Entrepreneurs in the News

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Former MTV and AOL mogul Bob Pittman (left) has teamed with former Jose Cuervo executive Bertha Gonzalez Nieves to launch Casa Dragones, a high-end "sipping" tequila that sells for $275 a bottle. A tequila maker is a departure for Pittman, an investor in such Web start-ups as Thrillist and DailyCandy. "I'm probably spending 50 percent of my time on it because of the fun of what we're doing and the early success we're having," he says....CIT Group, one of the nation's largest lenders to small businesses, filed for bankruptcy protection shortly after CEO Jeffrey Peek announced he would resign at year's end. In his five years as CEO, Peek expanded CIT's subprime lending -- a move that helped lead to CIT's fall. Thousands of retail vendors that rely on selling unpaid customer bills to CIT are banking on the company's word that it will emerge from bankruptcy in one piece....If you were a Silicon Valley founder in the 1990s, you probably met with Craig Johnson, founder of Venture Law Group. Johnson, who represented Internet-boom darlings such as Yahoo and Hotmail, has died at 62. He also advised clients on "recruitment, business development, and sales," says blogger and entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki, who co-founded Garage.com with Johnson. "Craig could help in all these areas -- far beyond most lawyers."...Rob Halford, lead singer for Judas Priest, has parlayed his heavy-metal success into Metal God Apparel, a clothing company he has launched with a T-shirt line. Don't expect too many pastels. "Almost my whole closet is black," says Halford.

Senior reporter Jason Del Rey covers technology, branding, and company culture for Inc. magazine and contributes to the From the Reporters daily blog. Before joining Inc., his work appeared in Newsday, The (Newark) Star-Ledger, and the Staten Island Advance, and on ESPN.com. He lives in New York City. @DelRey