Seattle food distributor plans $16.5M facility in West Plains

Sunday, 04 December 2022 / Published in News + Updates
This article first appeared in the Journal of Business on November 3, 2022. Article written by Erica Bullock.

An 84,000-square-foot Charlie’s Produce warehouse and office building is planned at 6505 W. 40th, in West Spokane, according to permit information on file with Spokane County.

The 7-acre site is located directly south of the Interstate 90-Geiger Boulevard interchange and less than a mile east of Spokane International Airport.

The land was purchased by Seattle-based Triple B Ventures LLC, a real property investment company, for $1.3 million in February, according to Spokane County Assessor’s Office records.

Permit information shows a construction cost of $16.9 million.

A representative of Charlie’s Produce couldn’t be reached for comment.

Site plans for the development call for the construction of 72,000 square feet of warehouse space and 12,000 square feet of office space.

1

The warehouse will have a 70,000-square-foot freezer and cooler combination, plans show.

The building’s tallest height is expected to be 36 feet above the finished floor. The exterior will be constructed with insulated metal panels.

About 96 paved asphalt parking spaces are planned for up to 150 employees, environmental documents show.

The facility also will have a concrete truck apron, landscaping around the building frontage, and grass along the perimeter of the site.

The structure will be built on generally flat, vacant land zoned for light industrial uses.

The Spokane office of Burlington, Washington-based Fisher Construction Group Inc. is the general contractor, permit data shows. No architect is named in permit information.

Environmental documents show construction is scheduled to begin this week and to be completed by early October 2023.

Triple B Corp., which does business as Charlie’s Produce, is headquartered in Seattle. The company has seven distribution centers, including one at 3530 E. Ferry, in Spokane’s East Central neighborhood, as well as distribution centers in Seattle; Boise Idaho; Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City; Anchorage, Alaska; and Los Angeles.

Charlie’s Produce supplies restaurants, grocery stores, institutions, wholesalers, and the marine industry with a range of conventional, organic, and specialty produce, as well as floral items and fresh processed food, according to its website.

 

Post Falls entrepreneur turns University of Idaho project into company worth millions

Wednesday, 09 November 2022 / Published in News + Updates

This article first appeared in Journal of Business on September 8, 2022 by Kevin Blocker.

What began as a college project among three classmates at the University of Idaho in 2016 has turned into a company with annual revenue now in the millions.

Tim Ledford, the 28-year-old CEO of Post Falls-based SafeGuard Equipment Inc., is a main driver behind the company’s meteoric rise. SafeGuard now has its utility worker, hardhat clip-on device—named Compass—in 58 countries.

“We have gotten our product in nearly every utility in the nation,” he claims. “But the coolest statistic is we’ve helped save more than 48 lives now.”

The device, which is no bigger than the size of a human hand, has the ability to detect and notify a utility worker of unseen, nearby sources of electrical charges, preventing potential electrocution, he says.

“SafeGuard is one of the fastest-growing startups in the Pacific Northwest, in the 96th percentile (on PitchBook) for growth rate compared to startups across the U.S.,” says Cyndi Donahue, community engagement director of Ignite Northwest, in Ledford’s Rising Stars nomination letter.

In addition to SafeGuard, Donahue notes Ledford is an adviser and mentor to several local startups, including Quantum Star Technology, and a founding member of Inland Northwest Private Equity Group. He also previously sat on Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ subcommittee, WA-05 Tech & Innovation Coalition.

Ledford co-founded the company with Brandon Bledsoe and John Thompson, who remain among SafeGuard’s co-owners. The trio launched its product in August 2018, and the company was profitable by October the same year. All three come from a family of electrical workers.

The Compass device first prevented an electrocution of a utility worker in the field in 2019, claims Ledford.

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates more than 200 utility worker electrocution deaths occur annually.

Ledford declines to disclose specific revenue figures but says the company is on track to reach $100 million in annual revenue in as little as five years.

Ledford’s family moved to the Inland Northwest from Seattle in 1997. He graduated from Coeur d’Alene High School before completing an undergraduate degree at University of Idaho.

He accepted a position as an industrial engineer for Boeing Co. after earning a 4.0 GPA in college. He worked on a handful of projects for the company, one of which he says helped the company save $70,000 per week in operating costs, and another saving $50,000 per week, he says.

For those efforts, he was placed in an accelerated leadership program at Boeing. At the same time, he submitted his application to Harvard to complete an MBA.

