Attendees of the Oregon Entrepreneurial Network (OEN) June 9th “The Seeds of Suds” PubTalk enjoyed a sampling of the artistry and acumen served up by three successful Oregon “beer-preneurs”. Moderated by KXL Radio’s “Beer O’Clock” show host Lisa Morrison, founders Irene Firmat of Full Sail, Charlie Devereaux of Double Mountain, and Jamie Floyd of Ninkasi Brewing shared some interesting insights of their entrepreneurial brewing success.

Founded in 1987, Irene’s biggest challenge with her Full Sail brand was defining her market when choices of draft beer were often limited to Budweiser, Miller and Coors. Another of Irene’s challenges was cash flow, stating “This business is cash flow driven, and expansion must be justified by cash flow.” Regarding finding the right investors, Irene recommended first ensuring there’s an alignment of vision and values.

Charlie Devereaux feels a key ingredient to brewing success is “having the entrepreneurial gene” and when it comes to experience, “knowing what you don’t know”. One of the biggest challenges Charlie feels entrepreneurial brewers face is the capital intensive nature of the business and in order to grow one must be prepared to “triple down” on spending.

Jamie Floyd agreed with Charlie’s “spend to grow” issue, stating they have many brewer friends who are stuck and likely will never grow if they don’t have the funds or strategy to spend. Jamie’s advice on finding the right investors included engaging on a “soul level” and not to agree just “with a handshake”, as the Oregon Liquor Control Commission will investigate the backgrounds of all investors.

Following the Q & A session attendees of The PubTalk event sampled a number of the speakers’ favorite brews as they again engaged in networking and socializing.

The next OEN PubTalk will be August 11th featuring five companies in a “So You Think You Can Pitch?” speed pitch competition.

Scott Etheredge, Intraspeak, Inc. Internal Communications

Four successful entrepreneurs responsible for four dissimilar companies in four unique product categories targeting four disparate markets addressed “The Art of Bootrapping” at The Oregon Entrepreneurs Network’s (OEN) May 15th PubTalk. Yet with all the diversity for which they were responsible, among the advice they offered the PubTalk attendees much was in common or agreement.

Staged at the OEN PubTalk’s monthly venue "Backspace" and moderated by Rick Turoczy, founder and principal writer of Silicon Florist, the event featured founders Eric Winquist of Jama Software, Eli Alford-Jones of Paydici, Paul Anthony of Rumblefish, and Eric Doebele of Reliable Remodeler.

Common Bootstrapping Takeaways

• Follow the Money. The Investors Do.
• Potential investors focus on revenue growth
• “Your customer is your best investor”
• Target “low hanging fruit” customers to maximize revenue growth potential
• “Work for your customers—they are your boss”

Adapt Business Models

• Business models were modified a number of times--in one case ten to twelve times
• Yet changes were rarely to the “core” of the models and more to the revenue models and as additions to the core
• Additions to models can cause support issues

People

• Focus early on surrounding yourself with the best people possible
• Portland has many successful people who can and will offer good advice for coffee—tap into them
• Take caution in offering too much equity to early stage employees. Later you’ll find stronger and key candidates with little equity to offer.

Product Development

• You don’t need the perfect product before taking it to market. It’s better to get product validation from customer prospects or to go back and modify.
• Avoid one-off  product development just to land individual customers. This often results in development delays and playing catch-up.
• Be careful about investing too much in any single idea

June 9th OEN PubTalk: “Oregon Beer Entrepreneurs – The Seeds of Suds”

Don’t miss the June 9th OEN PubTalk where Oregon beer entrepreneurs Charlie Devereaux of Double Mountain, Irene Firmat of Full Sail and Jamie Floyd of Ninkasi will share their entrepreneurial tips on this fast growing industry.

Where: Backspace
115 Northwest 5th Avenue
Portland, OR 97209
Cost: $15 for OEN members; $25 non-members

Connecting students with Oregon’s hottest start-ups

Wednesday, April 14th 2010

     How would your company like to gain access to some of the brightestyoung business minds in the Portland area? The Oregon Entrepreneur’sNetwork has teamed up with The University of Portland, PortlandState University and Willamette University’s Executive MBA programto connect yourcompany with the energy and drive that will helptake you to the next level.On Wednesday April 14th, OEN will be sponsoring an intern speeddating event that will provide you with the opportunity tointerview potential candidates to satisfy your internship needs.

