kathy Heffley as regional president for South Carolina and Liza Hall as the community banking area president in the Midlands.

“Leadership isn’t something where you go out and say, ‘I am a leader.’ It’s who you are on a daily basis and how you handle yourself.”

The University of South Carolina alumnus, Mike Meyers, certainly has a lot to share about his experience running his startup company Tradeversity. As co-founder and CEO of Tradeversity, Meyers works with seven interns at the USC/Columbia Technology Incubator to further develop his company.

The Lexington Technology Center in Lexington, S.C. functions as a career and technology learning resource for all of Lexington School District One high school students. There students can learn real-world skills and receive training from Law Enforcement to Marketing. Randall Scott is a Finance teacher at the Technology Center. An FBLA advisor and proponent of financial responsibility, Scott teaches students the value of finance in students' personal lives as well as in the workplace. Mr.

As Carolina Money previously reported, Wells Fargo recently named Kathy Heffley regional president for South Carolina and Liza Hall as the community banking area president in the Midlands. Both women began their careers as tellers, Heffley at Wells Fargo, and Hall at a bank in Georgia, and gained the skills that allowed them to advance to their positions today.

Robert Hal Turner, a native of Lexington, is the founder of Turner Telecom Holdings Group, LLC, an executive management and board consultancy that cultivates and grows “all stage” global technology, software, and communications companies. Launching his career at AT&T, Hal rose to senior roles in sales and marketing and served at the highest ranks of a broad spectrum of international startup and corporate firms.