Ledford accomplished all this while working on SafeGuard with Bledsoe and Thompson, who also had secured full-time employment with other companies out of college.

“I had this crossroads moment of going on with (SafeGuard) or pursuing this incredible opportunity with Boeing,” he says.

Financial commitments from angel investors, which included Avista Foundation, Spokane Angel Alliance, and Cowles Ventures LLC, persuaded the SafeGuard triumvirate to move forward with their collegiate project, Ledford says.

Safeguard currently is operating in 15,000 square feet of space in a series of offices in the Tedder Business Center, at 4454 W. Riverbend, in Post Falls. Ledford says the company has 30 employees and expects to add 10 more by the end of this year.

He says he’s not completely surprised at where the company stands today.

“There were a lot of unknowns when we first started,” he says. “But we had the vision, and we had the skillset.”

Spokane Recognized for Microbusiness Growth

Monday, 31 October 2022 / Published in News + Updates

Excerpts from a report based on the Milken Institute’s “Best-Performing Cities Index” and data on microbusinesses from the GoDaddy Venture Forward Initiative. Published October 2022. Authors are  Charlotte Kesteven, Abraham Song, PhD, and Caroline Choi.

 

The Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities index compares economic activity across 400 large and small cities in the US annually. It ranks cities on measures including jobs growth, wage growth, high-tech GDP, high-tech industry activity, broadband access, and housing affordability.

The analysis divided the cities in the BPC large cities index into four segments: high rank versus low rank (2022) and high change versus low change (from 2021 to 2022). We selected several cities from each quadrant as case studies for further
examination. Cities were selected from those with the greatest change in each quadrant and to ensure a geographic spread across the country. We then cross-tabulated these cities by category with MAI to identify any key similarities and differences in groups. The top-level results for selected cities are shown below.

SPOKANE–SPOKANE VALLEY
Spokane scored well in one-year jobs growth, placing seventh among tier two cities in BPC’s annual index, 34th in one-year high-tech GDP growth, 35th in five-year high-tech GDP growth, and 10th in broadband access.

Despite its composite score of 108.9 in the Microbusiness Activity Index, 7.1 points above the national average, Spokane’s subindex engagement and participation scores were particularly low at 100.8 and 102.0, respectively, compared to its fellow quadrant cities. However, the city’s subindex infrastructure score is 11.1 points above the national average, at 114.1. This demonstrates that the city has the physical and intellectual infrastructure needed to access and use the internet, implying that its already diversified economy can grow stronger with a push toward online microbusiness engagement.

Spokane is Washington’s second-largest city and has seen 9.9 percent population growth over the past
decade.2 Between February 1, 2020, and January 7, 2022, Spokane trailed only Boise City, Idaho, for the metro with the fastest growth in job postings. 3 This growth may reflect the fact that Spokane’s major industries in aerospace, health care, food processing, and clean energy production are all rebounding from pandemic–related interruptions.

Job postings may also be growing to meet service- sector demand from remote workers from bigger metros. Attracted by its quality of life, proximity to nature, and small-town environment, remote workers have flocked to Spokane. This movement, however, creates high housing demand, compounded by a lack of affordable housing options in the area: Affordability
is down more than 7 percent year-over-year, 4 and home-value growth has gone up by 12.9 percent year-over-year.5 Spokane has also seen an increase in tech startup activity. Rover, a Seattle-based pet-sitting company, recently set up a 70-person outpost in Spokane, and the University of Washington’s CoMotion Labs launched an innovation hub in the area.6 Tech job
postings almost doubled from 2020 to 2021,7 part of a burgeoning tech industry in Spokane. Despite this, technology only accounts for 1.4 percent of Greater Spokane’s economy, leaving tremendous room for future tech growth and economic diversification.8

For full report, please click here: Best-Performing-Cities-and-Microbusiness-Activity

 

Jump starting communities for success is topic for upcoming economic development meeting

Monday, 13 June 2022 / Published in News + Updates

June 13, 2022 (FAIRFIELD, Wash.)—Inland Northwest Partners (INP) is accepting registrations for a June meeting in Hayden Lake, Idaho. Rural economic development specialist, Jimi Coplen, will share her strategies for creating a spark in small communities.  “Jump Starting Your Community for Success”, is Tuesday, June 28 from 8:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m. at Hayden Lake Country Club. Cost is $40 for INP members and $60 for non-members. Seating is limited. Register at www.inwp.org/events.

