URL: http://www.nytimes.com SUBJECT

1204 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
January 10, 2008 Thursday

Late Edition - Final

The Smile Boutique in the Dentist's Office
BYLINE: By ALIX STRAUSS
SECTION: Section G; Column 0; Style Desk; SKIN DEEP; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 1228 words
DR. PIA LIEB, a cosmetic dentist, held an unusual food tasting last month in a Chelsea loft. Plenty of red wine and gobs of delectable nibbles were on hand, including beet and goat cheese salad and raspberry mini-tarts. Dr. Lieb's aim wasn't to delight guests but to discolor their teeth.

It was all a stunt to have the three dozen guests fall for a new version of SexySmile, a product designed by Dr. Lieb that combines a tooth whitener, lip gloss and lip plumper in one package. By April the product, whose whitener she claims is safe to use up to three times daily, will be available for $36 at stores like Sephora and Bergdorf's and, of course, at her Upper East Side office.

''I love beauty and I wanted to combine the two,'' said Dr. Lieb, who intends to roll out an entire product line, including an oral beauty travel kit, by 2011. ''You can't have white teeth and not take care of your lips. Besides, I'm a woman and that gives me a different insight than a male who is selling a teeth-whitening product.''

First, dermatologists came out with skin-care lines to attract a higher tier of clientele and tout their multitasking. Now, more dentists than ever dabble in research and development to create so-called ''smile beauty'' lines they hope will make them a mint.

No organization tracks how many oral-care products are designed by dentists. But industry analysts say more than a dozen doctors have brought out items in the last year or plan to this year.

''Cosmetic dentistry was an under-served market and another beauty target,'' said Michele Harris, the chief executive of Smarti Solutions, a marketing consultancy. ''Teeth-whitening woke everyone up and set the platform for new products and innovation. Along with that comes the need to differentiate and brand yourself.''

Which is why the second-generation of dentist-designed toothpastes, whitening gel pens and deluxe mouth rinses are coming to fruition now. Dentists vying to have their products noticed argue that they offer active ingredients that are a cut above drugstore brands. But critics say that is not always the case, and why buy products from a doctor who stands to profit from the sale?

Regardless of whether dentist-made brands are more effective, some consumers think they are, according to an online survey last year by Mintel, a consumer research company. Eighty-seven percent of 2,000 respondents nationwide thought that store-bought products were not as effective as a whitening product from a dental office.

''No question there's an increased demand for appearance-enhancing dental products and procedures,'' said Dr. Mike Fleming, who is on the dental products advisory panel at the Food and Drug Administration. ''A number of dentists with an entrepreneurial flair have responded to this demand by developing and marketing toothpastes, bleaching systems and mouth rinses that appear at first glance to be novel in their approach and superior in effectiveness.''

Take Dr. Debra Glassman, a cosmetic dentist on the Upper West Side. She spent $250,000 developing, designing and packaging her StarBrite toothpaste, which contains xylitol, an ingredient Dr. Glassman says fights cavities and bacteria.

She also lobbied to have it sold at the Wynn hotel and the Venetian in Las Vegas. ''I flew out to Vegas, met with the hotels, got the toothpaste into their gift shops and now we're talking about placing it in the rooms,'' she said. Victoria's Secret also carried $6.50 StarBrite tubes during its first few months in 13 stores. (It has not decided whether to re-order for 2008).

Roughly 300 tubes are sold monthly at the practice that she shares with her husband, Dr. Steven Glassman. In May, she will add dental floss, mouthwash and whitening gel pens to the StarBrite brand. Like her toothpaste, each will contain the crystalline sweetener xylitol, which ''makes enamel stronger,'' she said.

Some dentists turned product developers say their brands improve upon messy trays and ill-fitting strips, or cut alcohol out of mouthwash, or detergent or synthetic materials out of toothpaste.

