WATERLOO --- A fourth-generation Waterloo businessman has won a regional Entrepreneur of the Year award from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Andy Van Fleet, 31, president of Darning Pixels in Waterloo, was named the SBA's young entrepreneur of the year for the agency's Region VII, which includes Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska.

Van Fleet, a 1993 graduate of West High School in Waterloo, was cited for establishing his company in 2001 at age 25, with help from the University of Northern Iowa Regional Busines Center and the Cedar Valley chapter of the Service Corps of Retired Executives, or SCORE. They helped him develop a business plan for Darning Pixels, an Internet Web site applications company that has grown to more than 50 clients nationwide.

Van Fleet is a fourth-generation entrepreneur. He set up shop in the 200 block of East Fourth Street, the same block where his great-grandfather, Guy Van Fleet, worked at the old Fowler Mercantile Co. at East Fourth and Lafayette streets. His grandfather, Earl Van Fleet, was president of Schoitz Engineering in Waterloo, and his father, Bob Van Fleet, a longtime Waterloo municipal golf pro now living in the Quad Cities who branched out into multistate regional sales for Ping golf equipment.

Van Fleet also sits on the board of directors of the Main Street Waterloo downtown redevelopment group, frequently speaks to students attending UNI's entrepreneur program and is a counselor for SCORE.

A 1998 UNI graduate, Van Fleet was among the Courier's "20 Under 40" honorees for 2005.