Jimi Coplen has been an economic and community development practitioner for 20 years, serving in small rural communities in Texas. During the pandemic, she launched an online platform, The Rural Spark, as an educational, and networking platform for other rural economic developers.

“My hope is to empower a new generation to lead their communities and lead strong”, says Coplen. “The pandemic created a shift. People are coming back to rural communities. They are buying homes, starting businesses, retiring, putting kids into our schools. Now more than ever, we need strong economic development professionals and programs.”

INP members meet quarterly to share common economic challenges and solutions within the eastern Washington and northern Idaho region. Topics can include technology, financing community initiatives, forging regional partnerships, civic capacity-building, business expansion and retention strategies, and talent attraction. INP often partners with local chambers or state organizations for value-added training.

For more information about INP meetings or becoming a member, visit inwp.org or email [email protected].

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Inland Northwest Partners (INP) is a non-profit organization focused on enhancing the long-term vitality of a two-state region through its core offering of educational meetings, programs, and seminars. More than 300 business and community leaders from eastern Washington and northern Idaho are members. INP is also part of a regional collaborative known as the Inland Northwest Economic Alliance (INEA), a consortium of fourteen economic development agencies. To learn more, visit inwp.org.

 

 

Story Contact:

KayDee Gilkey, Executive Director, Inland Northwest Partners

P| (509) 990-6105  E| [email protected]

Entrepreneurial ecosystem in greater Spokane traverses complicated terrain

Thursday, 21 April 2022 / Published in News + Updates

This article first appeared in the Journal of Business on April 21, 20211. by Virginia Thomas

While funding opportunities have slowed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Spokane’s startup community remains active, bolstered by employees located throughout the U.S. and events that bring attention to new companies, some market observers here say.

According to information from proprietary market data software subscription platform PitchBook, more than $51.6 million went to startups in the Spokane area in 2021. That’s less than half the $107.6 million in funding startups here received in 2020.

Of those funds committed in 2021, nearly half—$25.3 million—was venture funding.

Steve Rector, chief investment officer at Spokane-based Cowles Ventures LLC, says that while there’s no shortage of startups to fund, cash flow to investments has slowed as investors have been more hesitant to part with their money while the pandemic persisted through a second year.

“People are preserving cash in some of the uncertainty,” Rector says. “I was a little more protective during the last 18 to 24 months, just until we got a better handle on where things were going.”

Cowles Ventures is the venture-capital arm of Cowles Co., which owns the Journal of Business through its subsidiary, Northwest Business Press Inc.

Tom Simpson, managing member of angel fund Kick-Start, president of the Spokane Angel Alliance, and president and CEO of Ignite Northwest, says that data from Pitchbook should be taken with a grain of salt.

“PitchBook data is not complete because you don’t have everything disclosed,” Simpson says. “I would be careful about drawing a meaningful conclusion and saying the Spokane region suddenly is less interesting because of a decline.”

According to PitchBook data, startups that received the greatest amount of funds in 2021 include:

•Coeur d’Alene-based additive manufacturer Continuous Composites Inc., which received $18 million in venture funding in June.

•Coeur d’Alene-based cyber security company Gravwell Inc., which raised about $7 million total from two seed funding rounds in 2021.

•Spokane Valley-based real estate startup Doorsey Inc., which raised $4.1 million in seed funding in November.

Simpson says it’s important to note the number of new startups receiving investments versus the number of follow-on investments.

In 2021, four new startups – Vega Cloud Inc., Doorsey Inc., Treasury4 Inc., and Ruumr Inc. – received funding. No new startups received funding in 2020, according to PitchBook data.

Rector says Cowles Ventures invested in two new companies in 2021—Spokane-based fintech software startup Treasury4 Inc. and Vega Cloud, which is a Liberty Lake-based software maker.

So far in 2022, investors have infused more than $7.7 million into local startups, according to PitchBook. Most of that came from a $7 million venture funding round to Spokane-based spice maker Spiceology Inc. from San Francisco-based venture capital firm Jackson Square Ventures and other undisclosed investors.

Rector says investments in Spokane-area startups are likely to recover somewhat in 2022.

“Overall, in the markets and the venture space, we’ll probably see some upticks in ’22, just because we are getting out of some of the uncertainties that were clouding us in 2020 and 2021,” Rector says.

Simpson says future successful companies could be born from local startup events, which also maintain the momentum of the community.

Sparks Weekend, to be hosted this year by Ignite and LimeLyte Technology Group Inc. from April 29 to May 1 at the Catalyst Building, at 601 E. Riverside, provides new startups with resources to launch, Simpson says.