Dr. Jennifer Jablow, a cosmetic dentist in Midtown Manhattan, created her own whitener (making its debut in April) after numerous patient complaints about drugstore brands and her own disappointment. ''Paint-on products don't always adhere to the teeth,'' Dr. Jablow said. ''Many products can cause gum and tongue irritation. People also get sore throats because they're ingesting 7 percent worth of peroxide.''

But without adequate comparative studies, it is hard to say a dentist-made whitener is more effective than, say, the 51 whitening toothpastes and 14 whitening kits sold by the Duane Reade chain.

''The active ingredients that dentists market in their products are often very similar to what Crest and Colgate are offering,'' said Dr. Fleming, who practices in Durham, N.C.

Both drugstore and dentist items must conform to F.D.A. standards for proper labeling and use, but no studies compare the two.

Dr. Fleming said, ''Dentist-created products might lack certain additives like preservatives'' or be sweetener-free, which could appeal to label-conscious consumers.

A handful of dentists got into R&D years ago. One pioneering entrepreneur was Dr. Jonathan B. Levine, whose whitening ampuls hit the shelves at beauty retailers like Sephora in 2002, six years after he started selling them to patients at his practice in Manhattan. Now, GoSmile, his company, has 17 products available at 500 department stores nationwide, including two $30 whitening pastes, one for mornings, the other for ''nighttime therapy.''

More dentists are selling their own products, in part because it's no longer considered odd for a doctor to have a boutique skin cream. ''Dentists are late to come into this market because for a long time selling items out of your office seemed like a conflict of interest, but that thinking seems to be dissolving,'' said Billy Hulkower, a senior analyst at Mintel and the editor of their oral-care reports.

It used to be that patients lost faith in their doctors if they thought ''they're being sold something,'' Mr. Hulkower said.

Plenty of dentists stick to patient care, in part to avoid a conflict of interest. Dr. Jerry Sanchez, a cosmetic dentist near San Francisco, would rather focus on his clients. ''Creating a product is a distraction, and most take-home products that dentists have created aren't stronger or better than what you can buy at a drugstore,'' he said.

But some consumers seek out doctor-made whiteners. Three years ago, Jessica Naim, a fashion designer who drinks a lot of tea, tried Crest Whitestrips. ''They slipped off and tasted bad,'' she said. Rather than try another over-the-counter brand, she went to her dentist, who sold her an at-home whitener that he and his dental hygienist use. ''It was more expensive, but worth it,'' she added. ''A dentist-recommended product has authenticity.''

She is hardly the only one to buy into her dentist's recommendation, even if product sales enrich them. ''Today's consumer would rather spend a few dollars more on products created by a dentist because they're getting a professional who's looked at your mouth and knows your oral health,'' said Laura Kelly, the president of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. ''They want that expert advice.''

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: RETAILERS (90%); DENTISTRY (90%); ORAL CARE PRODUCTS (89%); MARKET RESEARCH FIRMS (86%); COSMETICS & BEAUTY SUPPLY STORES (78%); COSMETICS & TOILETRIES COMPANIES (78%); PHYSICIANS & SURGEONS (77%); SKIN CARE PRODUCTS (76%); TOOTHPASTES & GELS (76%); BUSINESS FORECASTS (74%); NEW PRODUCTS (73%); POLLS & SURVEYS (72%); DERMATOLOGY (71%); MARKET RESEARCH (70%); CONSUMER BEHAVIOR (70%); RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT (70%); MARKET RESEARCH & ANALYSIS (70%); CONSULTING SERVICES (62%); INDUSTRY ANALYSTS (50%); PRODUCT ENHANCEMENTS (76%); PRODUCT INNOVATION (76%)
COMPANY: GEMEY MAYBELLINE GARNIER SNC (53%)
LOAD-DATE: January 10, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: GRIN THERAPY: Dr. Pia Lieb, a cosmetic dentist, right, has designed SexySmile, a tooth whitener, lip gloss and lip plumper. Dr. Jennifer Jablow, below, also a cosmetic dentist, is coming out with a whitener in April. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY FRED R. CONRAD/THE NEW YORK TIMES

BELOW LEFT, ANGELA JIMENEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)

PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

1205 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
January 10, 2008 Thursday

Late Edition - Final

Finding Real Estate Niches That Keep Housing's Slump at Bay
BYLINE: By BRENT BOWERS
SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; IN THE HUNT; Pg. 9
LENGTH: 1256 words
THE housing slump has exacted its toll on everyone from banks and Wall Street firms to builders and mortgage brokers. But there are the exceptions, the entrepreneurs who either have long experience in real estate or have carved out a special niche. So far, they have been able to ride out the worst.

