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Cara Turano

Oregon Entrepreneurship Network (OEN)

Cara Turano


0:01 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Hello everyone and welcome to the Shades of Entrepreneurship. This is your host, Mr. Gabriel Flores. Today I'm here with the Executive Director of the Oregon Entrepreneurship Network, Cara. How are we doing today, my friend?

0:25 - Cara Turano

We're fantastic.

0:26 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

I'm excited about this one, folks. I've been working with the OEM team. They do a lot of great work throughout the state of Oregon. That is all 98,000 square miles. In fact, they just recently had an event down in beautiful Ashland, Oregon, which is just north of California. But before we get into all that, Cara, please introduce yourself. I'd love to learn who is Cara.

0:48 - Cara Turano

Give us a little background. That is fantastic. Well, I do have to say thank you for pointing out that Ashland is almost to California. That was quite the trip. Really fun, cool entrepreneurs down there. I'm Cara Torano, and I am the executive director here at OEN. My background actually was in tech startups, so I worked for three different tech startups. The first one I started when I was like 22, we had no idea what we were doing. I was a 17th employee, and after nine years, we were a 300 person organization with six offices, and we were acquired by a global consultancy, and I was like, this is amazing. Entrepreneurship is fantastic. I've learned so much. Look at how successful we've been. And then I went to my next year, I was like, huh, Entrepreneurship is hard, and they all don't go this way, so I've kind of been on both sides of the high growth, the turnaround, and then also the unable to secure funding between a series A and a series B and going out of business. So I did that all in tech for the first. like 10, 15 years of my career and then just being in attack was a little overwhelmed by the fact that there were never any women or folks of color. So rather than trying to change one CEO or executives mind, I switched over into tech association work where I had access to hundreds of executives to really try to think about how we more thoughtfully build our companies and represent our leadership. And so I did that for about six years, seven years, which was really only supposed to be a six month contract. And then was always considered really interesting because you don't have a lot of nonprofit or association leaders that were practitioners, as well as, you know, people that grew companies. So I'd always been associated with the startup vibe, like, I've always been referred to open up here. Oh, yeah. and the board recruited me to apply, and it's been really fascinating because OEM does support the entrepreneurs, but we also talk a lot about growth strategies and how to access the capital. now I have a much better understanding of the capital side, which I wish I had known like during my years as an entrepreneur. So that's kind of my background. I'm from outside of Atlanta, Georgia. grew up in a tiny town called Norcross. And in my spare time, I run a lot. And I have a dog that just joined us.

3:33 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

yes, the dog has joined us and folks, if you have not, I would encourage you to connect with Carol and LinkedIn because she has a phenomenal network. And she does run a lot. I recently saw bunch of her medals. I was like, Oh, man, that is cool. I don't think I can run that much. I'll stick with the peloton every morning though. Now, let's talk a little bit about OE and Roku, the organ entrepreneurship network. Give us a little background.

3:55 - Cara Turano

What is it? And what is it really here to support here in the state of Oregon? That's such a good question. So So, I would like to say that OEM is older than me, it is not, but it is in its mid 30s. it was a really interesting organization that started, I'd love to tell this story as a spin out of an MIT Alumni Association program that was really connecting successful entrepreneurs back into their community to say, hey, like, this is what it looks like to grow a scale of company to take a company to an exit. And this was all happening in the 90s when we know what was going on before the tech bubble burst. And they were out here in the Silicon florists where you saw tectronics and then all the spin outs from that. And it was really just like a monthly group that got together, had a lunch, a successful entrepreneur, and then came back the next month. And then the organization started doing things in youth entrepreneurship and different kinds of trainings. eventually, there was no one left from the MIT alumni. on the board and so the organization spun out as its own 501c3 and then over the course of 30 years was really the first organization to support entrepreneurship in the state and helped create programs like the venture catalysts that were embedded in places like southern Oregon and Ben and out in the gorge and limit valley really started trying to do more than just connect the folks in the network to successful entrepreneurs but really understands that the network is the funding mechanisms the folks that help you grow your business the government entities the universities and so it was about 10 years ago that OEM became OEM prior to that it was the organ entrepreneur forum which was just what it sounded like listen to people talk leave the network really is connecting the founders with funders and the folks that help them grow their business. I say that OEM is an organization that creates opportunities for serendipity. And I think anyone that's an entrepreneur knows how important that is to their success.

6:16 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yes, I completely agree. And I think the networking piece from the entrepreneurship perspective, buying a mentor throughout your growth path is so important because it is kind of a lonely ride sometimes and it does feel like that. But let's take a step back because you mentioned, you know, one that the OEM board kind of did reach out to you trying to recruit you. But that was based on a lot of your experience. So let's take a step back. You mentioned, you know, the first kind of iteration into the entrepreneurship world was the tech and you had a lot of great experience did very well. Let's talk about how that experience helped you decide to you want. I'm going to stick into this entrepreneurship kind of bubble. What did you experience? For instance, that first kind of thing that really made you feel I like what I'm doing.

7:04 - Cara Turano

I love like you asking that question almost makes me want to cry because I love the answer to the story so much. Um, I started a tech company. So my dad said, you're going to be rich. Like it's the world of it's the time of tech. I said, okay. And, um, here I am a 17th employee. were like, do know how to do HR? was like, no, but that shouldn't stop me. And that's like, I think that was the first moment where I was like, Oh, being an on pyramids, you have to learn how to do a lot of things like all the time. And I just had this really, like amazing experience that I can look back on in hindsight and think, well, like I thought my manager, my CEO was so old when I was 22. He was probably like 27. He also had like very little clue. he was doing. And it was a really unique experience because everything was new, like everything. Every opportunity, every chance to fail, every chance to succeed, like, I think my two favorite stories in my entrepreneurial journey was we, the company grew, we opened an office, I was working in their Birmingham Alabama office and they opened an Atlanta office and I moved over there and at some point they're like, hey, we're going to make you the managing director of this office and I said, that is so cool. Again, I'm like, now 28, so zero leadership experience. They're like, you're responsible for the P&L. said, great. And I like, get up to leave this meeting where I've been promoted and I get to the door and I turn on and I'm like, what, what do those letters mean? And what I've seen in my time at OEM is like, I hear these stories over and over again. Somebody sells their first product and they're like, the customer asked me to send an invoice and I'm like, what is that? And it's like, I love that, like, not knowing and everything being for the first, like the first time. And then the second thing that I loved was I read a lot of business books because again, like my background was in exercise and sports science. Like I wanted it to be the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference.

9:15 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

And so, like, I hadn't, that's why I didn't- It lofty goals, I love it.