“It’s a three-day event where people with ideas for brand-new businesses present their ideas on Friday evening,” Simpson says.

About 40 presenters will be winnowed down to 10 finalists, who will be paired with mentors to work on creating a minimum viable product, conducting market research, and refining their busines model. On Sunday, competitors will present their final plans to a panel of judges. One winner will receive $50,000 in investment capital.

“That’s something that’s been very fruitful in the ecosystem here in Spokane,” Simpson says. “For example, Spiceology was the winner of a predecessor to Sparks Weekend, which was called Startup Spokane. Kaspien, several years ago, was the product of the same business plan competition.”

Spokane Valley-based e-commerce company Kaspien Holdings Inc. is an example of a company that has benefitted from some effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Simpson says. It has increased employee numbers by hiring people to work remotely. Other startups in the Spokane area also are likely to grow this way, Simpson says.

“The broader acceptance of remote work has really helped Spokane,” Simpson says. “In the past, sometimes Spokane was at a disadvantage for recruiting. Now, we can recruit people to work for emerging Spokane companies, though the workers may live elsewhere. It’s benefitting the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Spokane in two ways—more talent coming in, and the ability to attract a broader base of talent, though the workers might not live in Spokane.”

Ryan Arnold, director of regional entrepreneurial strategy at North Idaho College and co-manager of the Northwest Entrepreneur Competition, says entrepreneurial events are a good way for startups to find funding and other resources.

At the Northwest Entrepreneur Competition, hosted virtually on April 13 by North Idaho College and Spokane’s University District, more than 50 student teams competed for a total of about $44,000 in awards.

In addition to funding and feedback from judges, such events provide networking opportunities. Arnold says many entrepreneurs have a small network or none at all.

“Events like these oftentimes are a sort of clearinghouse for that, where they’re not only competing, but they’re meeting new people, they’re meeting their own peers that are going through the same issues, and they’re building their own entrepreneurial network,” Arnold says.

The Northwest Entrepreneur Competition has been hosted by North Idaho College annually for about 15 years, Arnold says. In that time, the entrepreneurial ecosystem here has flourished, he says.

“What we’ve found over time is that Spokane as a region has gotten more complex as far as the ecosystem goes,” he says. “We’re doing a good job of cooperating across state lines. The ecosystem is starting to work together a lot better, more cooperatively.”

Even before the Northwest Entrepreneur Competition came along, the startup community here was connecting higher education institutions with startup investment opportunities.

“You see this in the building growth of Spokane’s University District, for instance—the physical form of these spaces and places next to the downtown core,” Arnold says. “We were trying to attract talent and resources. But now, that talent and resource is here. Those buildings and spaces are here. With that comes the opportunity to just keep building and growing.”

Arnold says startups in the health sciences, aerospace, and advanced manufacturing sectors in particular have seen significant growth here.

Rector says Spokane startups have been receiving more attention from investors based outside of the Inland Northwest.

“We’re attracting some good, strong attention nationally with some of the companies that were started here,” Rector says. “I’ve got a couple of different venture groups in the Bay Area and a couple in the Seattle area that are much more inquisitive as to what we’re doing over here.”

Evergreen Bioscience Innovation Receives $500,000 Grant to Build a Bioscience Cluster in the Spokane Region

Wednesday, 06 April 2022 / Published in News + Updates

This is a press release from Greater Spokane Inc., released on March 14, 2022.

(SPOKANE, Wash.) – The Washington State Department of Commerce has awarded a $500,000 Innovation Cluster Accelerator grant to Evergreen Bioscience Innovation (Evergreen Bio) to build a bioscience innovation cluster in the Spokane region. The successful team is led by Greater Spokane Inc. in partnership with SP3NW. Washington’s Innovation Cluster Accelerator is one portion of work supported by a $15 million CARES Act Investment by the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration.

The grant dollars will grow an industry-led business development organization and drive initiatives to build a world-class health and life science contract service industry in the region. Evergreen Bio’s mission is to make the Mountain Northwest and Washington State a magnet for companies providing and consuming expert life and health science contract research, development, and manufacturing services. They will do this by promoting industry “co-opetition,” prioritizing projects to address industry needs, and acquiring, developing, and retaining top talent.

Multiple organizations and key champions have been instrumental in the success of this award, including SP3NW, Katrina Rogers Consulting, Health Sciences and Services Authority of Spokane County, Clear Solutions Biomedical, VectorPoint Ventures, Johnston Engineering, and Alturas Analytics/Needham Scientific.