HouseRaising of Charlotte, N.C., a custom builder that caters to the rich, is one of them. It makes sales on the Internet and often closes deals with prospective customers in a single day of ''one-stop shopping'' at one of its two design centers, where everything from doors to, literally, the kitchen sink is picked out.

Since mid-2006, when it began using a patented computerized system for overseeing every aspect of the building process, HouseRaising has completed 12 houses and has 30 more in the works, as well as a $16.3 million project to develop a residential community in Lake Norman, N.C., 20 miles north of Charlotte.

The company promises to complete all jobs on time, with no cost overruns. Last year, it doubled its work force to 35. ''We are going to be successful no matter what the economy does, because of who we serve,'' said Greg Wessling, HouseRaising's chief executive.

Duffy Real Estate, a midsize firm with three locations in the upscale Main Line suburbs of Philadelphia, has also managed to keep the downturn in the real estate market at bay. In fact, it grew in the last year.

''Every time you go on the Internet, you read about the 10 worst cities for foreclosures, the subprime crisis, things that have no effect whatsoever on us,'' said the firm's founder, John Duffy Sr. ''The real estate market is regionalized. I went into business in 1978, and prices in this area have never gone down.'' Neither, he says, have his annual sales figures.

Mr. Duffy, 60 years old, said he increased his office staff last year to 9 from 8 and the number of his agents to 46 from 42. ''We had a very good year,'' he said. In fact, he said, he views the market downturn as a godsend because it is shaking out the ''deadwood'' of amateurs in the business and allowing him to grow.

Then there is Ellie Mae, a provider of Internet services to the mortgage industry in Pleasanton, Calif. Sig Anderman, co-founder of Ellie Mae, said revenue increased last year to $38 million, from $35 million in 2006, and profits were robust.

Mr. Anderman acknowledged that he had been making plans a year ago to increase his staff to 250 from 200 to accommodate what he expected to be a banner year for his company, which gives brokers quick online access to all the credit reports, title reports, appraisals and other documents that go into a closing. Instead, as the air seeped out of the housing bubble, he cut back to 164 employees. But even as his customer base stagnated, he refined his products, nudged up his prices and slashed costs.

''I'm amazed we're doing as well as we are,'' Mr. Anderman said. ''We have a lot of irons in the fire. I think in the kind of turmoil we're experiencing, there is always opportunity.''

Real estate experts generally expect the market to get worse before it gets better. But, said Joel Burslem, founder of the Future of Real Estate Marketing blog and a marketer for Inman News, ''any crisis holds opportunities for entrepreneurs.''

The most obvious winners, he said, are experienced real estate professionals like Mr. Duffy, who can outmaneuver their upstart competitors. Investors, he said, are already exploiting depressed prices in some parts of the country and will continue to find bargains.

Moreover, Mr. Burslem said, with sales stagnating as buyer resistance grows, providers of video, syndication and other promotional services to the real estate industry will be in higher demand.

Mr. Duffy said the secret to his success was providing first-rate service and refusing to water down his core business with secondary money-making products like mortgage brokering and title searches. ''I tell my agents to assume that every customer is their mother or father,'' he said. ''And I want every customer to know they can call me anytime if there's any problem.''

As a result, he says, he has been able to keep his staff intact while larger firms nearby are laying off employees-- in one case, the entire secretarial staff.

Also benefiting from the troubles in the housing market are remodelers, who for the last several years have devoted their skills to buying cheap houses, fixing them up and flipping them, Mr. Duffy said. The remodelers are now returning to their old line of work, displacing the less-skilled carpenters and painters who had filled the void.