9:21 - Cara Turano

That's why I didn't know what the P&L was. So I was reading his business book and I was like, hey, I'm gonna leadership. You know, like, I think we need like a vision and a mission and like some core values. And I will never forget this. Our CEO who's a man that I still talk to you and I adore was like, I don't know. That sounds like some NBA mumbo jumbo stuff. But if you want to do it, like go ahead. And I feel like when you're working for a startup, like that's the only time in your career you're gonna hear things like, I don't know, go ahead. And so like as a team, we got a small team together. We wrote this and then Gabriel became so powerful. It's like, as the company grew- through that vision, admission, and those core values were painted on the wall of every single office. And like, you don't get to see that when you're working at a company that you're not a part owner of. And what I now know in hindsight is like, all that stuff that I was trying, hey, Cara, move back to Atlanta, fire customers. Hey, that was great. Let's do it again in another city. We were scaling and we were creating a portfolio that was diversified enough that made us a really interesting target for acquisition. But I didn't know that. And I didn't know that until like, well, after I left. And so I loved that time in my career. I think I will always think of it as my favorite 10 years, but I knew I could never go and do it again because I would never approach building a company with the same guileness that I had the first time. And so this opportunity at OEM was really about like getting to work with the folks that are approaching their companies for the first time with that, like, wide-eyed wonder and enthusiasm. and so i get to be a part of it without actually having to do it but i love like stewarding that kind of enthusiasm into a growth story i love it and you know one of things you mentioned too was this was like you mentioned it a very successful first entrepreneurial endeavor did it for several years ended up being acquired and then you moved on to a couple other texts uh a little bit different story so talk about some of the challenges that you've experienced in your entrepreneurial endeavors yeah i mean i hear it all the time but i will say like number one um in that in my last experience was really about finding the funding and now that i know again now that i know more i've had all of these different opportunities i think part of the the challenge with us finding funding was we didn't really have a clear exit strategy and that's one of the things that we constantly talk to entrepreneurs about whether they're building a mechanic's garage or a 20 person executive recruiting confirm they want to lead to their kids, like understanding how you envision the end is really critical. And I was so young in my first experience that I didn't realize that like the CEO and the CEO and CFO, they had they had planned that. And so like everything we did went towards that goal. And so in this like my what I would call my worst experience, every day was a different change in strategy. Like money was we were burning through money. There were like multiple exit strategies and like the focus I think is what's really important. That was one of the hard ones. And then I think one of the other ones that was difficult, at least for me in tech, and I've seen this change particularly in the last five years and more so on the West Coast or maybe it's just the world that I get to function in. But it was really difficult for me because I everyone that was working in the startup was part of a group that I didn't know anything about. I don't want to say it was like the tech bro culture because they don't fully believe that, but it was like everybody knew somebody from like another exit or you know their call or a previous investor. And I had come from a tech services startup, so it was really different. And I didn't like that was difficult for me. So I guess some of the cultural pieces and how one of the things we talked about now at OEN, like when you are just yourself starting your business, like think about your exit and like really intentionally think about how you're going to build your company and don't just let it be the people that you've known your whole life.

13:38 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yes, yes, very true. Make sure to get input from people outside of just you know the inner circle because those are the folks who can give you those are truly our end users more than likely. And they're also the people that are going give you some really good valuable insight of whether or not you need to pivot or continue to move forward. And I really liked the statement in regards to I think that is really important. because it essentially what it does is it creates your brand's core values, right? And so there are going to be times as entrepreneurs even in a corporate setting where you're kind of feel like you're floundering bit, right? You're kind of uncertain where you're going to go and how you're going move forward. And then you kind of tend to take a step back and you realize you read those core values again in that mission statement. And that really starts to create your true north again, right? And allows you to kind of move forward and build again. Now, one of the things you also mentioned here is you guys work, you work with a lot of entrepreneurs, you provide lot of education and mentoring. What are some of the biggest, what made say maybe either mistakes or concerns that entrepreneurs run into when they're actually trying to scale their business?

14:47 - Cara Turano

I love that question too. We talk a lot, and I know that because of your background, you will understand this comment. But as an entrepreneur, you have to speak a lot of languages. And there are a whole bunch of different business languages. And there is no one that I have met that is fluent in all of them. And one of the- So very true. Yeah. I'm like seeing here like laughing myself. I'm like, mean, you couldn't say that about even the most successfully exited of revered founders in the world. Like, there are still things that they are not good at, and that's why they build really strong teams. And so one of the things that I consistently see is maybe a lack of awareness that that is a language competency that you need. And so what I see primarily is folks are really good at their idea, whether it's a food product or a tech product or a life science product or their service that they're opening. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they're really good at building a sales pipeline, understanding their financials, like doing risk assessments of their business. And if there, a lot of them tend to unintentionally be good at marketing just because they know their products so well. And so one of the things that we see a lot and have started exploring more as OEM, when we talk about the folks that can help you grow your business, is how do you recognize those gaps early and bring in fractional support? Like I think coming out of the pandemic, you see fractional support being even more readily available, people wanting more flexible work schedules. And we strongly encourage that particularly around the financial piece. We don't ever want to see the entrepreneur taking out a second mortgage without having first built a really good financial model template. And there are so many. We have access to so many. And so that's what I would say would probably be one of the biggest things that we see people running into is not being fluid in all the business. areas or knowing who to go to to help them understand that functional area.

17:07 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah, and folks are listening. I think that's a big piece too is, you know, reaching it out to folks. There's a lot of people within the entrepreneur ecosystem, specifically here in the Pacific Northwest that want to see you succeed in your business. And truly, they have a lot of to Caris Point. There's things I know, I know, there's things I don't know, I don't know, right? And so like understanding that there's just things I don't know, I don't know, and reaching out and trying to find that information is very valuable. Now, Kerry, one thing you also mentioned was funding, the difficulties of funding for entrepreneurs. One, can you kind of talk about some of the difficulties? And then two, can you provide some of the advice that you give entrepreneurs when they're looking for funding?

17:53 - Cara Turano

Yeah, well, funding is hard. Money is hard to find, and there's not enough money for everybody, and not all ideas are going to be funded. So that's sort of the baseline. One thing that we've changed the narrative around at OEM, for a long time it was just pursue equity capital. And now we're doing a lot of education around, OK, capital is an option. And for high growth or an IPO, it's probably the best option. But there are other avenues that you can pursue. There's debt financing. There are business grants. There are different lending programs. There are micro loans. There is crowdfunding. There is a whole variety of ways that you can access capital. then the other thing that we talk about is be realistic about what you're trying to raise and why. And I will give you just some random examples. If you are making a food product, Do you need to be doing the manufacturing yourself? Do you need to be doing the bottling yourself? Could you share a particular mold with another brand and cut that capital investment in it? And I don't know that first time entrepreneurs think through that, we tend to hear it from folks that have come back and are talking at a pub talk about how successful they've been. And it's always that we've managed to do what we anticipated or more with less money. And so that's some of the advice that we give as well as just connecting to a whole bunch of different resources both locally and nationally. Like if you are a QuickBooks customer, QuickBooks loan can be approved in 24 hours if you are already using them up to $10,000. So there's avenues. And I want to go back to something. that you were mentioning previously about people in the Pacific Northwest being very supportive and wanting to see you succeed. We're going through our angel organ food program right now where we invest in a company and several of the companies that are now really investable have been through the program a few times. And what's amazing is how many of them reference a another OEM investor or contact that they met who was willing to give them one hour of time and say hey your product isn't fully developed yet but try to get in front of a buyer with Whole Foods now because it made me two years to build that relationship. and also sometimes investors have really great ideas around different funding resources particularly if they are well versed in your industry sector.

20:51 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah that's a really good point and again I really like what you mentioned with with different options and particular like crowdsourcing. That one is a really good option for like if you're creating a product and you don't want to do mass production on the product, well test the market. See if you have if see if your minimally viable product has a product market fit and you can do that by crowdsourcing. Burnside Knives just recently came out with their kitchen knives, really smart idea, transitioning vertically integrated from pocket knives to kitchen knives to crowd sourcing. See see who's uh see you know did the crowd funding and see who's available who wants it and that thing you know sold out within 30 days and so you can see right then and there in fact I was talking to a recent entrepreneur there starting to think about getting into the skincare product line and and one of the things I mentioned to him because the skincare product in particular is a touch feel kind of and smell kind of item so I really encourage them instead of going you know pardon my french what balls of the wall right at the beginning and getting 15,000 units that were unsure if we're going to sell them all it makes sense to go get some small samples go out to a couple farmers market. It's in test those test them out with clients. And again, take care of this point asking somebody outside of mom and dad to test them, right? Go into a market that these individuals are actually going to use it. So that's another good point is actually identifying who that customer is within your market and really narrowing that down, you know, the age, to the demographics, what they tend to like, right? Because that will also help you in your marketing later on. For example, probably is not the greatest idea to go advertise a hamburger right outside of 24-hour fitness. Maybe it is. don't know, right? But, you know, product placement is also important too. so, so building that is really important. Now, Kerry, one of the things you kind of alluded to quite a few times is the power of networking. How important has networking been to your career?

