Making Oregon

Our guest in this edition of Making Oregon is Erik Olson, founder and owner of Portland Design Works (https://ridepdw.com/PDW). PDW makes bike gear and accessories that are designed in-house for the urban and everyday cyclist. The designs and gear have a little bit of fun and flair too, an aspect that distinguishes their products from the rest of the pack.

Erik moved to Portland from Madison Wisconsin in 2008 to start Portland Design Works, and we’ll hear about his childhood in Minnesota, his decision to study Chinese while he was in college, how his entrepreneurial spark came about while he was working at a Madison bike shop, and why he chose Portland as the best place to start his own business.

He’ll also share a ton of helpful advice and hard-earned wisdom for the aspiring maker-entrepreneur.

Our guest in this edition of Making Oregon is Charlie Gilkey, founder and owner of Productive Flourishing (http://www.productiveflourishing.com/) Charlie calls his company “A community for the doers with the vision to see how the world could be, the smarts to figure out how to make it happen, and the grit to do the work.”. We’ll find out more about what’s underneath the hood of that statement, and more, including:

- How his service in the US military and deployment to Iraq shaped his life and business practices

- How his starting a blog about academic personal development morphed into a real business

- The key influencer who pushed him along (see http://ittybiz.com/about-naomi/)

- The book that influenced his eventual move to Portland (http://www.creativeclass.com/richard_florida/books/the_rise_of_the_creative_class)

- The benefits of living in a "long-tail" state and community

- The importance of email marketing (yes, it still is!)

- Going beyond the "how" and to the "why", and why it's better not to go it alone

- The key element of business greatness

One more thing before you dive into the podcast – Charlie describes himself this way – “If a mad scientist were to do a freaky Friday experiment and cross an entrepreneur, Army officer, and philosopher, I’d be what popped out of the tube”.

Listen, learn, and enjoy!

In this edition of Making Oregon, our guest is Tressa Yellig, co-founder of Salt, Fire & Time (https://saltfireandtime.com/). Based in Portland, Salt, Fire & Time has been a producer of traditional healing food products on a community scale since its inception in 2009.

They also operate the Broth Bar, Portland’s first dedicated bone broth café, a collaboration of Tressa and her sister Katie. The Broth Bar offers high quality therapeutic bone broths with a variety of add-ons, that are gluten-free, paleo-friendly, and are sensitive to the needs of those with food allergies

Tressa also teaches a variety of old world cooking & nutrition classes around Portland, and believes that our personal food choices are beautiful vehicles for change in our communities and the world. Salt, Fire & Time’s ambition is to be a sustainable solution to the growing need to heal our bodies, and our food economies, through the choices we make in defense of quality foods.

We’ll talk about Tressa’s personal journey, where her love of food and alternate healing comes from, and how a septic infection cured by organ meats, raw milk and yoga became the catalyst for a move to the Pacific Northwest, the start of Salt, Fire & Time of 2009, and, the opening of the Broth Bar in 2015.

On this edition of Making Oregon, we chat with Zeph Shepard, founder of Proletariat Butchery (https://proletariatbutchery.com/). Listen as we discuss the “Journey of All Things Meat,” beginning with Zeph’s fascination with a pig roast he attended when he was 15 years old.

We’re going to find out how Zeph’s big idea of Saving the Earth lead to becoming a butcher and opening a butcher shop, and how Zeph’s family life and his philosophical bent have led him to re-think the social and environmental impact of food, and what responsible stewardship of the planet entails.

We’ll also discuss how Zeph’s rationale aligns with vegans and vegetarians. We learn about his experience as an apprentice on a farm where he learned his craft, and how the idea of starting his own shop grew over time. We also unpack the name “Proletariat Butchery” and its significance to Zeph.

Lastly, we also asked Zeph, a determined “do it yourself-er”, to open up about what it means to hit your limits as a business owner and why he had to learn to ask for help and expertise that are crucial to his business.

On this edition of Making Oregon, our guest is Eric Rosenfeld, co-founder of the Oregon Angel Fund ("OAF”), headquartered in Portland. (www.oregonangelfund.com)

OAF started in 2007 as an interesting collaborative experiment, combining the collective minds and experience of angel investors and entrepreneurs, with the typical discipline and rigor of a venture capital fund.

A 4th generation Oregonian and former entrepreneur, Eric will talk to us about his path to the genesis of the fund, and the other innovative twist that he and his co-founders devised to make OAF one of the most unique, and most successful, angel funds in the United States.

He’ll also talk about the key qualities and characteristics the fund looks for in a startup, and of its founders, before taking the risk and making an investment.

It’s been a real marriage of talent and capital that have now supported 50 Oregon companies over 10 years.

We’ll chat about the overall Oregon and Portland venture capital and financing landscape, and Eric will offer his perspectives on what it would take to speed up the cycle of local & organic wealth creation and reinvestment in Oregon, and drive a more robust entrepreneurial economy.