“This is a very exciting opportunity that is building on a lot of the community’s great work. Evergreen Bio is what comes next from VISION 2030, the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, SP3NW, and new investments from Jubilant HollisterStier and Selkirk Pharma. Contract services across the region has been identified as a gap and Evergreen Bio can lead the economic advantage of local supply chain sourcing for pharmaceutical and medical device contract services companies. We will have the opportunity to catapult our community into one of the leaders in life science services,” said Stacia Rasmussen, Health & Life Science Business Development Manager of Greater Spokane Inc.

Evergreen Bio is focusing on five key initiatives to promote bioscience innovation including a Thriving Industry, Total Mountain Northwest Supply Chain, Global Entrepreneurship Hub, 21st Century Talent, and a World-Class Cluster.  Evergreen Bio will be the home for synergistic regional initiatives across these focus areas.

“Growing life sciences in Spokane requires a strong entrepreneurial community supported by financial opportunities. SP3NW is proud to be a part of the team bringing Evergreen Bio into existence. We already have strong interest from the private sector, entrepreneurs, finance, government, and education from current work with parallel aims of the FIRE grant programs. The grant will give us the ability to grow on this success,” said Michaele Armstrong, Associate Director of SP3NW.

About the Evergreen Bioscience Innovation

Evergreen Bioscience Innovation (Evergreen Bio) is a corporate industry-led, member-based organization that includes partners from the five economic segments of government, capital, academics, entrepreneur, and corporate.  The mission of Evergreen Bio is to make the Mountain Northwest and Washington State a magnet for companies providing and consuming expert life and health science contract research, contract development, and contract manufacturing services of medicines and medical devices, by enhancing workforce development and services to pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Evergreen Bio’s purpose is to develop and promote collaborative relationships facilitating regional business growth by prioritizing and assisting in funding projects that increase our collective value as an integrated biosciences supply chain, which will expand name recognition and awareness of contract services provided within our region.

About Greater Spokane Inc.

Greater Spokane Inc. (GSI) is the Spokane region’s business development organization. GSI creates the place where organizations come together to advocate for the region, drive strategic economic growth, and champion a talented workforce. GSI is funded through a combination of private and public investment, including over 800 private-sector members; Spokane County; Washington State Department of Commerce; and the cities of Spokane, Spokane Valley, Cheney, Deer Park, Liberty Lake, Airway Heights, Medical Lake, Millwood, Newport, and the Kalispel Tribe of Indians. For more information visit GreaterSpokane.org.

About SP3NW and the FIRE grant programs

SP3NW is an early-stage, life sciences incubator located in the University District of Spokane. In alignment with the land grant mission of WSU, SP3NW supports the bench-to-business and business-to-consumer paradigm. Through the four programs of our EDA-supported Flexible Infrastructure for Resilient Entrepreneurship (FIRE), we help to grow companies with innovative new products across Washington, Idaho, and Montana. For more information visit sp3nw.org.

About the Spokane region, Education & Workforce, Quality of Life

Thursday, 14 October 2021 / Published in News + Updates

This article first appeared on advantagespokane.com on October 11, 2021.

As the economy shakes out, new and growing businesses are deciding where to locate post-pandemic. For most, the availability of skilled, trained and ready-to-work employees is a priority — if not the No. 1 criteria.

“This is going to come down to talent,” says Gary Ballew, GSI’s vice president for economic development. “We already see a scarcity of workers across the country. The ability for companies to be successful is the ability of the community to grow, attract and retain talent.”

Reliable, relevant data helps focus the search — so you know whether a community has the talent pipeline your company needs. In Spokane County, the numbers have been good and steadily getting better:

  • High school graduations. At 86.02% in 2019-’20, Spokane County’s high school graduation rate has been rising steadily for the past decade. It’s remained consistently higher than the statewide rate (83.91% in 2019-’20).
  • College attendance. In 2019, 71.2% of Spokane County residents 25 and older had attended college. That total percentage includes 40.2% of residents who had attended some college, on their way to earning a degree, or earned an associate’s degree. (That rate was higher than the state and U.S. averages.) That total percentage also includes 19.5% of residents who had bachelor’s degrees, and another 11.5% with graduate or professional degrees.
  • Civilian labor force participation. Spokane County offers the largest labor market in eastern Washington and northern Idaho. At 61.89% in 2019, the percentage of  Spokane County’s total civilian labor force — the number of employed people plus the those actively seeking work — had been rising steadily since 2015.