22:48 - Cara Turano

Well, I have this job because I met Riley O'Brien and Skip Newberry from the Technology Association at an event out here in Portland in 2016. And I had that job because the former CEO of the organization I was working for at the time was like, oh, Cara can help with a transition. And I knew that former CEO because I had been a member of his organization when I was in my very first job. And so like, everything can be traced back actually to a lunch that I met a woman who then hired me in my very first job. So I can go back for 25 years and tell you the person that probably got me here today. And then I had worked really closely with my predecessor, Amanda Oborn. And she reached out to me and was like, I just think that you're really great fit. And so again, it was like having networked. And now what's great is like the network that I have, I can leverage to help other people. And I think that is so powerful. and folks that understand how important the network effect is will succeed far better than the folks that don't embrace it. And I know it's like awkward and weird and not easy to do. We try to make it easy at our events and I understand that if you are introverted is much more challenging but I promise like just talk to one person and you will gain value out of being in an OEM room.

24:30 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

I completely agree you know the power of networking is just phenomenal because again I think you know Karen I mentioned this a few times the Pacific Northwest in particular I've been to other communities and I'm not saying anything bad about those communities but I certainly feel the love in the Pacific Northwest in regards to economic development and really trying to encourage generational wealth within our entrepreneurial ecosystem which I really do love. In fact you also mentioned Amanda O'Borne which is a perfect Time to plug the Shades of Entrepreneurship website so that man is a former, former guest. So if you actually visit the Shades of E.com, you can also sign up for the newsletter, which is a great time to plug that as well. But yeah, again, I think the power of networking is really phenomenal because I think again, one you learn from a lot of individuals from their expertise, but the beauty of it is as Kara kind of illustrated is if you, you know, the reward for a job well done is the opportunity to do more. Jonas Salk once said he's the individual that came out with a polio vaccine. I think that's exactly what Kara is. know, she, her reward for a job well done has been the opportunity to continue to do more with OEM to the point where they actually targeted her, like, hey, we really will love your YouTube kind of help lead this ship and you have it. You've been now leading OEM for about a couple of years now. Now with that said, where are we going? What's the future for OEM look like? Where did I spit out some couple events that are coming?

26:00 - Cara Turano

out for our listeners. Oh my god, I love to spit out events and then I'll tell you the big strategy. Monday, we're actually going to be in Corvallis. We've been on a major road trip. We've got 10 companies at a pitch practice session. Four really great coaches, including two entrepreneurs will give them feedback. Observers are welcome, but only if you are an entrepreneur. This is not an event for investors or business service providers. So if you're in the Corvallis area, on May 31st, in Slabtown, at the Tillamuck Outpost from three to six, we're going to be hosting our pop up and pitch marketplace, which is 20 of our local food and beverage entrepreneurs sampling their wares.

26:41 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

It is delicious. is awesome.

26:43 - Cara Turano

It is open to the public and children are welcome, and 12, 10 of these intrepidate entrepreneurs will get up on a stage in this marketplace and pitch their product live for three minutes with only their product. No slides, nothing else. And then on June 6th, We'll have the announcement of our angel organ food investment at McMiniman's mission theater in northwest Portland at four starting at four and unit seven. You'll see the five companies that we think are the most investable in the market right now and they will be getting probably upwards of a hundred and thousand dollar investment live and on the stage.

27:22 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

That's great.

27:24 - Cara Turano

And then our last event for June is a a wine networking event down its Stolar in the Mid Valley and I will tell you it will be the least expensive opportunity to network with other founders and founders at Stolar because I think they're tasting as like twenty five dollars a person and I think our event's 15. So we've got those coming up that starts at five and then just sort of random aside OEM does raise these small funds. I alluded to our angel organ one and we're going to do food. food and life sciences this year and a group of very intrepid tech entrepreneurs and investors encourage me to raise a tech fund. So if you are a technology company interested in a small investment, we are seeking those companies to apply by June 10th and the the form is on our website under our programs tab, but it's our AOTEC investment. So then we'll have a party to announce that to stay tuned. Overall, OEN this year, last year we kind of we redid our vision and mission and our core values a little bit more and really wanted to re-center the entrepreneur in the narrative and so our number one goal is how many entrepreneurs can we serve and I get asked that question like what does serve mean? If you're an entrepreneur that's going to mean something different for you, you may need a connection, you may need a lawyer, you may need a funding path. You may need an education session, you may need a pitch practice. So we are here to do all of those things. We were pretty excited in our education programs in Q1 alone. We serve 52 companies, 21, which were first time entrepreneurs going through business essentials and 31 going through one of our investment readiness programs. And I think that's really impressive because we are a team of three and that does not include the two pub talks we did, the 3D pitch practices we did for another 30 companies. And the event we spun up, the teach folks how to make their pitch look good, their deck look good, that we had another 33 companies attend. So that's our focus. Oh, and we had an entrepreneur mixer too over breakfast, which very different breakfast crowd of entrepreneurs than happy hour crowds. So we're going to flip flop back and forth between those two.

29:51 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

So folks, again, if you heard this, they have a tech fund. They got a lot of phenomenal events coming up.

29:57 - Cara Turano

fact, OEN.com. I'm a highly recommend.

30:01 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Oh, sorry, OEN dot org. I'd highly recommend checking out the Organ Entrepreneurship Network website. I have a lot of great events coming up and again, funds. Great way to really help support entrepreneurs. And again, they're just continuing to grow. really am, I care, I got to tell you, really am so proud to see how OEN has really expanded throughout all 98,000 square miles of our state. know, seeing hearing Corvallis, hearing Ashlyn, know, hearing all these places is that, you know, there's a lot of entrepreneurial endeavors throughout this entire state and there's so much innovation across the across the state lines as well. And so just amplifying that has been very humbling and being able to talk to a lot of the folks that have worked with OEN is very impressive because it's a phenomenal amount of work that you guys have done for the last two, three, almost three decades now.

30:53 - Cara Turano

So you guys have really been almost four decades.

30:56 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

It's incredible how they continue just to build and I'm just really proud of the guys and in the again. There's only three of them and ladies and gentlemen three employees and they're kicking But I'm telling you they truly truly are now. What would you say? know you have these coaching moments you do some pitch decks and things of that What is what is the one piece of advice that you tend to give all entrepreneurs or maybe it's multiple pieces of advice?

31:24 - Cara Turano

You know I get asked to look at so many pitches and give so many advice like the first thing I usually say is who else has already? Looked at this and given you feedback because there are to your point there are so many people in this community that are willing to help that I respect and so before I tear something down or disagree I'd like to know who gave that feedback because oftentimes there is a industry Expertise because like I'm a jack of all trade master of none except for running and so I like to know who gave that input the next thing that I tend to offer from a suggestion standpoint just because this is a common mistake, less stuff on your slides, less is more, have an appendix if an investor wants to ask. And the thing I've learned this year through one of our pitch events that I've started talking to people about is even if you only have three to five minutes, practice with intentional pausing because it adds a dramatic effect that makes you easier to listen to.

32:34 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yes, I completely agree with that. In fact, you know, one of the things you mentioned right there is less is more. I always encourage, you know, when I'm working with entrepreneurs and they're with their pitch deck, use visuals more than words. One person said, don't put bullets in your presentations because bullets do one thing and they kill and they're going to kill your presentation. If I can look at your presentation in your read the slide, then there is no point for you to be up there, tell me what's on the slide, right? so utilizing visuals, I always encourage entrepreneurs when they first start, and care, I really got to say, I really love your idea about asking first, who has reviewed this? Because there are a lot of phenomenal people, and to your point, they have expertise in areas I probably do not have, I'm more of the healthcare section kind of person. And so, you know, having that insight and knowing who's already provided some valuable information is a good start. And then one thing I always encourage them is share your personal story, because most entrepreneurs, when they get into entrepreneurship, they're solving a problem, but the problem tends to be a core issue with them themselves, right? Maybe they grew up in a certain area and this problem existed, or maybe they have this kind of issue health-wise and this problem existed, and so they're trying to solve that solution. And that piece right there, when you start to talk about your own personal experience, and why this, solution to the problem is important really starts to humanize you as a person and also makes the problem practical, right? It's like it's like doing a case study in health care. we do a lot of data, right? can look at the New England School Journal and all sorts of medical jargon in there But then when you go into a community and you have to disseminate that jargon down to really layman's terms It's imperative to use a case study so you can say hey, here's all the data now Let me tell you about a case study to make your practical sense because it's it's very difficult sometimes if you're just spewing out Hey, here's my 10, you know, five-year trajectory and here's my you know finances. like, okay Well, what is the exact what's a problem you are trying to solve, right?

