Contact:
Jeff Fishburn
OnPR for Oregon Entrepreneurs Network
503-802-4408
jefff@onpr.com
@jefffishburn
14 companies and individuals to be honored for their entrepreneurial spirit and successes
July 8, 2009, Portland, Ore. — The Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN) today announced the list of 14 finalists for the 16th OEN Tom Holce Entrepreneurship Awards. The awards will be presented at the Oregon Convention Center on September 24, 2009.
Finalists for the annual OEN awards were chosen from 64 nominated companies and individuals throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington. The OEN Tom Holce Entrepreneurship Awards Judging Committee, chaired by Bob Sternberg, narrowed the field to 14 finalists after weeks of research and due diligence. The list of finalists follows, below.
Awards will be presented in four categories: OEN Development Stage Company of the Year; OEN Working Capital Stage Company of the Year; OEN Growth Stage Company of the Year and the OEN Entrepreneurship Award for Individual Achievement. These categories allow competition between companies in different markets based on performance during a particular stage in the company’s development.
“It’s been a challenging year for companies given the economy. The finalists for the OEN Tom Holce Entrepreneurship Awards demonstrate the creativity and determination required of businesses to succeed in the face of such odds,” said Brenda Meltebeke of Ater Wynne, chair of this year’s OEN Tom Holce Entrepreneurship Awards.
“The field of candidates and companies that were nominated for the awards competition was truly impressive,” said Linda Weston, Executive Director of OEN. “It is very encouraging to see such strong organizations and leaders of this caliber who are the backbone of the Northwest’s economic future.”
Tickets to the OEN Tom Holce Entrepreneurship Awards, the organization’s largest fundraiser of the year, are available online at OEN.org or through the OEN offices at 503-222-2270.
About OEN
Founded in 1991, the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to providing opportunities for Oregon entrepreneurs and improving the business climate for emerging, growth-oriented companies statewide. The organization has members throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington. For more information about the OEN, visit its website at www.oen.org.
2009 OEN Tom Holce Entrepreneurship Awards Finalists
Awards will be presented Thursday, September 24, 2009
2009 Development Stage Company of the Year
DesignMedix, Inc. (Portland) www.designmedix.com
DesignMedix develops drugs to overcome the widespread problem of drug resistance. Many infectious agents develop resistance to previously active drugs through a similar mechanism that can be overcome using the DesignMedix drug discovery technology. The company’s initial focus is on malaria, which kills over a million children per year and affects up to 500 million people. Future DesignMedix products will apply the technology to address major infectious disease markets.
Jama Software (Portland) www.jamasoftware.com
Jama Software helps companies build great products. Founded by an entrepreneurial team and funded by local investors, Jama has created a simple yet powerful software application called Contour that organizations use to manage their product innovation process. Jama is challenging larger vendors such as IBM as the innovative newcomer within a $9 billion market. Culturally, we strive to build a successful business that makes a positive impact on our community, investors and employees. With customers that already include Intel, Volvo, Virgin, Wells Fargo, Merck, Boeing and Amgen, Jama is poised for significant growth over the next few years.
Little Busy Bodies (Portland) www.boogiewipes.com
Little Busy Bodies manufactures and distributes Saline nose wipes Boogie Wipes®. They launched the product in December of 2007 in Portland at Fred Meyer and have been moving fast ever since. They currently have 6 SKU’s on the market including three different scents. Original fresh scent, Great grape, and Magic menthol. Boogie Wipes® come in a 30 count pack, and single units individually wrapped packaged in a box of 10. Boogie Wipes are currently sold at over 30 thousand retail locations in the US.
Wicked Quick (Portland) www.wickedquick.com
Wicked Quick is a premium clothing and accessories brand currently offering men's and boy's product at all Nordstrom stores and Metropark (women's in development). They are in discussion with Macy's, The Buckle and others. They also are delivering performance product to professional teams including Joe Gibbs Racing (NASCAR). In 2009, they expect to modestly grow the business, run it conservatively and position it for stronger growth in the future.
2009 Growth Stage Company of the Year
Deschutes Brewery, Inc. (Bend) www.deschutesbrewery.com
Deschutes Brewery, located in Central Oregon along the banks of the wild and scenic Deschutes River, has brewed a family of handcrafted ales since 1988. Starting out as a small brewpub in the heart of downtown Bend, they have now expanded to Portland Oregon with a restaurant and brew pub. Deschutes’ first beers were Black Butte Porter, Bachelor Bitter and Cascade Golden Ale.
Micro Power Electronics, Inc. (Beaverton) www.micro-power.com
Micro Power Electronics, Inc. supplies custom battery systems to the portable medical, handheld Automatic Identification and Data Collection and commercial military markets. As a pioneer in the development of lithium battery systems, mart battery packs, chargers power supplies and docking stations, Micro Power has more than 20 years of experience developing battery solutions. With a proven track record of technical excellence, quality solutions and award sinning service, Micro Power has become the fastest growing supplier of custom battery systems in North America.
Motorcycle Superstore, Inc. (Medford) www.motorcycle-superstore.com
Motorcycle Superstore sells motorcycle gear, apparel parts and accessories via the internet. As the clear leader in the motorcycle gear and accessories e-commerce space, Motorcycle Superstore has recently landed in position #223 on Internet Retailers list of the Top 500 e-Retailers, an improvement of 73 positions from 2008. Motorcycle Superstore serves over one million unique monthly visitors and is on pace to hit $75 million in sales in 2009. In a time of economic uncertainty, Motorcycle Superstore continues to achieve 70% year-over-year growth in 2009. This growth can be attributed to several factors including significantly improved customer acquisition programs, refined customer relationship management processes and superior customer service and overall operations.
