Profile
Tiger Nation
LSU’s Fun-infused Culture Spurs Grads’ Entrepreneurial Concept
By Daniel P. Smith
Charles Willis, Beth Willis, Craig Ceccanti
68 LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2013
Though growing a young enterprise brings its challenges, smiles persist on the faces of Craig Ceccanti (2003 BACH BUS, 2003 BACH SCI) and Charles Willis (2004 BACH ENGR). The friends founded Pinot’s Palette in 2009 and, with an assist from their LSU roots, have expanded their BYOB art studio from a single Houston-based location into a swelling national operation. “Driving a brand that’s fun at its core is something we learned fundamentally at LSU, where the culture inspires you to get out and have fun,” Ceccanti says. Like many entrepreneurial ideas, Pinot’s Palette owes its existence to a mix of fate and timing. During the 2005 holiday season, Ceccanti and his family attended a local art class, albeit with a beverage-filled cooler in tow. A surprisingly enjoyable experience, Ceccanti recalls the studio owner walking in, collecting money from the teacher, and exiting. “The fun and sense of discovery I had stuck with me as did the business aspect,” Ceccanti says, who found comfort in recognizing that artistic skill wasn’t required to run an art studio. While working as a tech consultant in Houston, Ceccanti met Willis, an engineering project manager, through mutual LSU connections and the two later became roommates. Though often bantered about, Ceccanti’s entrepreneurial idea lingered until early 2009 when Willis’ then-girlfriend and current wife, Beth, mentioned a similar paint-and-sip concept in the Carolinas. Suddenly, the potential seemed real. “We saw the possibilities if we could bring business acumen to the rough idea,” Willis says. In May 2009, Pinot’s Palette opened its first studio. Success was immediate. “We were selling out four weeks in advance,” Ceccanti says.