34:43 - Cara Turano

What's your North Star? Where's your core values that you're centered on as you're making these decisions and then one other thing Which might surprise people because everyone always tells me like you're so excitable. You've got great energy Yes, and I am like a stickler for details. like I will be the first person to find the missculling in your deck that you've looked at 700 times.

35:04 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

So get somebody else's.

35:06 - Cara Turano

You can get my fresh eyes on your deck if you just want grammar if you do have any words in there.

35:11 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

And folks, I'm a health care, so I'm an academia, site your sources. If you're going to put some data on a slide, please site your sources. on the bottom, just say source from whatever places, wherever it's coming from, because that's really important too. And I really like your thought too about putting the appendix. I always encourage that as well. Like if you're going to have a lot of data, hey, check out the appendix, right? If you want to get into more granular information about that. And then being mindful about how many slides you have is very important. Again, you have three minutes. So kind of think about, do you want to spend a one minute on each slide? So you're going to have three slides, right? So you kind of have to be mindful. And then also think about your pitch as like a basically a condensed version of your or a more of a exaggerated version of your elevator pitch. So your elevator pitch is like a 30 second, boom, really quick, while your pitch deck is just a little bit more exacerbated than that. And that will lead you to the point, okay, now we can have a conversation, you sparked my interest, now we can have the 30 minute call, right? Which leads to the hour, which Linds leads to so on and so forth that continues to build.

36:18 - Cara Turano

Your pitch deck doesn't mean snapshots of your financials that's in your data room. Like it doesn't. That's first, that's for a next conversation. Like if an investor or a customer or a future employee is not interested in your idea, they're not going to care what your financials look like.

36:35 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

That's very true. That's very true. Yeah, at the end of the day, you are the brand, you know, you are the brand. So it's very important. Now, as you continue to grow OEN and you continue to bring on what what is outside of OEN, what is Cara's aspiration? Where does Cara see herself in five to ten years?

36:56 - Cara Turano

I don't know. We sound like my therapist and my One that is a really good question. I really enjoy teaching. So like part of that was my degree is actually in education and coaching because again like I was going to be the commissioner of the SEC and I think we still will be one day. Yeah one day that's still my aspiration. don't know how it's gonna happen from Portland but it's an aspiration. When I took six months in between TAO and OEM and what I said was I either wanted to work with young people or young companies and right now like a middle age so you know there's like probably a 50-50 split of people that are younger than me during this and people that are older than me during this but I still envision at some point that I will do more of the coaching and teaching of next-gen entrepreneurs. I like analyzing businesses. think it's fun. So I'm going to keep doing this for the time being. But the other thing I've always wanted to do for talking dreams, I've always wanted to write a book. And who knows if maybe I learned enough in this process that I can leverage that into something that the market thinks is interesting.

38:17 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Oh, I believe you have enough insight to definitely write a book. In fact, I would highly encourage to create like Keras blog and just start, you know, just once a week, putting out a blog. then that eventually repurposed that blog for your book. I truly think you have more than enough information experience. And then also gathering the stories from the entrepreneurs and saying, Hey, would you be okay with me sharing your story in my book as an example? Again, going back to that case study when you're when you're doing data. But I would encourage you to I would highly, I would highly, I would certainly read it. I'm a book nerd. So I would definitely read it.

38:53 - Cara Turano

If you put a book in there and Elf, I'm totally going to read it because I'm a fantasy book nerd as well. Oh, mermaids.

38:59 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah. That's my jam.

39:01 - Cara Turano

I will get you a signed copy and fire you go see mermaids.

39:05 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Now you're jumping into my four-year-old daughter territory. She's all about the mermaids. Now before we leave, I would love for you to how for guests that are interested maybe learning more about OEM.

39:15 - Cara Turano

Maybe they want to connect with you. How do they connect with you? How can they find you on the website? Well, they can find me on LinkedIn always. Cara Toronto and then we are again that small and tiny staff. So if you cannot remember how to spell my name, which is C-A-R-A at O-E-N dot O-R-G, I also answer the info box. So you can find me at info at O-E-N dot O-R-G. And I would say check us out. Like if you're interested and you're not sure, shoot me a note. We love to comp people to an event to let them check it out. And we hope that folks join and find value and we're realistic. We don't really think you should be an O-E-N member for the rest of your life unless you're an investor. Then you can stick around forever. But if you're an entrepreneur like you should either be growing into one of the trade associations or chambers or your business doesn't make it and you figure out the next one and then you come back. So we are open for business and welcome any kind of interaction that folks want to have with us. love to connect with people over coffee and hear their business ideas.

40:19 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

You know, I really love that you said, you know, even if you figured out and it doesn't come to fruition, you know, you leave, you come back. You know, as entrepreneurs, I always say, you know, I've never felt a day in my life. I either learn or I succeed. And I think that's true about entrepreneurs. Even if they may not succeed in that first entrepreneurial endeavor, they'll go back to the drawing, they'll pivot, and they'll come back with something because they've learned from those mistakes. Just as Carol was mentioning how much she's learned her tech job. And that's why she is so successful today. Cara, again, I'm very thankful for you being on the show and folks that are listening. If you want to connect with Cara, I will also have this information the week before the episode airs, the week the episode airs and the week after the episode airs on the Shades of Entrepreneurship website, you can subscribe to that at theshadesofe.com. You can also follow us on the social sites at the Shades of E by visiting Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok. Now, Karen, before we leave, is there anything else you'd like to let the listeners know?

41:18 - Cara Turano

Yes, I'm very excited that I'm going to share a stage with you in November.

41:22 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

This is true. I've very thankful and very excited and nervous at the same time, but I will be hosting the 2024 Oregon Entrepreneurship Network Awards.

41:36 - Cara Turano

I'm very excited. Now, can you provide us a little bit more information and date and kind of folks are interested in that event? Where can they find more information? It actually just went live this week. It's the Wednesday after the election.

41:49 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

What is that? November? Oh, you're going to test my brain now.

41:54 - Cara Turano

It's the first Wednesday in November. It's going to be a celebration of all things. It's the 6th. November 6th, sent in a hotel. downtown Portland, it is going to be a celebration of all things entrepreneurship, and I guess those are my like closing words. Like, I have the best job because I get to support the dreamers, the innovators, and the disruptors, and I just hope that one day when they are all famous and wealthy that they remember me and maybe make a small donation to sweet little nonprofit OEM, but it is very inspiring to support a community of people that are pursuing their passions.

42:35 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

I love it, and I feel like I have the second best job because I get to interview the viewers, the disruptors, and innovators. so again, thank you Cara so much for joining us. Folks, again, please subscribe to the newsletter by visiting theshadesofe.com, or you can visit us at the social sites by visiting the shadesofe. Thank you, and have a great night.This meeting is being recorded. All right, three, two. Hello everyone Cara Turano: The Shades of Entrepreneurship - May 17

VIEW RECORDING - 43 mins (No highlights)

@0:01 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

This meeting is being recorded. All right, three, two. Hello everyone and welcome to the Shades of Entrepreneurship. This is your host, Mr.

Gabriel Flores. Today I'm here with the Executive Director of the Oregon Entrepreneurship Network, Cara. How are we doing today, my friend?

