Fourteen consumer products companies from across the state have been selected for the latest class of the Built Oregon Accelerator.
The cohort includes a venture from a popular Portland restaurant, a couple of well-known local condiment companies and startups offering non-alcoholic options in the growing NA beverage trend.
"This class is also an example of what we love about consumer product companies in Oregon: the diversity of founders, geographies and products," said Built co-founder and Director Mitch Daugherty. "From clown noses out of Klamath Falls to dog gelato out of The Dalles and on to salsa and sustainable hats from Portland, it really is inspiring to see people’s passions across the state lead to unique product based companies."
Built is a nonprofit that supports consumer products founder and their companies. It offers events for networking and education as well accelerators to help founders scale their businesses and create the state's next big consumer product company.
The Built Accelerator lasts four months. Participants get peer support from and connect to 225 mentors from across the state, with insights into logistics, financial forecasting and understanding sales velocity.
The selection process includes interviews with founders by Daugherty and Built co-founder Rick Turoczy, who also runs the Portland Incubator Experiment.
"As with previous accelerator classes I’m most excited about the opportunity to work directly with the founders to see how and where we can have an impact on their business, with much of that impact coming from connecting them with our 200-plus amazing mentors," said Daugherty.
Here’s who is in the current class:
- Salem-based Flourish Spices a Black woman-owned immigrant business that offers meals and a non-dairy beverage line based in the Nigerian culture.
- Portland-based Better Boba, which makes all-natural boba pearls.
- Portland-based Hot Mama Salsa, which has a line of fresh-made salsas, hot sauces, Mexican-style chili oils and tortilla chips.
- Portland-based Good Wolf, which makes a fermented beverage it calls Probiotic Refreshers that support gut health and contain calming adaptogens and electrolytes.
- Klamath Falls-based Red Nose Factory, which makes a line of clown noses called Funny Bone Clown Noses that can be worn for long periods and don’t require glue or string.
- Bend-based Gather Nuts, which makes slow roasted nut-based snacks.
- Portland-based Kachka, a James Beard Award nominated restaurant that makes foods from the former Soviet Republics, and is scaling a line of frozen dumplings.
- Portland-based Savorease Therapeutic Foods created Crispy Melts a line of crunchy foods that can be safely eaten by people who are on soft diets.
- Portland-based Koa Roots makes fruit butters and brown butters based on Hawaiian and Pacific Northwest flavors, two places the founders call home.
- Portland-based Sibeiho is a Singaporean food startup that makes a line of Good Food Award winning Sambal chili sauces.
- Portland-based Rustek makes sustainable headwear from renewable natural materials.
- The Dalles-based Swell Gelato makes a line of gelato and meal toppers for dogs.
- Portland-based Pink Cloud Beverages makes a line of non-alcoholic functional beverages made from tropical fruit juice.
- Portland-based Portland Syrups is the mentor-in-residence for the program. The company makes mocktail mixers.
Built Oregon also has an accelerator called the Bridges Accelerator that is specifically aimed at BIPOC-founded startups that are based in Portland. That program’s first class was announced last month.