2009 Working Capital Stage of the Year
gDiapers (Portland) www.gdiapers.com
gDiapers manufactures and markets the world’s only flushable, biodegradable baby diaper. The US diaper market is worth $5 billion. gDiapers offers parents a diaper that is best for both planet (no landfill needed) and baby (no plastic).
The product has been in Australia since 1991. The Founders of gDiapers were happy customers of the Australian product. They bought the rights to the IP and moved to the US in 2004, pro-actively choosing Portland due to its green sensibilities. They launched at New Seasons Market in November 2005. The product is sold in approximately 1,000 stores in the US and Canada.
Monsoon Inc. (Portland) www.monsoonworks.com
Monsoon provides a powerful, scalable online marketplace selling solution that addresses the needs of every type of seller, from the sole proprietor, to the pure online merchant, to “bricks‐and‐mortar” retailers of all sizes. Serving customers worldwide, the Company offers end‐to‐end solutions for the management, processing, pricing, and reporting for successful online selling. Monsoon improves a seller’s bottom line and profit margins by streamlining the online selling experience through process improvement and best practices. The Company currently works with customers in the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Smarsh, Inc. (Portland) www.smarsh.com
Smarsh is a leading managed service provider of innovative, secure and reliable email archiving solutions for compliance and records retention, proactive litigation readiness, and mail server data management. The company also offers an integrated suite of technology solutions for data-leak prevention and encryption, customer relationship management and website design and hosting.
Founded in 2001, Smarsh has built its trusted reputation by handling the sophisticated archiving needs of the financial services industry. Customizable solutions fit the needs, budgets and technological infrastructure of any business and are matched with Smarsh’s unrivaled customer support and service.
2009 Award for Individual Achievement
Bill Kelly —Learning.com (Portland) www.learning.com
Bill is co-founder and has served as CEO for Learning.com since 1999. In 1996 he was co-founder and Executive Vice President of Sapient Health Network, Inc., a pioneer in developing online health-oriented communities for consumers. When Sapient was acquired by WebMD, William served as its Vice President of Commerce. He has more than a decade of experience helping to nurture the concept of online communities and user generated value, and is leading Learning.com to apply online community development in K-12 education. William received his bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and his master’s degree in business from Harvard Business School. A Portland native and resident, he has served on the boards and as a volunteer for numerous community organizations, including education, arts, and youth services groups. He is currently on the board of the Portland Schools Foundation. He and his wife have four school-aged children.
Lynnor Stevenson – Design Medix (Portland) www.designmedix.com
Lynnor Stevenson is a successful entrepreneur with thirty years experience in the formation and growth of bioscience companies based on university research. Lynnor most recently has been a Managing Partner of Alta Biomedical Group, a consulting firm that handles projects in the commercialization of innovative technology. She has engaged in building and leading ten start-up companies, of which six now are public companies. She was founding CEO for 5 years and a director for 18 years of Heska Corporation, an animal health company that develops drugs, vaccines and diagnostics including for parasites. She was a member of the early-stage teams for Creative BioMolecules (now Curis), AP Pharma, Agen and Univax (now Nabi). In addition to business and R&D experience relating to drugs, vaccines and diagnostics, she has experience in drug development at several companies including the submission of several IND (Investigational New Drug) applications to the FDA. She received B.Sc.Hon. and B.Ed. degrees from Melbourne University and a Ph.D in Biochemistry from Monash University, Australia.
Ray King – AboutUs.org (Portland) www.aboutus.org
Ray has worked at four startups and enjoys the technical and business challenges that go along with birthing totally new ideas. In high school he and a friend launched "The Computer Workshop" to train students on the use of Apple II's and IBM PCs. This company was featured on EyeWitness news and the New York Times. Several years later, while in college at M.I.T., he wrote project management software for his father's architectural firm. This project turned into a company, Semaphore, Inc. and in 1990 had risen to be rated #1 among all of the competitors in the space (by ARCHITECTURE Magazine). By 2000, the company had over 2,500 clients, 100 employees and was acquired by Deltek.
Later that year, Ray moved to from New York City to Portland, Oregon to co-found SnapNames.com. Inventing several new ways for people to acquire domain names, the company eventually grew to over $49MM in revenue and was ultimately acquired by Oversee.net. His current venture, AboutUs.org has pioneered the idea of an "editable overlay" for the entire web. Serving over 8 Million unique visitors per month, the company profitably employs 30 people in both Portland and its branch office in Lahore, Pakistan.
Steve Sharp – TriQuint (Portland) www.triquint.com
Steve Sharp originally joined TriQuint in September 1991 as director, president and chief executive officer. In May 1992, he became chairman of the board. In July 2002, Mr. Sharp stepped down as president and chief executive officer of TriQuint, and in September 2004, he resigned as an employee of the company but remains as chairman of the board of directors of TriQuint. Previously, Mr. Sharp had served various roles associated with venture capital-financed semiconductor companies. In these assignments he was founder of Power Integrations, Inc. and Silicon Architects, Inc. (since acquired by Synopsys, Inc.). Mr. Sharp was also a Director at Volterra Semiconductor Corp., Megatest Corp. (since acquired by Teradyne, Inc.), Crystal Semiconductor, Inc. (since acquired by Cirrus Logic, Inc.) and Gazelle Microelectronics (now TriQuint). Prior to that time, Mr. Sharp was employed for 14 years by Signetics Corporation (since acquired by Philips Electronics N.V.), a semiconductor manufacturer and for nine years by Texas Instruments, Incorporated, a semiconductor manufacturer. Mr. Sharp also serves as a director of Power Integrations, Inc. and Ambric, Inc. He received a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Southern Methodist University, a M.S. degree in Engineering Science from California Institute of Technology and a M.B.A. from Stanford University.