@0:25 - Cara Turano

We're fantastic.

@0:26 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

I'm excited about this one, folks. I've been working with the OEM team. They do a lot of great work throughout the state of Oregon.

That is all 98,000 square miles. In fact, they just recently had an event down in beautiful Ashland, Oregon, which is just north of California.

But before we get into all that, Cara, please introduce yourself. I'd love to learn who is Cara.

@0:48 - Cara Turano

Give us a little background. That is fantastic. Well, I do have to say thank you for pointing out that Ashland is almost to California.

That was quite the trip. Really fun, cool entrepreneurs down there. I'm Cara Torano, and I am the executive director here at OEN.

My background actually was in tech startups, so I worked for three different tech startups. The first one I started when I was like 22, we had no idea what we were doing.

I was a 17th employee, and after nine years, we were a 300 person organization with six offices, and we were acquired by a global consultancy, and I was like, this is amazing.

Entrepreneurship is fantastic. I've learned so much. Look at how successful we've been. And then I went to my next year, I was like, huh, Entrepreneurship is hard, and they all don't go this way, so I've kind of been on both sides of the high growth, the turnaround, and then also the unable to secure funding between a series A and a series B and going out of business.

So I did that all in tech for the first. like 10, 15 years of my career and then just being in attack was a little overwhelmed by the fact that there were never any women or folks of color.

So rather than trying to change one CEO or executives mind, I switched over into tech association work where I had access to hundreds of executives to really try to think about how we more thoughtfully build our companies and represent our leadership.

And so I did that for about six years, seven years, which was really only supposed to be a six month contract.

And then was always considered really interesting because you don't have a lot of nonprofit or association leaders that were practitioners, as well as, you know, people that grew companies.

So I'd always been associated with the startup vibe, like, I've always been referred to open up here. Oh, yeah.

and the board recruited me to apply, and it's been really fascinating because OEM does support the entrepreneurs, but we also talk a lot about growth strategies and how to access the capital.

now I have a much better understanding of the capital side, which I wish I had known like during my years as an entrepreneur.

So that's kind of my background. I'm from outside of Atlanta, Georgia. grew up in a tiny town called Norcross.

And in my spare time, I run a lot. And I have a dog that just joined us.

@3:33 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

yes, the dog has joined us and folks, if you have not, I would encourage you to connect with Carol and LinkedIn because she has a phenomenal network.

And she does run a lot. I recently saw bunch of her medals. I was like, Oh, man, that is cool.

I don't think I can run that much. I'll stick with the peloton every morning though. Now, let's talk a little bit about OE and Roku, the organ entrepreneurship network.

Give us a little background.

@3:55 - Cara Turano

What is it? And what is it really here to support here in the state of Oregon? That's such a good question.

So So, I would like to say that OEM is older than me, it is not, but it is in its mid 30s.

it was a really interesting organization that started, I'd love to tell this story as a spin out of an MIT Alumni Association program that was really connecting successful entrepreneurs back into their community to say, hey, like, this is what it looks like to grow a scale of company to take a company to an exit.

And this was all happening in the 90s when we know what was going on before the tech bubble burst.

And they were out here in the Silicon florists where you saw tectronics and then all the spin outs from that.

And it was really just like a monthly group that got together, had a lunch, a successful entrepreneur, and then came back the next month.

And then the organization started doing things in youth entrepreneurship and different kinds of trainings. eventually, there was no one left from the MIT alumni.

on the board and so the organization spun out as its own 501c3 and then over the course of 30 years was really the first organization to support entrepreneurship in the state and helped create programs like the venture catalysts that were embedded in places like southern Oregon and Ben and out in the gorge and limit valley really started trying to do more than just connect the folks in the network to successful entrepreneurs but really understands that the network is the funding mechanisms the folks that help you grow your business the government entities the universities and so it was about 10 years ago that OEM became OEM prior to that it was the organ entrepreneur forum which was just what it sounded like listen to people talk leave the network really

is connecting the founders with funders and the folks that help them grow their business. I say that OEM is an organization that creates opportunities for serendipity.

And I think anyone that's an entrepreneur knows how important that is to their success.

@6:16 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yes, I completely agree. And I think the networking piece from the entrepreneurship perspective, buying a mentor throughout your growth path is so important because it is kind of a lonely ride sometimes and it does feel like that.

But let's take a step back because you mentioned, you know, one that the OEM board kind of did reach out to you trying to recruit you.

But that was based on a lot of your experience. So let's take a step back. You mentioned, you know, the first kind of iteration into the entrepreneurship world was the tech and you had a lot of great experience did very well.

Let's talk about how that experience helped you decide to you want. I'm going to stick into this entrepreneurship kind of bubble.

What did you experience? For instance, that first kind of thing that really made you feel I like what I'm doing.

@7:04 - Cara Turano

I love like you asking that question almost makes me want to cry because I love the answer to the story so much.

Um, I started a tech company. So my dad said, you're going to be rich. Like it's the world of it's the time of tech.

I said, okay. And, um, here I am a 17th employee. were like, do know how to do HR? was like, no, but that shouldn't stop me.

And that's like, I think that was the first moment where I was like, Oh, being an on pyramids, you have to learn how to do a lot of things like all the time.

And I just had this really, like amazing experience that I can look back on in hindsight and think, well, like I thought my manager, my CEO was so old when I was 22.

He was probably like 27. He also had like very little clue. he was doing. And it was a really unique experience because everything was new, like everything.

Every opportunity, every chance to fail, every chance to succeed, like, I think my two favorite stories in my entrepreneurial journey was we, the company grew, we opened an office, I was working in their Birmingham Alabama office and they opened an Atlanta office and I moved over there and at some point they're like, hey, we're going to make you the managing director of this office and I said, that is so cool.

Again, I'm like, now 28, so zero leadership experience. They're like, you're responsible for the P&L. said, great. And I like, get up to leave this meeting where I've been promoted and I get to the door and I turn on and I'm like, what, what do those letters mean?

And what I've seen in my time at OEM is like, I hear these stories over and over again. Somebody sells their first product and they're like, the customer asked me to send an invoice and I'm like, what is that?

And it's like, I love that, like, not knowing and everything being for the first, like the first time. And then the second thing that I loved was I read a lot of business books because again, like my background was in exercise and sports science.

Like I wanted it to be the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference.

@9:15 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

And so, like, I hadn't, that's why I didn't- It lofty goals, I love it.

@9:21 - Cara Turano

That's why I didn't know what the P&L was. So I was reading his business book and I was like, hey, I'm gonna leadership.

You know, like, I think we need like a vision and a mission and like some core values. And I will never forget this.

Our CEO who's a man that I still talk to you and I adore was like, I don't know. That sounds like some NBA mumbo jumbo stuff.

But if you want to do it, like go ahead. And I feel like when you're working for a startup, like that's the only time in your career you're gonna hear things like, I don't know, go ahead.

And so like as a team, we got a small team together. We wrote this and then Gabriel became so powerful.

It's like, as the company grew- through that vision, admission, and those core values were painted on the wall of every single office.

And like, you don't get to see that when you're working at a company that you're not a part owner of.

And what I now know in hindsight is like, all that stuff that I was trying, hey, Cara, move back to Atlanta, fire customers.

Hey, that was great. Let's do it again in another city. We were scaling and we were creating a portfolio that was diversified enough that made us a really interesting target for acquisition.

But I didn't know that. And I didn't know that until like, well, after I left. And so I loved that time in my career.

I think I will always think of it as my favorite 10 years, but I knew I could never go and do it again because I would never approach building a company with the same guileness that I had the first time.