     The event will start with an hour long workshop focused ondriving maximum value out of internships. Following lunch is six10 minute sessions with up to 3 students per session to explainyour organization’s intern needs and get to know the candidates.Companies will then have the opportunity to spend another 30minutes talking with their preferred candidates in a networkingformat.

Space is limited to 12 companies so reserve your spot now!

Location:  University of Portland campus, Buckley Center, Room 163

Schedule: 11:30am- Workshops start

12:30- Box lunch provided and an opportunity to network

1pm- Speed Dating starts

2:30pm- Event ends

Cost:

Free for OEN membersNon-members must enroll in a 1 year OEN membershipSee http://www.oen.org/membership_join.aspx for membership pricing info.

Companies or students interested in participating should contact Rori Homme at rorih@oen.org or call 503-222-2270.

OEN Angel Oregon launch-stage finalist, Coherence Resources, shares its entrepreneurial story in a pre-event interview. Read on to find out when the big idea first came to mind, what keeps them awake at night, and how they’ll ultimately define success.

Coherence Resources, Inc. produces proven wellness solutions for restful sleep and relaxation without pills, masks, wires or sounds. The NightWave® Sleep Assistant is its flagship product. On March 5, 2010, the company will compete against five other launch-stage companies at The Nines Hotel in Portland, Oregon for an estimated investment prize of approximately $175,000. Register to attend the event today.

OEN: Describe the moment when your big idea first came to mind.

CR: Founder Stephen Parsons invented the NightWave(R) sleep assistant while creating a simple handheld device for stress reduction. His prototype utilized a group of small LEDs that projected blue light in a specific direction rather than producing an ambient glow. He tested the device while lying in a darkened bedroom with the light projected onto the ceiling. He discovered that in these conditions, the device produces a state of drowsiness that leads to sleep – and that this was a reliable and repeatable effect. NightWave was born.

OEN: With whom was the idea first shared? What was his/her reaction?

CR: Stephen Parsons first shared the concept with some friends who suffered from insomnia, and then with his business advisor, Keith Wymbs (who later invested in the company to build prototypes and became CEO after initial market testing). The reaction from most people is that it’s brilliant in its simplicity, but it makes complete sense.

OEN: At what stage of your business planning did you experience the most “go” or “no-go” feelings?

CR: We've experienced many “go” and “no-go” feelings throughout the launch experience. Probably the biggest “no-go” feeling came when we were rejected by Angel Oregon in 2009, early in the process. But we didn't listen and reapplied for 2010 – and now we are a finalist!

OEN: What event, decision or conversation transitioned you to the “all-systems-go” point?

CR: The biggest “all-systems-go” feeling came after selling our first $100,000 of product, gathering customer feedback, and realizing that we were helping the great majority of the insomniacs who were trying the solution.

OEN: What keeps you awake at night in regards to your business?

CR: The thing that keeps us awake at night is knowing that we have an effective, affordable, and natural solution available for a massive unsolved problem – but we don't yet have the funds to make enough people aware of the solution. Of the 50,000 people that have hit our website, more than 20% have been convinced to buy.  If we can make 100M insomniacs that exist in the U.S. aware of our solution, we’ll have a nice business.

OEN: How will you ultimately define success for your business?

CR: Helping more than one million people who struggle with sleeplessness re-learn their ability to fall asleep again naturally.

OEN: Tell us about your present and/or past involvement with Oregon Entrepreneurs Network.

CR:

• Company membership with OEN since 2008

• CEO Roundtable Workshops

• Selected for PubTalk presentation

• Business plan and presentation coaching through OEN

• Business advisors brought on board via OEN event

I was asked by OEN to write a blog about why I became an OEN member. I’ve been agonizing over the assignment for about two weeks now. I suspect most of us become members for the same reason: We love entrepreneurship. We appreciate the opportunity to give back to the community that has given to us. We thrive on the creativity and intelligence of our fellow members. How could I possibly write something that would be unique and interesting?

The answer came to me from thousands of miles away, in many ways a world apart, in the form of an earthquake that caused such massive destruction and indiscriminate devastation it left me speechless, and I wept uncontrollably in response. The earthquake that rocked Haiti touched me in a way no other disaster has.

The first person I thought of when news of the earthquake began flooding Twitter was Portland lawyer and OEN member Bill Pierznik. (You were wondering if I was going to tie this back, weren’t you?) Start-ups come in many varieties. Some are based on SaaS models, some social-commerce, others product-based or traditional services. Most are born of passion. Believe it or not, some, such as the Mangrove Fund, form without the goal of profitability.