Advantage Spokane’s regional Data Center is packed with searchable information about talent, the business climate, infrastructure and utilities, transportation and other factors key to decision-making.

Key data curated for businesses is also easy to find on a free interactive web tool called the Vitals (the source of the talent-related data above). It’s a tool built for businesses throughout Washington and those looking to locate in the state. The Vitals bring together more than 30 key economic indicators in Washington counties or MSAs, and at the state level. The indicators reflect regions’ progress related to economic recovery, talent, business environment, infrastructure and connectivity, entrepreneurship and innovation, and place and community.

The tool makes is part of Washington in the Making, a framework for the state’s post-pandemic economic recovery created by the AWB Institute.

Commitment to education

In Spokane County, the strong numbers related to talent reflect a regional, long-term commitment to developing a talent pipeline that matches employers’ needs.

It starts with education.
The Spokane region is home to public and private colleges and universities attended by nearly 80,000 students. The county’s 14 school districts and 60 private schools provide charter programs, STEM academies, skills centers and bilingual programs in addition to high-quality K-12 education.

The region also supports training programs that ensure that the engaged, ready-to-work people in our labor force learn the skills and grow the talents that new and growing businesses need.

High quality of life

But Ballew notes that it’s just as important to be able to attract and keep skilled and talented people around, in addition to supporting quality education and training programs.

Ballew said he’s seen quality-of-life issues become more important for employers and workers, starting even before the pandemic. But now, many have experienced a shift in perspective; they’ve looking for qualities like shorter commutes and easy access to lakes, rivers, forests and mountains.

“COVID accelerated a lot of shifts,” Ballew says, “and that was one of them.”

And that important change is another good reason to consider the good life in Spokane.

Life sciences startups in Eastern Washington find a welcoming ecosystem away from big cities

Thursday, 23 September 2021 / Published in News + Updates

This article first appeared in GeekWire on September 18 2021. Article by

The biotech and healthtech community in Eastern Washington has a loyal base of startups that laud their local connections and the support of a tight-knit group of entrepreneurs.

That’s a message echoed by several of the region’s CEOs and founders recently at the East West Life Science Summit, a meeting sponsored by industry group Life Science Washington.

“We have long-standing relationships and community built in this region that allows innovators to advance ideas and network and connect in a way that you just don’t get in more urbanized areas,” said Georgina Lynch, co-founder of Appiture Biotechnologies, which is developing ways to diagnose autism by measuring light reflexes in the eye. She is also an assistant professor at Washington State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine in Spokane.

Appiture is one of several startups in the region fostered by WSU’s tech transfer office — though not all WSU spinouts stay.

Well before its public offering last year, WSU neurosciences spinout Athira Pharma made the move to the Seattle area, as has Cancer Targeted Technology, which is developing diagnostics and therapeutics for prostate cancer and has a licensing deal with pharma giant Novartis.

But companies that stay are rewarded with a lower cost of living for their workers and a stable employee base in a region with a less hectic pace of living than larger cities, said Shade Needham at the meeting.

“Once somebody finds the right position they don’t leave, and so there’s very low turnover,” said Needham, who owns Alturas Analytics, a contract research organization that performs chemical analyses for drug companies. The company is located in Moscow, Idaho, adjacent to the Washington border.

Parrots CEO David Hojah, left, poses with a man using an AI-enhanced assistive parrot device, perched on wheelchair at right, to assist with vision. (Parrots photo)

Proximity to Seattle and the region’s recreational options are also luring an increasing number of tech companies to Spokane, such as Seattle-based pet company Rover, which has an outpost in the city.

Tech activity bolsters the larger startup ecosystem in the Spokane region, an area of about 500,000 people. Startups can tap into institutions such as Greater Spokane Incorporated, a business development organization, Startup Spokane, and the Health Sciences and Services Authority of Spokane County, a Washington state-funded group that issues grants to the life and health sciences research industry.

Last December, WSU launched a Spokane-based incubator for early stage life sciences companies. Spinout Space in Spokane (sp³nw) provides lab and office space for startups including H Source, a marketplace for hospitals to buy and sell medical products from each other, and clinical genetic testing company Allele Diagnostics.

Startups have also been buoyed by early stage funders in the region such as entrepreneur Tom Simpson, who sold his e-commerce company Etailz for $75 million in 2016. He has backed dozens of Spokane-area startups as CEO of Ignite Funds and president of the Spokane Angel Alliance.

