Moves is from a Finnish startup called ProtoGeo Oy, which is co-founded by gaming veteran Sampo Karjalainen, who co-founded Habbo Hotel-maker Sulake.
Grand Cru's executive team is pretty experienced in the field: CEO Markus Pasula ran RealNetworks' studio Mr. Goodliving, while chief technology officer Mikko Wilkman came from Habbo Hotel-maker Sulake and chief marketing officer Thorbjorn Warin ran marketing at German social game maker Wooga.
You can use a hotel coffee maker as your boiler, even though it doesn't heat the water quite hot enough.
So far, most victims of the frugality drive have been purveyors of the good life: high-end caterers, abalone wholesalers, five-star hotels and makers of Yellow Pavilion cigarettes, the $300-a-carton brand coveted by up-and-coming bureaucrats.
We went zigzagging across Long Island, from Shoreham to Islip, to Dix Hills, Hicksville and Valley Stream, picking up businessmen from hotels, holiday makers grabbing last-minute $200 bargain cruises and a mystery man who was waiting in a shopping center.
A slowing economy theme also dominated the guru selling, with the gurus cashing out of numerous players in leisure products and services, from hotels to makers of snowmobiles and four-wheelers.
Also owns a tour operator, yacht builder, luxury boat maker, hotel in Courchevel and stake in Carrefour.
You can literally make soup in the hotel room coffee maker or paninis with an iron -- bring a rice cooker, though, and you've won the trip.
When he and Ms. Fenton moved from Sausalito, Calif., to Los Angeles, the first thing they did was hire the Marquis designer, Oliva Villaluz, as well as the hotel's cabinet makers and landscape artist.