And so this opportunity at OEM was really about like getting to work with the folks that are approaching their companies for the first time with that, like, wide-eyed wonder and enthusiasm.

and so i get to be a part of it without actually having to do it but i love like stewarding that kind of enthusiasm into a growth story i love it and you know one of things you mentioned too was this was like you mentioned it a very successful first entrepreneurial endeavor did it for several years ended up being acquired and then you moved on to a couple other texts uh a little bit different story so talk about some of the challenges that you've experienced in your entrepreneurial endeavors yeah i mean i hear it all the time but i will say like number one um in that in my last experience was really about finding the funding and now that i know again now that i know more i've had all of these different opportunities i think part of the the challenge with us finding funding was we didn't really have a clear exit strategy and that's one of the things that we constantly talk to entrepreneurs about whether they're building a mechanic's garage or a 20 person executive recruiting

confirm they want to lead to their kids, like understanding how you envision the end is really critical. And I was so young in my first experience that I didn't realize that like the CEO and the CEO and CFO, they had they had planned that.

And so like everything we did went towards that goal. And so in this like my what I would call my worst experience, every day was a different change in strategy.

Like money was we were burning through money. There were like multiple exit strategies and like the focus I think is what's really important.

That was one of the hard ones. And then I think one of the other ones that was difficult, at least for me in tech, and I've seen this change particularly in the last five years and more so on the West Coast or maybe it's just the world that I get to function in.

But it was really difficult for me because I everyone that was working in the startup was part of a group that I didn't know anything about.

I don't want to say it was like the tech bro culture because they don't fully believe that, but it was like everybody knew somebody from like another exit or you know their call or a previous investor.

And I had come from a tech services startup, so it was really different. And I didn't like that was difficult for me.

So I guess some of the cultural pieces and how one of the things we talked about now at OEN, like when you are just yourself starting your business, like think about your exit and like really intentionally think about how you're going to build your company and don't just let it be the people that you've known your whole life.

@13:38 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yes, yes, very true. Make sure to get input from people outside of just you know the inner circle because those are the folks who can give you those are truly our end users more than likely.

And they're also the people that are going give you some really good valuable insight of whether or not you need to pivot or continue to move forward.

And I really liked the statement in regards to I think that is really important. because it essentially what it does is it creates your brand's core values, right?

And so there are going to be times as entrepreneurs even in a corporate setting where you're kind of feel like you're floundering bit, right?

You're kind of uncertain where you're going to go and how you're going move forward. And then you kind of tend to take a step back and you realize you read those core values again in that mission statement.

And that really starts to create your true north again, right? And allows you to kind of move forward and build again.

Now, one of the things you also mentioned here is you guys work, you work with a lot of entrepreneurs, you provide lot of education and mentoring.

What are some of the biggest, what made say maybe either mistakes or concerns that entrepreneurs run into when they're actually trying to scale their business?

@14:47 - Cara Turano

I love that question too. We talk a lot, and I know that because of your background, you will understand this comment.

But as an entrepreneur, you have to speak a lot of languages. And there are a whole bunch of different business languages.

And there is no one that I have met that is fluent in all of them. And one of the- So very true.

Yeah. I'm like seeing here like laughing myself. I'm like, mean, you couldn't say that about even the most successfully exited of revered founders in the world.

Like, there are still things that they are not good at, and that's why they build really strong teams. And so one of the things that I consistently see is maybe a lack of awareness that that is a language competency that you need.

And so what I see primarily is folks are really good at their idea, whether it's a food product or a tech product or a life science product or their service that they're opening.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that they're really good at building a sales pipeline, understanding their financials, like doing risk assessments of their business.

And if there, a lot of them tend to unintentionally be good at marketing just because they know their products so well.

And so one of the things that we see a lot and have started exploring more as OEM, when we talk about the folks that can help you grow your business, is how do you recognize those gaps early and bring in fractional support?

Like I think coming out of the pandemic, you see fractional support being even more readily available, people wanting more flexible work schedules.

And we strongly encourage that particularly around the financial piece. We don't ever want to see the entrepreneur taking out a second mortgage without having first built a really good financial model template.

And there are so many. We have access to so many. And so that's what I would say would probably be one of the biggest things that we see people running into is not being fluid in all the business.

areas or knowing who to go to to help them understand that functional area.

@17:07 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah, and folks are listening. I think that's a big piece too is, you know, reaching it out to folks.

There's a lot of people within the entrepreneur ecosystem, specifically here in the Pacific Northwest that want to see you succeed in your business.

And truly, they have a lot of to Caris Point. There's things I know, I know, there's things I don't know, I don't know, right?

And so like understanding that there's just things I don't know, I don't know, and reaching out and trying to find that information is very valuable.

Now, Kerry, one thing you also mentioned was funding, the difficulties of funding for entrepreneurs. One, can you kind of talk about some of the difficulties?

And then two, can you provide some of the advice that you give entrepreneurs when they're looking for funding?

@17:53 - Cara Turano

Yeah, well, funding is hard. Money is hard to find, and there's not enough money for everybody, and not all ideas are going to be funded.

So that's sort of the baseline. One thing that we've changed the narrative around at OEM, for a long time it was just pursue equity capital.

And now we're doing a lot of education around, OK, capital is an option. And for high growth or an IPO, it's probably the best option.

But there are other avenues that you can pursue. There's debt financing. There are business grants. There are different lending programs.

There are micro loans. There is crowdfunding. There is a whole variety of ways that you can access capital. then the other thing that we talk about is be realistic about what you're trying to raise and why.

And I will give you just some random examples. If you are making a food product, Do you need to be doing the manufacturing yourself?

Do you need to be doing the bottling yourself? Could you share a particular mold with another brand and cut that capital investment in it?

And I don't know that first time entrepreneurs think through that, we tend to hear it from folks that have come back and are talking at a pub talk about how successful they've been.

And it's always that we've managed to do what we anticipated or more with less money. And so that's some of the advice that we give as well as just connecting to a whole bunch of different resources both locally and nationally.

Like if you are a QuickBooks customer, QuickBooks loan can be approved in 24 hours if you are already using them up to $10,000.

So there's avenues. And I want to go back to something. that you were mentioning previously about people in the Pacific Northwest being very supportive and wanting to see you succeed.

We're going through our angel organ food program right now where we invest in a company and several of the companies that are now really investable have been through the program a few times.

And what's amazing is how many of them reference a another OEM investor or contact that they met who was willing to give them one hour of time and say hey your product isn't fully developed yet but try to get in front of a buyer with Whole Foods now because it made me two years to build that relationship.

and also sometimes investors have really great ideas around different funding resources particularly if they are well versed in your industry sector.

@20:51 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah that's a really good point and again I really like what you mentioned with with different options and particular like crowdsourcing.

That one is a really good option for like if you're creating a product and you don't want to do mass production on the product, well test the market.

See if you have if see if your minimally viable product has a product market fit and you can do that by crowdsourcing.

Burnside Knives just recently came out with their kitchen knives, really smart idea, transitioning vertically integrated from pocket knives to kitchen knives to crowd sourcing.

See see who's uh see you know did the crowd funding and see who's available who wants it and that thing you know sold out within 30 days and so you can see right then and there in fact I was talking to a recent entrepreneur there starting to think about getting into the skincare product line and and one of the things I mentioned to him because the skincare product in particular is a touch feel kind of and smell kind of item so I really encourage them instead of going you know pardon my french what balls of the wall right at the beginning and getting 15,000 units that were unsure if we're going to sell them all it makes sense to go get some small samples go out to a couple farmers market.

It's in test those test them out with clients. And again, take care of this point asking somebody outside of mom and dad to test them, right?

Go into a market that these individuals are actually going to use it. So that's another good point is actually identifying who that customer is within your market and really narrowing that down, you know, the age, to the demographics, what they tend to like, right?

Because that will also help you in your marketing later on. For example, probably is not the greatest idea to go advertise a hamburger right outside of 24-hour fitness.

Maybe it is. don't know, right? But, you know, product placement is also important too. so, so building that is really important.

Now, Kerry, one of the things you kind of alluded to quite a few times is the power of networking.

How important has networking been to your career?