Spokane entrepreneur and angel investor Tom Simpson. (Ignite Northwest Photo)

Since 1921, Spokane has been home to a company now called Jubilant HollisterStier that is manufacturing components for COVID-19 vaccines. The contract research organization is a subsidiary of global company Jubilant Pharma.

Eastern Washington has the talent pool and early-stage funding opportunities to support more life sciences growth, said meeting attendees.

“You can get very well connected here very quickly,” said Parrots CEO and founder David Hojah. Hojah received funding from Simpson and other backers to launch his eight-employee startup developing assistive technologies for people with multiple sclerosis and other conditions. Parrots also recently won second place at a Novartis-sponsored competition for its tech device to support vision, which looks like a parrot.

Hojah previously lived in Boston and recently moved to Spokane from Seattle. So far, his impression is positive: “It’s the connection, the people, the vibes and the energy.”

Several other Spokane-area companies were highlighted by speakers at the summit.

  • Swabbing a dog for a genetic test. (Paw Prints Photo)

    Paw Print Genetics services dog breeders and veterinarians with nearly 300 genetic tests for over 350 different dog breeds. Founder and CEO Lisa Shaffer received an undergraduate degree from WSU and returned years later as a genetics professor. She co-founded Signature Genomic Laboratories, a Spokane-based genetic testing company for children with developmental disabilities that sold for $90 million in 2010. Paw Print, founded in 2012, had 40 employees in 2020 and was growing.

  • Medcurity makes it easier for healthcare organizations to comply with federal privacy and security laws through an online series of queries resembling Turbotax. Last summer the startup raised $500,000 from Seattle’s SeaChange fund, on the heels of $737,00 from Washington Research Foundation.
  • Photon Biosciences leverages its technology for ultra-sensitive imaging of biological materials and is developing an at-home test for contamination of blood platelet donations. The WSU spinout has landed grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health totaling $415,000, matched locally by the Health Sciences and Services Authority of Spokane. CEO Chandima Bandaranayaka previously rose from research intern to business development manager at VMRD, a 40-year-old Pullman-based diagnostics company.
  • S2 Media manufactures and sells materials for culturing microbes. In 2019 the company secured $750,000 in funding from “local investors” to expand production in its 5,000-square-foot operation. The company was founded in 2015 by microbiologist Stephanie Bernards, who has a master’s degree from Eastern Washington University and is a former quality assurance manager at Jubilant HollisterStier.
  • Crimson Medical Solutions is led by co-founder Stephen Bone, who graduated from WSU in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering. Crimson is making an organization system for IV lines to reduce medical errors. The three-employee, three-intern company has received grant funding from Greater Spokane Incorporated.

Contemporary artist explores new beginnings

Thursday, 29 April 2021 / Published in News + Updates

This article first appeared in the Lewiston Tribune on April 29, 2021 By Elaine Williams For Inland 360

Moscow newcomer one of several featured in Little Pink House Gallery’s latest show

The aftermath of a fire that leveled most of the Whitman County town of Malden last fall dominates the artwork “Renewal,” by Moscow artist Jill Kyong.

An image of blackened, leafless trees is repeated on three separate, rectangular, wood boxes created by Kyong, one of the artists featured in a show also named “Renewal” opening Saturday at Genesee’s Little Pink House Gallery.

“I like the roof-peak effect that all the tree branches overhead made,” Kyong said.

Kyong cut a house-shaped opening beneath the limbs in each box. She placed one charred ellipsoid of wood, fashioned to look like a stone, in each. One is black, symbolizing the ruin of the fire. Another is white on top of black, representing the snow that covered Malden in late fall. The third is black with a green leaf peeking out from the bottom, showing life after destruction.

Kyong is relatively new to Moscow, and this is the first time her art is being shown in the periodic exhibits painter Ellen Vieth holds in her Genesee gallery. “Renewal” is one of two Kyong pieces that will be on display.

“What distinguishes Jill’s work is her ability to translate things she sees in nature into refined and graceful sculptural pieces,” Vieth said. “She has a keen eye for simplicity.”

Kyong’s work often simultaneously explores hope and loss. She frequently encodes not-so-subtle messages into her wood “rocks.”

In the work “Growth,” she tackled the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was recently convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

In the piece, five small, green shadow boxes line the bottom edge of a large piece of gray wood. A black stone and a white stone sit together in the middle box. In the two boxes to the right are single black stones. In the two to the left are single white stones.