Other winners, Mr. Duffy said, are small moving and storage companies that are getting business from cost-conscious consumers.

Mr. Wessling, 56, came to HouseRaising as a consultant after 33 years as a senior executive at the Lowe's Companies, the home improvement chain. His assignment was to carry out the patented system that HouseRaising's founder, Bob McLemore, a home builder, had developed over seven years.

But on Thanksgiving Day 2006, Mr. McLemore died unexpectedly of a heart attack, and Mr. Wessling was asked to take over.

Because HouseRaising deals only with wealthy customers who own their own lots, one of his first initiatives was to create a subsidiary, HouseRaising Realty, to help those who do not have a place to build.

In May 2007, the company opened an office in New Orleans, at Carollton and Canal Streets in a historic area, and built a design center nearby to match the existing one in Charlotte.

''We have replicas of everything we put into the house,'' he said. ''Every imaginable style of kitchen counter, molding, carpeting, roofing, stucco, handrail, window, stairs, you name it, are represented there. That really makes it a one-stop shop. All you have to do is spend one day with us. Nobody else does that.''

''We could work regionally throughout the country,'' Mr. Wessling said. ''But there is so much opportunity in the Carolinas and the Gulf.''

Mr. Anderman, 66, also sees a bright future for his company, though he does not expect the return of the triple-digit growth rates that Ellie Mae experienced in its early years at the turn of the century.

About 185,000 employees at 13,000 mortgage firms and banks use its software, roughly the same number as a year ago, he said, though the business-to-business real estate transactions on its site have declined slightly, to 35,000 a day from 38,000.

But last year, Ellie Mae reaped lavish returns on a product called Encompass Anywhere, a Web-based version of its software that is attractive to bigger brokerage firms because it is accessible from any computer and the firms do not have to maintain it. Though the cost is $60 a month per ''seat'' instead of $60 a year for use of the software not maintained by Ellie Mae, Encompass Anywhere has doubled the number of users to 16,000 since April 2005.

Perhaps the most aggressive move Mr. Anderman has taken to protect his bottom line is keeping a tight lid on expenses, including shifting 25 technology jobs to China, where quality-control workers monitor the company's network at one-fifth the salary Americans command. That move alone saves $2 million a year, he said.

Mr. Anderman said he expected business to pick up late next year. ''Mortgage brokers who are still around then will survive,'' he said. ''The buzzwords right now are 'more scrutiny' and 'more efficiency.' That is music to our ears because that is what we provide.''

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: REAL ESTATE (91%); MORTGAGE BANKING & FINANCE (89%); HOUSING MARKET (89%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (89%); INTERNET & WWW (89%); SALES FIGURES (78%); LABOR FORCE (78%); MORTGAGE BROKERS (78%); RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY (78%); RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION (78%); FORECLOSURE (78%); SUBPRIME LENDING (78%); INTERNET RETAILING (76%); MORTGAGE LOANS (73%); COMPUTER NETWORKS (71%); INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS (70%); CREDIT CRISIS (78%)
GEOGRAPHIC: CHARLOTTE, NC, USA (88%); SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA, USA (79%) NORTH CAROLINA, USA (93%); CALIFORNIA, USA (79%) UNITED STATES (93%)
LOAD-DATE: January 10, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Greg Wessling is chief executive of HouseRaising, a custom home builder that caters to the rich. The company, based in Charlotte, N.C., often closes deals with prospective customers in one day. (PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS KEANE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

1206 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
January 9, 2008 Wednesday

Late Edition - Final

Wireless Start-Up Fails to Get Financing
BYLINE: By SAUL HANSELL
SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 598 words
Frontline Wireless, which wanted to build an innovative cellular network for both private use and local public safety agencies, has collapsed because it could not raise enough money to bid in the government auctions of wireless spectrum that start later this month.

