VIRGINIA’S BLUE RIDGE BUSINESS JOURNAL ROANOKE/NEW RIVER VALLEYS & REGION FREE • ISSUE 125 • FEbRUaRy 2019 vbFRONT.com Aqua Culture Man Dustin McCarty, Ridgeline Aquatics WELCOME to the FRONT Our FRONTlineup this month offers a veritable smorgasbord of occupational pursuits. We have a fish tank coral supplier, chemical solutions calibrator, vehicular wrapper, computer repairman, and a filmmaker. Even our FRONT’n Abouts move between an award-winning chef, gongster (not gangster), college professor, party loyalists, dentist, construction workers and home systems installers, chamber members, and an iconic popstar. Like a wonderful candy assortment in that box of chocolates you might acquire on Valentine’s Day, you can pick whatever strikes your fancy. Or eat it all up. Enjoy. Tom Field Turn knowledge “”into action. — Page 14 vbFRONT / FEBRUARY 2019 u 3 CONTENTS Valley Business FRONT COVER STORY DEPARTMENTS 8 Ridgeline Aquatics 8 Inorganic Ventures 16 26 Sun Solutions 26 Brambleton/Vinton 34 Computer Chloe Shelton, 40 Film Lab PERSPECTIVES Professional Development 14 Financial Figures 15 16 Legal 22 Business Operations 38 A Little Insight 39 Good Work 43 REVIEWS & OPINIONS On Tap from the Pub 44 Letters 45 Guest Commentary 46 Reviews 48 FRONTLINES FRONT’n About 50 Career FRONT 56 FRONT Notes 60 vbFRONT.com 40 Cover photography of Dustin McCarty by Tom Field. vbFRONT / FEBRUARY 2019 u 5 FEBRUARY Michael Abraham Brian Bongard P.O. 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Valley Business FRONT is primarily enterprises ultimately collaborate to impact our distributed to subscribers by mail, digitally and quality of life here in this part of Virginia.” An select locations throughout the Roanoke Valley, additional contribution by the Editorial Advisory New River Valley, and western Virginia. Board involves direct input on the various FRONTLists we present throughout the year. 6 t FEBRUARY 2019 / vbFRONT CONTRIBUTORS Bruce Bryan Dan Dowdy Tom Field ”I would “ take my own bl ood Lesa Hanlin Mike Leigh Ashlyn Markland and look at it under a microscope. — Page 16 Dan Smith Nicholas Vaassen Biographies and contact information on The small labels each contributor are provided on Page 42. ” “ you choose 2019 Members Nancy Agee Carilion (Wellness) actually are a Laura Bradford Claire V (Retail) Nicholas C. Conte Carilion (Legal) Warner Dalhouse Retired (Finance) John Garland Garland Properties (Development) pretty big deal. Nancy Gray Hollins University (Education) Nanci Hardwick Aeroprobe (Tech/Industry) — Page 39 George Kegley Retired (Seniors) John D. Long National D-Day Memorial (Culture) Nancy May LewisGale Regional Health System (Wellness) Stuart Mease Virginia Tech (Education) Mary Miller ACI (Tech/Industry) Ed Walker Regeneration Partners (Development) You will note that the Board is comprised of experts in many different business / industry “fronts.” This is intentional, as we are reporting on all the areas that affect our regional economy and are important to you. In keeping with our policy of being “the voice of business in the valleys” we ask each reader to join us as an editorial partner by calling or e-mailing us your ideas. You know more than we know about your business—or you certainly Website: www.vbfront.com Facebook: vb front should—and that inside knowledge shared with our Twitter: @vbfront readers will make us all better at what we do. Blog: morefront.blogspot.com vbFRONT / FEBRUARY 2019 u 7 Duncan - green Coral in Picture this. the tank > You’re visiting the top aquarium in the region. You’re excited. You waltz over to the Pacific Reef exhibit and are wowed by the wide array of aquatic life, many sizes, Executive Summary: shapes and colors. As you adjust your eyes, you realize Ridgeline Aquatics raises that the marine life exists against a polyped multicolor coral for a more sustainable backdrop of coral—greens, purples, reds, browns. future for ocean life. While fish and other kinds of marine life have their place in popular culture, an air of mystery surrounds By Obinna Morton coral, a marine invertebrate. Coral live in the ocean. In aquariums, coral is used