Lastly, we’ll discuss how OAF and its investors go beyond just angel investing to provide help and mentorship to business founders over a wide range of industries and verticals, as a key player in a community and state that strives to support entrepreneurship in all of its forms.

In this edition of Making Oregon, our guest is Anna Van Tol, founder of It’s Only Love Activewear in Portland

Anna will talk to us about the inspiration behind the It’s Only Love brand, and the company she started in 2014.

She’ll also explain her evolution from apparel to tote bags, and more importantly all the “whys” (and the personal journey) behind that decision, and why she donates 10% of her proceeds to fund scholarships for single mothers.

Anna had a lot of help from the Oregon community to push her business forward, and she'll chat about that too.

And you’ll also hear a great story about why she pronounces her first name as “ah-na”

For more information about Anna and her tote bags, go to https://itsonlyloveactivewear.com/

In this edition of Making Oregon, our guest is Cameron Madill, founder of PixelSpoke (https://www.pixelspoke.com/) a Portland-based start-up that creates websites and digital marketing for credit unions and progressive businesses.

We’ll learn from Cameron how he became an entrepreneur, and what he has learned from working with his father. He’ll talk about the joys and challenges of working with family, and the broader issues encountered by business partnerships.

Cameron talks about bootstrapping PixelSpoke, and how the business has continued to pivot to find its market niche. PixelSpoke is also a B Corp, and Cameron discusses the rigorous process required to earn and sustain that certification. As Chair of the B Corp Board here in Portland, he’ll describe the benefits B Corps hope to generate across the economic and social spectrum.

Cameron’s wide range of interests include world travel and working to help refugee families detained in the US after fleeing horrendous violence in Central America. He’ll talk with us about how these pursuits are a great test of the strength of his business here at home.

Links noted in the podcast:

Cara pro bono (http://caraprobono.org/)

Innovation law lab (https://innovationlawlab.org/)

PixelSpoke impact report (https://www.pixelspoke.com/impact-report-2016/)

In this edition of Making Oregon, our guest is Andrea Valderrama, senior policy advisor for City of Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler.

With a background in grassroots organizing and community outreach, Andrea has a passion for economic and social justice as the daughter of political refugees forced out of Peru.

She has been working specifically in Portland’s East Side neighborhood to help identify and prioritize the needs for this oftentimes underserved area, and to help insure equity and inclusion for women and minority groups.

It’s from this public service perspective that we chatted with Andrea about her background, her passion for social justice, the value of public service and leadership, the role of a city government in economic development, and her views on how to close geographic, economic, and demographic opportunity gaps in a fair and equitable way.

In this edition of Making Oregon, our guest is Jala Smith-Huys, founder of Seek & Swoon, a new Portland company selling soft and cozy eco throws designed in Portland and made in the USA, and inspired by Jala’s love of travel.

It’s the latest chapter of an entrepreneurial journey that was years in the making, and taking its inspiration from the vibrant Portland maker community.

In her role as the Creative Director, Jala was part of the team that opened the first New Seasons market back in 2000, and that led to her later work as a freelance Social Media and Digital Strategist, advising a “who’s who” of local and national consumer product brands, including well-known Oregon brands like Tillamook Cheese and Dave’s Killer Bread.

In 2016, her experiences building strong and sustainable brands eventually merged with a deep passion for travel and a long-held desire to take the entrepreneurial leap, and Seek & Swoon was born.

We’ll talk about Jala’s journey, and find out why she chose throws as her entrepreneurial and maker entryway. Along the way we’ll touch on lessons learned and the insights gained from essentially launching a new product from scratch, and the benefit of a supportive creative community.

Check out Seek & Swoon at https://www.seekandswoon.com/ . If you use the code BUILTOREGON at checkout you'll get $15 off - offer is good until 12/31/16.

On this edition of Making Oregon, we chat with Jen Moore, founder of Jem Nut Butters. With extreme dedication to craft and quality, she makes healthy nut butters we can’t live without.

As a healthcare professional from Bend, Oregon, Jen became an entrepreneur after a long, dedicated career in exercise physiology, dietetics, and director of extensive health education programs.

What she brought to her entrepreneurial endeavor, besides a long history with patients and clients, were high quality standards, tenacity, a hunger for learning, and humility. She didn’t pretend to know more than she did. She asked for help and built lasting relationships all along the way.

In our podcast, we ask Jen about her unusual childhood in Idaho, how she found her way to Bend, Oregon, and how experimenting with chocolate truffles eventually led to her nut butter epiphany.

Our conversation digs into the building blocks of a sustainable, scalable manufacturing company. We’ll unpack vocabulary like the Triple Bottom Line, and Jen will explain what functional food is all about and how her recipes are based on the needs of our body's systems.

But Jen’s experience covers more than steady growth and a winning product lineup. She’ll talk about the hardships she faced dealing with consumers and regulatory agencies, and how she stuck to her guiding principles even when she faced a total product recall.