When Howie Cockrill left his startup in San Francisco as their General Counsel & Vice President, his family began 'dating' 5 other cities they were interested to relocate their family. Massive spreadsheets crunching data and rankings to compare each city ensued. While we are in the midst of a wave of growth in Portland, I loved having this conversation with Howie breaking down the relocation process and what they found attractive about our city, as well how it has treated him since he moved here and the warm welcome he has received from the professional community.

We're back with our first podcast of 2018 and check in with our friend Mike Rogoway, business & tech reporter for The Oregonian. We discuss the health of Oregon's economy, the recent funding announcements of three local startups, Mike & his colleagues' recent reporting on Nike & Intel, and the state of the news industry.

Genevieve is a seasoned entrepreneur, “mentor capitalist,” and a founder of the XXCelerate Fund. She personally mentors and advises several companies as well as lends her expertise in demand generation and growth strategy, helping teams and companies align to create high performing, sustainable and executable strategy that will build the bridge they need to their next level. http://www.genevievelemarchal.com/services/

Farhad Ghafarzade is Founder of the certified B Corporation Green Drop Garage and a member of the Portland Business Journal's 40 under 40. I sat down with Farhad at their garage in eastmoreland and loved this wide ranging conversation discussing the origin story of Green Drop. After graduating with a degree in molecular biology, Farhad was on track to be a dentist until he traded surf lessons for a car that ran off of vegetable oil, which led him to start converting cars to vegetable oil for $200 each. We talked about how he draws inspiration from his CEO peers in tech by forming a membership platform model to scale Green Drop's car care & repair services. Farhad is also a member of EO and is speaking at the upcoming EO Talks event on January 16th at the Sentinel Hotel.

It was great to sit down with David Thompson, COO and General Counsel for the Portland Business Alliance. Our conversation focused on PBA's mission supporting businesses in Portland, and how they are working to shape the future of Portland, especially for small businesses. We also talked about some of the challenges Portland faces as we grow, and the 'second paycheck' concept of maintaining Portland a great place to work, and live.

In this episode, Dan sat down with former NFL quarterback Joey Harrington and discussed his experience learning from failure and how it has helped him in his post football life. Joey was incredibly gracious and open about his experience in the NFL, which he also shared in his Tedx talk titled "Perceptions of Perfection". He now runs an incredible foundation that gives back to the community he was raised in, and recently opened a restaurant in Portland's pearl district.

Ann Sacks's incredible entrepreneurial journey began with a visit to a local Portland dress shop when she was a social worker. The patterns inspired her to start a new kind of tile company, which was later acquired by Kohler. Now working on her third business, Ann's latest company Fetch Eyewear is focused on giving back. Fetch is part of a very small group of businesses identified by the Paul Newman Foundation as "hundred percenters." This group donates 100% of profits to nonprofits- in Fetch's case, they donate all their profits to the Pixie Project, a local animal rescue organization and shelter, and other animal welfare organizations.

Jenelle Isaacson is Founder & CEO of Living Room Realty. In this episode we discuss how Jenelle used her roots from being in a punk band to start her own company, how she first got into real estate as a way to support her creative pursuits, the challenges of building a successful business in the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2008 and her thoughts on how Portland has changed. Living Room Realty is one of the only certified B corp realty companies in the country, and we discuss her decision to obtain B corp status.

Dan Letchinger is the Vice President of Marketing for Dave's Killer Bread. In this episode we discuss his path from slicing bread with the founder of Dave's at the company's first bakery to becoming the head of the marketing department, and the growth of the company from its humble beginnings at the Portland farmers market. Dave's Killer bread has become an iconic brand in Portland, and Dan talks about the brand vision that founder Dave Dahl had, as well as the company's transition from family owned to being acquired in 2015.

Christina Rosalie is the Director of Brand for Vacasa, one of the fastest growing companies in Oregon. In this episode we discuss her path to leading the brand team at Vacasa, working at a fast scaling company and how the culture of Portland impacts our business ecosystem.