@22:48 - Cara Turano

Well, I have this job because I met Riley O'Brien and Skip Newberry from the Technology Association at an event out here in Portland in

2016. And I had that job because the former CEO of the organization I was working for at the time was like, oh, Cara can help with a transition.

And I knew that former CEO because I had been a member of his organization when I was in my very first job.

And so like, everything can be traced back actually to a lunch that I met a woman who then hired me in my very first job.

So I can go back for 25 years and tell you the person that probably got me here today. And then I had worked really closely with my predecessor, Amanda Oborn.

And she reached out to me and was like, I just think that you're really great fit. And so again, it was like having networked.

And now what's great is like the network that I have, I can leverage to help other people. And I think that is so powerful.

and folks that understand how important the network effect is will succeed far better than the folks that don't embrace it.

And I know it's like awkward and weird and not easy to do. We try to make it easy at our events and I understand that if you are introverted is much more challenging but I promise like just talk to one person and you will gain value out of being in an OEM room.

@24:30 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

I completely agree you know the power of networking is just phenomenal because again I think you know Karen I mentioned this a few times the Pacific Northwest in particular I've been to other communities and I'm not saying anything bad about those communities but I certainly feel the love in the Pacific Northwest in regards to economic development and really trying to encourage generational wealth within our entrepreneurial ecosystem which I really do love.

In fact you also mentioned Amanda O'Borne which is a perfect Time to plug the Shades of Entrepreneurship website so that man is a former, former guest.

So if you actually visit the Shades of E.com, you can also sign up for the newsletter, which is a great time to plug that as well.

But yeah, again, I think the power of networking is really phenomenal because I think again, one you learn from a lot of individuals from their expertise, but the beauty of it is as Kara kind of illustrated is if you, you know, the reward for a job well done is the opportunity to do more.

Jonas Salk once said he's the individual that came out with a polio vaccine. I think that's exactly what Kara is.

know, she, her reward for a job well done has been the opportunity to continue to do more with OEM to the point where they actually targeted her, like, hey, we really will love your YouTube kind of help lead this ship and you have it.

You've been now leading OEM for about a couple of years now. Now with that said, where are we going?

What's the future for OEM look like? Where did I spit out some couple events that are coming?

@26:00 - Cara Turano

out for our listeners. Oh my god, I love to spit out events and then I'll tell you the big strategy.

Monday, we're actually going to be in Corvallis. We've been on a major road trip. We've got 10 companies at a pitch practice session.

Four really great coaches, including two entrepreneurs will give them feedback. Observers are welcome, but only if you are an entrepreneur.

This is not an event for investors or business service providers. So if you're in the Corvallis area, on May 31st, in Slabtown, at the Tillamuck Outpost from three to six, we're going to be hosting our pop up and pitch marketplace, which is 20 of our local food and beverage entrepreneurs sampling their wares.

@26:41 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

It is delicious. is awesome.

@26:43 - Cara Turano

It is open to the public and children are welcome, and 12, 10 of these intrepidate entrepreneurs will get up on a stage in this marketplace and pitch their product live for three minutes with only their product.

No slides, nothing else. And then on June 6th, We'll have the announcement of our angel organ food investment at McMiniman's mission theater in northwest Portland at four starting at four and unit seven.

You'll see the five companies that we think are the most investable in the market right now and they will be getting probably upwards of a hundred and thousand dollar investment live and on the stage.

@27:22 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

That's great.

@27:24 - Cara Turano

And then our last event for June is a a wine networking event down its Stolar in the Mid Valley and I will tell you it will be the least expensive opportunity to network with other founders and founders at Stolar because I think they're tasting as like twenty five dollars a person and I think our event's 15.

So we've got those coming up that starts at five and then just sort of random aside OEM does raise these small funds.

I alluded to our angel organ one and we're going to do food. food and life sciences this year and a group of very intrepid tech entrepreneurs and investors encourage me to raise a tech fund.

So if you are a technology company interested in a small investment, we are seeking those companies to apply by June 10th and the the form is on our website under our programs tab, but it's our AOTEC investment.

So then we'll have a party to announce that to stay tuned. Overall, OEN this year, last year we kind of we redid our vision and mission and our core values a little bit more and really wanted to re-center the entrepreneur in the narrative and so our number one goal is how many entrepreneurs can we serve and I get asked that question like what does serve mean?

If you're an entrepreneur that's going to mean something different for you, you may need a connection, you may need a lawyer, you may need a funding path.

You may need an education session, you may need a pitch practice. So we are here to do all of those things.

We were pretty excited in our education programs in Q1 alone. We serve 52 companies, 21, which were first time entrepreneurs going through business essentials and 31 going through one of our investment readiness programs.

And I think that's really impressive because we are a team of three and that does not include the two pub talks we did, the 3D pitch practices we did for another 30 companies.

And the event we spun up, the teach folks how to make their pitch look good, their deck look good, that we had another 33 companies attend.

So that's our focus. Oh, and we had an entrepreneur mixer too over breakfast, which very different breakfast crowd of entrepreneurs than happy hour crowds.

So we're going to flip flop back and forth between those two.

@29:51 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

So folks, again, if you heard this, they have a tech fund. They got a lot of phenomenal events coming up.

@29:57 - Cara Turano

fact, OEN.com. I'm a highly recommend.

@30:01 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Oh, sorry, OEN dot org. I'd highly recommend checking out the Organ Entrepreneurship Network website. I have a lot of great events coming up and again, funds.

Great way to really help support entrepreneurs. And again, they're just continuing to grow. really am, I care, I got to tell you, really am so proud to see how OEN has really expanded throughout all 98,000 square miles of our state.

know, seeing hearing Corvallis, hearing Ashlyn, know, hearing all these places is that, you know, there's a lot of entrepreneurial endeavors throughout this entire state and there's so much innovation across the across the state lines as well.

And so just amplifying that has been very humbling and being able to talk to a lot of the folks that have worked with OEN is very impressive because it's a phenomenal amount of work that you guys have done for the last two, three, almost three decades now.

@30:53 - Cara Turano

So you guys have really been almost four decades.

@30:56 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

It's incredible how they continue just to build and I'm just really proud of the guys and in the again.

There's only three of them and ladies and gentlemen three employees and they're kicking But I'm telling you they truly truly are now.

What would you say? know you have these coaching moments you do some pitch decks and things of that What is what is the one piece of advice that you tend to give all entrepreneurs or maybe it's multiple pieces of advice?

@31:24 - Cara Turano

You know I get asked to look at so many pitches and give so many advice like the first thing I usually say is who else has already?

Looked at this and given you feedback because there are to your point there are so many people in this community that are willing to help that I respect and so before I tear something down or disagree I'd like to know who gave that feedback because oftentimes there is a industry Expertise because like I'm a jack of all trade master of none except for running and so I like to know who gave that input the next thing

that I tend to offer from a suggestion standpoint just because this is a common mistake, less stuff on your slides, less is more, have an appendix if an investor wants to ask.

And the thing I've learned this year through one of our pitch events that I've started talking to people about is even if you only have three to five minutes, practice with intentional pausing because it adds a dramatic effect that makes you easier to listen to.

@32:34 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yes, I completely agree with that. In fact, you know, one of the things you mentioned right there is less is more.

I always encourage, you know, when I'm working with entrepreneurs and they're with their pitch deck, use visuals more than words.

One person said, don't put bullets in your presentations because bullets do one thing and they kill and they're going to kill your presentation.

If I can look at your presentation in your read the slide, then there is no point for you to be up there, tell me what's on the slide, right?

so utilizing visuals, I always encourage entrepreneurs when they first start, and care, I really got to say, I really love your idea about asking first, who has reviewed this?

Because there are a lot of phenomenal people, and to your point, they have expertise in areas I probably do not have, I'm more of the healthcare section kind of person.