for 8 t FEBRUARY 2019 / vbFRONT COVER STORY Dustin McCarty admits he was "half excited, half scared" to play our "AquaCulture Man" on our FRONTcover, but we think he took command and made quite a splash. Knows how to hold that trident, for sure. ornamental purposes. The growing importance of sustainable practices in recent years has led to the introduction of new methods to obtain coral for aquariums, outside of disrupting the ocean reefs to acquire it. Enter Ridgeline Aquatics, which sells tank-raised coral to reef-keeping hobbyists. Also referred to as aquacultured coral, tank-raised coral provides a more ethical and sustainable alternative to obtaining coral from the ocean. Tank-raised coral is also already adapted to a protected environment like that of an aquarium. “You don’t have to go through that initial adaptation vbFRONT / FEBRUARY 2019 u 9 Acropora - blue with green tips Acropora - green rose COVER STORY Reef vase that things from the ocean go through—and we’re not im- pacting the ocean at all,” says Dustin McCarty, who started Ridgeline Aquatics in 2017 in a small facility in Vinton. Introduced to growing coral when he was 12 years old by his father, McCarty developed a passion for the hobby, and delved further into growing coral after reading the Book of Coral Propagation by Anthony Calfo. McCarty worked in an aquarium store after high school and studied biology at George Mason University. After college, he taught high school biology. With a change in career path, he decided to quit teaching and focus on his passion for growing coral. “I decided that I didn’t want to teach anymore and wanted to make a positive impact environmentally. I thought, ‘What about this business idea?’ I had been thinking about it for so long that it just fit,” he says. McCarty is currently the sole employee of his startup, growing many species of coral such as the colorful acropora and honeycomb-like favites. Ridgeline Aquatics provides coral to home aquariums across the country and prides itself on a well-adapted, pest and parasite-free product. Setting up a reef tank to grow coral requires specific vbFRONT / FEBRUARY 2019 u 11 conditions: water flow, water quality, lights, trace elements and nutrients, which must be carefully controlled. “As weird as it sounds, coral actually consume some fish waste for nutrients. If you don’t have enough fish waste in the water, you’ll end up with pale, unhealthy coral,” McCarty says matter-of-factly, with a hint of mirth. McCarty focused primarily on growing coral the first two years in business because of the time needed for coral to grow and mature. Acropora, for example, grows at max, one inch per month. When pruned, coral grows more quickly, he says. Acropora grows like branches on a tree. “I can snip off one branch and glue it to a rock. Then where the original branch was, 12 t FEBRUARY 2019 / vbFRONT COVER STORY Green and orange chalice several more will begin to grow and the original will grow as a separate colony,” McCarty says, speaking to coral’s regenerative properties. Ridgeline Aquatics also recently added custom tank installations to its roster of services. As the company grows, McCarty envisions a larger facility with tanks to showcase the variety of the company’s coral, and provide educational opportunities to those in Vinton and beyond. “Ultimately my hope is to have a larger space to give people a place to visit and see what’s going on. I like to educate—it’s the teacher in me coming out. I’d like to have a spot people can learn about coral, learn about aquaculture, and learn about what it is going into reef tanks. That’s my dream,” he says. vbFRONT / FEBRUARY 2019 u 13 Overcoming the knowing/doing gap > This column is inspired by a classic business book, The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton (2000). The premise of the book is simple. We all know what we should be doing, but are we actually doing it? We know we need to watch our diet and exercise, but are we? We know we need to be saving for retirement, but are we? We know we need to write a chapter a week on our new book but are we? This is the knowing-doing gap.