The ZINO Society team is figuratively walking on air since the successful inaugural ZINO Green Portland event on Wednesday this week! The entire staff handled hundreds of details with good humor and expertise in order to produce such a stellar event. We were so pleased to work with our major and venue sponsor, Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt and were amazed at the attention to detail and service that Michelle Martin, their event representative provided to us. My good friend, Don Krahmer, (3rd photo above)of Schwabe facilitated a dealflow flight of entrepreneurs and drew the winning name for the 2 airline tickets door prize offered by our supporting sponsor, Alaska Airlines. Presenting entrepreneur, Craig Rominger of Nano Ice USA was the big winner of the tickets!
There were many people who helped make ZINO Green Portland a reality. In addition to Schwabe and Alaska Airlines, our other invaluable sponsors were Oracle, Portland Business Journal, McKinstry and Stoel Rives. I am also especially appreciative of our ZINO Green Portland Advisory Committee members and my friends and co-chairs, Douglas Bouland and Cindy Tortorici, who brought the group together to provide advice and input to me and the rest of the ZINO Society management team about the appropriate entry into Portland. Ray King, Founder & CEO of AboutUs participated in a fireside chat about his experience as a serial entrepreneur and shared some of his best advice with the entrepreneurs in the room. Ray is pictured above in 4th photo along with his wife, ZINO Green Portland Advisory Committee member, Deneen King, and ZINO Society VP of Business Development, Mary Holmes.
There were 14 entrepreneurs who each presented 5 minute overviews of their businesses and shared their traction to date, market pipelines, financial projections and any important information for potential investors to consider. Big kudos are definitely in order for the ZINO Green Screeners and Coaches who worked so hard to assist the entrepreneurs in making the most clear and concise presentations.
The winners of the ZINO Zenith Awards for best investment opportunities as selected by the event attendees were Peter Jay Klauser of Eco Carpet Inc., Craig Rominger of Nano Ice USA, and Burt Hamner of Hydrovolts. See top photo above of each with their “green” ZINO Zenith award trophies. To help investors in the room learn more about the ZINO Zenith Award winners, they then participated in a Due Diligence LIVE! Q&A segment with expert panelists (shown from left to right in 2nd photos above) Drew Bernard, angel investor, Darius Hartwell, Shareholder, Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, Chris Ulum of Plas2Fuel Corporation, Byron McCann of Ascent Partners, and Bruce Sanchez of Oracle.
Following the business session, everyone had a final opportunity to talk with individual entrepreneurs and enjoy hors d’oeuvres and beverages together. Featured winemakers were Dave Hanson of ArborBrook Vineyards and Emily Stoller Smith of Solena Estate.
Thank you to everyone who attended, was involved and helped make ZINO Green Portland an inaugural event of which we can all be very proud! And now we can still look forward to ZINO Green Seattle this coming week on March 4th at the McKinstry offices in Seattle!
I always enjoy the ZINO events, and this one was no exception. Another great job by the ZINO team putting together entrepreneurs, investors and winemakers. Both stimulating and fun. See you at McKinstry!
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