When Bill and his wife Mary traveled to Haiti in 2007 to visit for the first time their soon-to-be-adopted son Richelor (the “ch” sounds like “ck”), they were compelled to do something for the people of a country that for centuries has been troubled by colonialism, war, poverty, corruption and disease. The Mangrove Fund, formed by Bill, Mary and two other friends, is a Portland-based nonprofit organization focused solely on Haiti, providing assistance to existing organizations and people with proven track records in sustainable assistance and support. When the earthquake shattered Haiti in mid January, the Mangrove Fund shifted into high gear. And Oregon’s entrepreneurial community rallied with it.

Jive Software, OEN’s 2007 Growth Company of the Year, matched employee donations to any organization with a donation to the Mangrove Fund resulting in well over $5,000 to the organization. Early-stage OEN member GadgetTrak and SockItToMe, each donated a portion of the proceeds from sales of their products during a special sales event. OEN member and sponsor eROI donated their email campaign technology to Mangrove. Other area companies and individuals, such as Sightworks, Radiance Communications, Straub Collaborative, StepChange Group, Erik Weeman, Stoel Rives, Perkins & Co., Ater Wynne, Umpqua Bank and Weiden + Kennedy helped drive awareness of Mangrove and its role in Haiti earthquake relief. (W+K also matched employee donations.) Local restaurants such as the White Eagle, Delta Café, and Artemis Cafe helped organize events to raise funds. Additionally, Mangrove is sponsoring a Build a Business in a Day event on February 27, 2010 where members of NedSpace, Starve-Ups, OEN, Software Association of Oregon and other organizations will participate in a competition to raise funds.

This demonstration of collaboration, cooperation and creativity is exactly why I became an OEN member and the reason, regardless of where my career path takes me, I will remain an OEN member. The organization’s people are some of this state’s finest. I was duly impressed by the community’s response to Haiti’s needs, and I interrupted Bill’s schedule, made far crazier with recent events, to dig a bit deeper:

Q: Bill, how did the way the entrepreneurial community’s response surprise you?

BP:  In many ways it didn’t surprise me.  The unique thing about the community here is that your work colleagues become friends and vice-versa.  When something like this happens, the friendship part of that relationship becomes the catalyst for offering help.  What has surprised me is the amount of effort everyone is putting into this.  These are all people and organizations with plenty of other things on their plates and the fact that they are committing so much time to not only help, but provide very high quality help, has been the most rewarding thing for us to see.

Q: How do you think the response to Mangrove Fund’s requests would have been different if you were still practicing law in Silicon Valley?

BP: Good question.  Having retained relationships with people there, I think there would have been a similar response, but I think the more likely scenario would have been that these requests would have resulted in more checks being written and less time being devoted.  Both are important when you run a 100% volunteer organization, but in many respects, time is more valuable.  I also think that the personal friendships we have with our clients has resulted in an understanding that we can be a day late with a legal work product.  I don’t know if that understanding would have been as pervasive in Silicon Valley.

Q: How much did you raise as a result of the community’s efforts?

BP: We haven’t parsed out local entrepreneurial donations as a portion of our overall donation receipts.  We have raised well over $65,000 thus far.  If you factor in the value of the time that the entrepreneurial community here has dedicated to us, you need to add another $20,000 or so to that total.

Q: How does what you raised for earthquake relief compare to funds the organization had raised previously?

BP: The amount we have raised this year already exceeds what we raised last year for our projects in Haiti.

Q: It seems as though the Haiti earthquake has affected people in ways quite different from other tragedies, e.g. Hurricane Katrina or the Thailand tsunami? Why do you think it has affected so many people so deeply?

BP: Unlike Katrina there are hundreds of thousands of people who have died.  There are more than one million children orphaned or displaced.  The scale of this disaster is staggering.

As compared to the tsunami, I think the fact that this happened to the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, which lies only a few hundred miles from the United States, has had an effect as well.  It was easy for news cameras to get there quickly and report the immediate aftermath.  Those are usually the most powerful images.

Also, the US has had a very involved history with Haiti, and while it is arguable whether it has been a historical benefit or detriment, the reality is that the American people are more familiar with the country.  For instance, more US missionaries do work in Haiti than in any other country.

Finally, the spirit of the Haitian people is unique in the Western Hemisphere.  I think even people who haven’t been there understand what Haitians have endured and have an admiration of the strength that they have had to exhibit to survive.

Q: What needs does Haiti continue to have, and how can people continue to help?

