Portland entrepreneur Tory Campbell is launching a new venture — on top of his existing food manufacturing business Felton & Mary’s — that he hopes will not only make the community safer but help more people get outside.
The startup is called Outside Now and he is building it alongside his 14-year-old son Tillman. The company is designing and building a traffic calming device that consumers can buy to place in the street to alert drivers there are children or other people in or near the street.
Pre-order deposits are available now for the Play It Safe Tower, and the goal is to have products available next summer.
“This is an idea that has been in my mind for well over five or six years — since my kids were young and outside playing,” he said. That personal experience coupled with reports of high traffic deaths and a marked decrease in youth sports participation got Campbell motivated to make his idea a reality.
Current designs for the product include a height tall enough to address the increasing height and bigger blind spots of trucks and SUVs, a flashing LED light and accessories that “facilitate play.” This means a place to mount a phone for music or for recording video, a hoop to hold a ball, a score board and an echo chamber to amplify music.
In the future, he sees opportunity to add elements like solar panels and batteries to the product. Future areas for customer growth include general signage and wayfinding, he added.
The idea is these towers will stand out more than the “Slow, Children at Play,” signs that current dot neighborhoods.
In 2022, he teamed with the mechanical engineering department at Oregon State University to help with prototyping his idea.
A team of students took on the project as part of the school’s capstone program. For 10 weeks students worked on the project, which was sponsored for $3,000 by the engineering firm Andrews Cooper, said Campbell.
With a prototype in hand, Campbell was then accepted into the Adidas Community Lab. The sports apparel maker brought its accelerator program to Portland in 2023 to work with underrepresented founders whose businesses addressed equitable access to sports, health and wellness.
In addition to access to industry experts and mentors, the startup received $75,000 as part of the program, said Campbell. Much of that money was used to get prototypes made.
“This last year has been profound in our ability to move quickly,” he said.
The startup is taking $50 pre-order deposits now with a goal of securing 500 in the next 90 days. Campbell is still evaluating where the product will be made. He wants to keep the production in-state and he wants products to be sustainability.
The final price of the product is still being determined but Campbell wants to keep it accessible for the masses.
He expects to raise money for this venture. He anticipates raising between $500,000 and $1 million early next year. This summer he is testing prototypes and gathering feedback to help make his pitch to investors.
Like Campbell’s other business, which is based on recipes from his family’s Portland restaurant, this one is also a family affair. He brought his son Tillman into the project as co-founder to teach him how to bring an idea to fruition.
“I saw this as a chance to be a father in a way that can inspire him in a way that is practical and hands on,” he said.
