connecticut
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Sportech sold the empire. Now comes the Connecticut bet.
After selling its global betting technology and leaving the stock market, Sportech is rebuilding around Connecticut venues and MyWinners. The wager: a smaller company can make more of the customers it already knows.
The Zipkin Brothers Turned an Empty Seat Into an Airline
Two pilot brothers noticed that the short hop from New York to Nantucket meant flying tired planes with one pilot. They built a 30-plane airline around a simpler idea: sell one seat at a time, keep the charter service.
The Waterbed Salesman Who Turned "No Phony Gimmicks" Into a $2.4 Billion Furniture Empire
A Connecticut waterbed salesman promised customers no phony gimmicks and fixed prices. Thirty-five years later, Bob's Discount Furniture rang the NYSE bell and set its sights on 500 stores.
The Depression-Era Passbook Bank That Grew Into an $80 Billion Northeast Powerhouse
Started with $25,000 in Depression-era Waterbury, Webster now runs $80 billion in assets and a national health-savings business - and just agreed to sell itself to Santander for $12.3 billion.
WaveAerospace
WaveAerospace builds unmanned aircraft that fly when nothing else can. Based in Stratford, Connecticut, the company designs heavy-weather drones, UAVs and hybrid VTOL aircraft for police, emergency services, offshore operators and the military - machines rated to operate in wind, rain and snow that ground conventional drones. Its lineup includes the all-weather Falcon II multicopter, the GPS-contested Nyx, the heavy-lift Mule, and the Huntress Turbojet, a hybrid jet that reaches roughly Mach 0.4.