BP: I never thought I would say this, but I agree with both Presidents Clinton and Bush on this:  We need large amounts of people to give small amounts of money.  Aid will continue to be important.  The biggest challenges will be in a few months when the acute situation has stabilized and the initial wave of people leave Haiti.  That is when the true reconstruction will begin.  My hope is that Haiti stays on people’s minds for a long time into the future.  It will take many years if not decades to rebuild this country.

For more information on The Mangrove Fund or to donate, please visit www.mangrovefund.org.

OEN's Seed Oregon: The Road to Angel Oregon

Nine presenting companies in total will be selected to compete in the 2009-2010 Seed Oregon tournament. Each will have 10 minutes to present their concept to the PubTalk audience, followed by a 10 minute Q&A session. Three companies will compete at each of the preliminary rounds, with the audience voting for the winning presentations to move to the championship round.

Deadline to apply to Round 1 Friday, September 18

OEN's Venture Northwest

Thursday, October 29

OEN's Venture Northwest (formerly Venture Oregon) is an annual conference that draws institutional investors and investment bankers from across the Western U.S. who are interested in emerging Northwest businesses and the region's growth segments. It's a great way for investors to connect with the area's hottest emerging Northwest businesses.

Deadline to apply Wednesday, September 2

Portland Angel Network

Thursday, November 19

OEN’s Portland Angel Network (PAN) is a group of over 60 accredited angel investors who meet every other month to hear presentations from three early-stage entrepreneurial companies pursuing angel investment. An independently managed subset of PAN members who prefer to invest as a group have formed the Oregon Angel Fund (OAF), a highly structured, professionally managed, fund dedicated to investing in PAN applicants. PAN members have the choice of investing through OAF, alongside OAF, or independently of OAF. PAN members prefer early-stage Northwest businesses managed by market-experienced entrepreneurs of any industry seeking $250,000 to $2,500,000 of capital, with strong growth and profit potential, and a clear opportunity for investors to obtain a superior return on their investment (e.g., a 10X return over 5 years).

Deadline to apply Sunday, October 18

Interesting article in Newsweek that suggests less talk could mean more action.  How many of us quietly align the right people to help us achieve our goals, vs. telling anyone who will listen to hear ourselves talk and never getting down to business? I vote for less talking, more doing...how bout you?

http://www.newsweek.com/id/197006

Hi everyone -

Check out this upcoming event on Thursday, March 19th, at NedSpace.  It should be a fun and interesting gathering, good for perking up entrepreneurs during this dark economic times.  Many thanks to Josh Friedman for sending us this info!

You can register for the event by clicking on the Yahoo Upcoming link at the bottom of the message.

Hope to see you there!

Larry

Join Oregon's entrepreneurs Thursday evening March 19th at 5:00 PM at NedSpace (920 SW Third, between Taylor and Salmon) to explore and answer the question "What Would Your Startup Do With $250,000 in 2009?"

In the last 6 months the economy, access to capital, the cost of talent and the opportunities for innovation have all changed. We think it's time for the relationship between entrepreneurs and the State of Oregon to change, too (the state needs jobs & entrepreneurs need capital!).

Hear stories of successful, local homegrown companies that have either bootstrapped or raised funds and then grown themselves to success.

Most importantly, though, the goal of this event is to prove to the State of Oregon that there are enough jobs, compelling ideas and entrepreneurs to warrant an immediate investment of $100,000,000 for start ups that want to hire local talent.

We are working to raise a $100M fund that makes small investments in Oregon-based companies who hire Oregon-based employees. Now, in 2009. Not next year or some point in the future. In growing these new startups, we are investing in innovation, creating jobs and building Oregon's brand with innovators and entrepreneurs.

Please be prepared to answer the following questions:

• Could your company hire $250,000 worth of Oregon-based talent in 2009 to get it to the next level?
• What could your company achieve during 2009 with a $250,000 investment?
• How many new jobs would be created if 400 new Oregon startups were funded?
• How would you like to see $100,000,000 invested in Oregon startups?

NedSpace is proud to host an Oregon entrepreneurial startup event during this unparalleled time of economic chaos and disruption. Be a part of this unparalleled movement!

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2127942

//Contact Information//
Wayne Embree - wle@refcapllc.com, 503.619.4310

Josh Friedman - josh@bw-mn.com, 503.705.7975

Mark Grimes - mark@bw-mn.com, 503.502.0185
Harvey Mathews - harvey.mathews@sao.org, 503-999-5849