Inspiration for the piece hit when she was on a walk with her husband and spotted green tufts of grass sprouting in a line out of hard pavement.

The work will not be on display at the gallery as it was recently sold to a private buyer. As profound as the backstory is, Kyong didn’t share it with the buyer and only recently posted it on social media because of her view that labels and context can prevent people from experiencing art on their own terms.

It doesn’t matter to her if people purchase what she does because the colors match the paint on their walls or if they discern its deeper messages. Similarly, Kyong seeks out classes to learn new methods.

“If I have an idea, I try to figure out how to do it,” she said. “I’m not just in one lane of how it could be done.”

Kyong, 49, is a Korean-American who came to the United States after being adopted. The direction she is pursuing with her art unfolded over decades.

In college, she earned a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree focused on iron casting. That perspective still informs what she does in a number of ways, she said. Part of her criteria for her 3D works is that they look good from all angles.

The turn she took toward wood happened during a 20-year hiatus from art while she was raising two children and doing bookkeeping for her sister’s restaurants in Chicago, a job she still performs remotely. She built sturdy, custom furniture for the house she and her husband purchased in Little Rock, Ark.

After their children were grown, she returned to art in 2018, mostly using wood. She had started to establish herself in Arkansas where two galleries carried her work and she taught woodworking at the Arkansas Art Center. Then her husband, Jeff Kyong-McClain, a historian specializing in China, accepted a job as an instructor and administrator at the University of Idaho and the couple relocated.

Kyong’s concepts frequently begin with photographs of nature that she refers to as she sketches ideas on an iPad using the program Procreate.

“I like it because I can move things around,” she said.

Her garage is where she does finish work, and a large share of the cutting and carving happens at a private Moscow woodshop, where she works with artists she met at Artisans at the Dahmen Barn in Uniontown.

“There’s all this work that goes on out there (at the woodshop) that’s nationally and internationally known,” she said.

In addition to saving her the expense of tools, the woodshop is also a place where she can get feedback and help from other artists.

As smoothly as the transition of moving to Idaho went, Kyong is still working through challenges, like finding galleries that are the right fit for her pieces. Her works typically cost more than $1,000 because of the large investment in time and materials. Each of her wooden stones, for example, took about 30 minutes to craft through a process involving multiple rounds of sanding.

The Art Spirit Gallery of Fine Art in Coeur d’Alene represents her and is planning a June exhibit that features Kyong and other Moscow-area wood artists.

“(I want) people to see that art made from wood is more than the hobby their grandfathers used to have,” she said.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Renewal,” contemporary art exhibit.

WHEN: 10 am. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and May 8.

WHERE: Little Pink House Gallery, 157 N. Elm St., Genesee.

OF NOTE: Face masks are required at the gallery.

The show includes new work by Ellen Vieth, Kendra Bulgren, Karen Filden, David Herbold, Stacy Isenbarger, Aaron Johnson, Jill Kyong, John Larkin, Lauren McCleary, Jean Arnold and Noah Schuerman. Arnold, a first-time exhibitor at the gallery, will show two works from her Malden series, both reflections on the 2020 Babb Road Fire. A portion of the sale proceeds from the works will be donated to the Whitman County United Way Fire Community Relief Fund.

Recordings of recent INP webinars now online

Wednesday, 03 March 2021 / Published in News + Updates

 

Now available in our Speaker Presentation Library, our recent webinars have been recorded:

INP 2021 Winter Webinar: Retail & Restaurant Recovery

Heather Thomson – It’s a Tall Order
Josh Wade -Hospitality Survival Strategies

Webinar Recording—> Click here!

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INP 2020 Winter Webinar:The Importance of Digital Inclusion

Monica Babine: Setting the Stage
Russ Elliott: State Programs & Resources (WA)
Eric Forsch: State Programs & Resources (ID)
Mike Kennedy: A Provider’s Perspective
Debra Hansen: Broadband Action Teams: How to Engage Your Community Utilizing the BAT Model

Broadband Action Team (BAT) Information Sheets

Webinar Recording—>Click here!

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INP 2020 Fall Webinar: 2020 Regional Economic Outlook

Sam Wolkenhauer: Inland Northwest Labor Market Trends (ID)
Ajsa Suljik: Inland Northwest Labor Market Trends (WA)
John Mitchell: 2020 Regional Economic Outlook-COVID, Zooming & Resilience

Webinar Recording—> Click here!