The company's failure raises questions about the ability of the auctions to raise the $14 billion or more that the federal government wants in exchange for the broadcast spectrum that will be freed next year by the shift from analog to digital television.

Last month, Frontline filed an application to participate in the auction. But it was not able to make the required deposit of $128 million that was due last Thursday, a person involved in the company said.

Frontline was one of the few newcomers to the wireless industry that have spoken publicly about making a major bid in the auctions. Some big companies, like Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile, are not bidding, although Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Google have indicated they would make offers.

Frontline was started by Reed E. Hundt, a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, along with veteran wireless executives and a group of elite Silicon Valley venture capitalists. The company was backed by L. John Doerr, the venture capitalist with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; James L. Barksdale, the former chief executive of Netscape Communications; and K. Ram Shriram, the former Netscape executive who was also an early backer of Google and is now a managing partner of Sherpalo Ventures.

The company's chief executive was Haynes Griffin, the former chief executive of Vanguard Cellular Systems, which was acquired by AT&T.

Despite these connections, and a year spent lobbying to create a range of frequencies intended specifically for a combination of private service and public safety communications, Frontline failed in frenzied negotiations in recent weeks to find the financial backing it needed, according to a person who has been involved in the company.

''It was a funding issue,'' said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of F.C.C. rules meant to limit collusion among bidders in the auction.

Mary Greczyn, a Frontline spokeswoman, read a statement that said the company, based in Greensboro, N.C., ''is closed for business at this time.'' She declined to answer any questions.

The minimum bid for the spectrum was set at $1.4 billion, although commission rules gave Frontline a 25 percent discount because it was a small business. Still, the winner of the auction will have to pay for its prize this spring, and it would then have to spend many billions of dollars to build out the network.

Because the range of frequencies that Frontline was bidding on is meant to be shared with local police, fire and emergency workers, the F.C.C. has imposed a strict timetable to force the network to be built quickly.

As compensation for that demand, the F.C.C. intended this block of spectrum to be somewhat less expensive than the other national blocks of frequencies that do not involve cooperation with public safety agencies. Still, analysts suggest that it may simply be too onerous for a newcomer to the wireless industry to use this range of frequencies.

Blair Levin, a telecommunications analyst with Stifel Nicolaus, said that in contrast to past auctions, in this one investors are wary of backing start-ups that will have to compete with the established giant wireless carriers.

''I see very little interest from people on Wall Street in their backing new wireless entrepreneurs,'' he said.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: AUCTIONS (91%); WIRELESS REGULATION (90%); MOBILE & CELLULAR COMMUNICATIONS (90%); VENTURE CAPITAL (90%); TELEVISION INDUSTRY (78%); POLICE FORCES (78%); LOBBYING (77%); MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS (77%); DIGITAL TELEVISION (71%); WIRELESS INDUSTRY (73%); SMALL BUSINESS (72%); ENERGY & UTILITY LAW (71%); BROADCASTING INDUSTRY (58%)
COMPANY: VERIZON WIRELESS INC (69%); SPRINT NEXTEL CORP (69%); KLEINER PERKINS CAUFIELD & BYERS (67%); GOOGLE INC (56%); VANGUARD CELLULAR SYSTEMS INC (56%)
ORGANIZATION: FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (55%)
TICKER: S (NYSE) (69%); GOOG (NASDAQ) (56%); GGEA (LSE) (56%); VCEL (NASDAQ) (54%)
INDUSTRY: SIC5063 ELECTRICAL APPARATUS & EQUIPMENT (69%); NAICS518112 WEB SEARCH PORTALS (56%); SIC8999 SERVICES, NEC (56%); SIC7375 INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SERVICES (56%); NAICS519130 INTERNET PUBLISHING & BROADCASTING & WEB SEARCH PORTALS (56%); SIC4812 RADIOTELEPHONE COMMUNICATIONS (69%)
GEOGRAPHIC: NORTH CAROLINA, USA (79%) UNITED STATES (79%)
LOAD-DATE: January 9, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

1207 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
January 9, 2008 Wednesday

The New York Times on the Web

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