And so, you know, having that insight and knowing who's already provided some valuable information is a good start. And then one thing I always encourage them is share your personal story, because most entrepreneurs, when they get into entrepreneurship, they're solving a problem, but the problem tends to be a core issue with them themselves, right?

Maybe they grew up in a certain area and this problem existed, or maybe they have this kind of issue health-wise and this problem existed, and so they're trying to solve that solution.

And that piece right there, when you start to talk about your own personal experience, and why this, solution to the problem is important really starts to humanize you as a person and also makes the problem practical, right?

It's like it's like doing a case study in health care. we do a lot of data, right? can look at the New England School Journal and all sorts of medical jargon in there But then when you go into a community and you have to disseminate that jargon down to really layman's terms It's imperative to use a case study so you can say hey, here's all the data now Let me tell you about a case study to make your practical sense because it's it's very difficult sometimes if you're just spewing out Hey, here's my 10, you know, five-year trajectory and here's my you know finances.

like, okay Well, what is the exact what's a problem you are trying to solve, right?

@34:43 - Cara Turano

What's your North Star? Where's your core values that you're centered on as you're making these decisions and then one other thing Which might surprise people because everyone always tells me like you're so excitable.

You've got great energy Yes, and I am like a stickler for details. like I will be the first person to find the missculling in your deck that you've looked at 700 times.

@35:04 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

So get somebody else's.

@35:06 - Cara Turano

You can get my fresh eyes on your deck if you just want grammar if you do have any words in there.

@35:11 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

And folks, I'm a health care, so I'm an academia, site your sources. If you're going to put some data on a slide, please site your sources.

on the bottom, just say source from whatever places, wherever it's coming from, because that's really important too. And I really like your thought too about putting the appendix.

I always encourage that as well. Like if you're going to have a lot of data, hey, check out the appendix, right?

If you want to get into more granular information about that. And then being mindful about how many slides you have is very important.

Again, you have three minutes. So kind of think about, do you want to spend a one minute on each slide?

So you're going to have three slides, right? So you kind of have to be mindful. And then also think about your pitch as like a basically a condensed version of your or a more of a exaggerated

version of your elevator pitch. So your elevator pitch is like a 30 second, boom, really quick, while your pitch deck is just a little bit more exacerbated than that.

And that will lead you to the point, okay, now we can have a conversation, you sparked my interest, now we can have the 30 minute call, right?

Which leads to the hour, which Linds leads to so on and so forth that continues to build.

@36:18 - Cara Turano

Your pitch deck doesn't mean snapshots of your financials that's in your data room. Like it doesn't. That's first, that's for a next conversation.

Like if an investor or a customer or a future employee is not interested in your idea, they're not going to care what your financials look like.

@36:35 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

That's very true. That's very true. Yeah, at the end of the day, you are the brand, you know, you are the brand.

So it's very important. Now, as you continue to grow OEN and you continue to bring on what what is outside of OEN, what is Cara's aspiration?

Where does Cara see herself in five to ten years?

@36:56 - Cara Turano

I don't know. We sound like my therapist and my One that is a really good question. I really enjoy teaching.

So like part of that was my degree is actually in education and coaching because again like I was going to be the commissioner of the SEC and I think we still will be one day.

Yeah one day that's still my aspiration. don't know how it's gonna happen from Portland but it's an aspiration. When I took six months in between TAO and OEM and what I said was I either wanted to work with young people or young companies and right now like a middle age so you know there's like probably a 50-50 split of people that are younger than me during this and people that are older than me during this but I still envision at some point that I will do more of the coaching and teaching of next-gen entrepreneurs.

I like analyzing businesses. think it's fun. So I'm going to keep doing this for the time being. But the other thing I've always wanted to do for talking dreams, I've always wanted to write a book.

And who knows if maybe I learned enough in this process that I can leverage that into something that the market thinks is interesting.

@38:17 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Oh, I believe you have enough insight to definitely write a book. In fact, I would highly encourage to create like Keras blog and just start, you know, just once a week, putting out a blog.

then that eventually repurposed that blog for your book. I truly think you have more than enough information experience. And then also gathering the stories from the entrepreneurs and saying, Hey, would you be okay with me sharing your story in my book as an example?

Again, going back to that case study when you're when you're doing data. But I would encourage you to I would highly, I would highly, I would certainly read it.

I'm a book nerd. So I would definitely read it.

@38:53 - Cara Turano

If you put a book in there and Elf, I'm totally going to read it because I'm a fantasy book nerd as well.

Oh, mermaids.

@38:59 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah. That's my jam.

@39:01 - Cara Turano

I will get you a signed copy and fire you go see mermaids.

@39:05 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Now you're jumping into my four-year-old daughter territory. She's all about the mermaids. Now before we leave, I would love for you to how for guests that are interested maybe learning more about OEM.

@39:15 - Cara Turano

Maybe they want to connect with you. How do they connect with you? How can they find you on the website?

Well, they can find me on LinkedIn always. Cara Toronto and then we are again that small and tiny staff.

So if you cannot remember how to spell my name, which is C-A-R-A at O-E-N dot O-R-G, I also answer the info box.

So you can find me at info at O-E-N dot O-R-G. And I would say check us out. Like if you're interested and you're not sure, shoot me a note.

We love to comp people to an event to let them check it out. And we hope that folks join and find value and we're realistic.

We don't really think you should be an O-E-N member for the rest of your life unless you're an investor.

Then you can stick around forever. But if you're an entrepreneur like you should either be growing into one of the trade associations or chambers or your business doesn't make it and you figure out the next one and then you come back.

So we are open for business and welcome any kind of interaction that folks want to have with us. love to connect with people over coffee and hear their business ideas.

@40:19 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

You know, I really love that you said, you know, even if you figured out and it doesn't come to fruition, you know, you leave, you come back.

You know, as entrepreneurs, I always say, you know, I've never felt a day in my life. I either learn or I succeed.

And I think that's true about entrepreneurs. Even if they may not succeed in that first entrepreneurial endeavor, they'll go back to the drawing, they'll pivot, and they'll come back with something because they've learned from those mistakes.

Just as Carol was mentioning how much she's learned her tech job. And that's why she is so successful today.

Cara, again, I'm very thankful for you being on the show and folks that are listening. If you want to connect with Cara, I will also have this information the week before the episode airs, the week the episode airs and the

week after the episode airs on the Shades of Entrepreneurship website, you can subscribe to that at theshadesofe.com. You can also follow us on the social sites at the Shades of E by visiting Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok.

Now, Karen, before we leave, is there anything else you'd like to let the listeners know?

@41:18 - Cara Turano

Yes, I'm very excited that I'm going to share a stage with you in November.

@41:22 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

This is true. I've very thankful and very excited and nervous at the same time, but I will be hosting the 2024 Oregon Entrepreneurship Network Awards.

@41:36 - Cara Turano

I'm very excited. Now, can you provide us a little bit more information and date and kind of folks are interested in that event?

Where can they find more information? It actually just went live this week. It's the Wednesday after the election.

@41:49 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

What is that? November? Oh, you're going to test my brain now.

@41:54 - Cara Turano

It's the first Wednesday in November. It's going to be a celebration of all things. It's the 6th. November 6th, sent in a hotel.

downtown Portland, it is going to be a celebration of all things entrepreneurship, and I guess those are my like closing words.

Like, I have the best job because I get to support the dreamers, the innovators, and the disruptors, and I just hope that one day when they are all famous and wealthy that they remember me and maybe make a small donation to sweet little nonprofit OEM, but it is very inspiring to support a community of people that are pursuing their passions.

@42:35 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

I love it, and I feel like I have the second best job because I get to interview the viewers, the disruptors, and innovators.

so again, thank you Cara so much for joining us. Folks, again, please subscribe to the newsletter by visiting theshadesofe.com, or you can visit us at the social sites by visiting the shadesofe.

Thank you, and have a great night. Great job. You're very good at this.elcome to the Shades of Entrepreneurship. Tbbbhis is your host, Mr.Mr.r.

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