Closer Look
Blake Turner
Age: 24
Education: Portland State University student
Company: Turner Automotive
What the company does: Aims to convert gasoline-powered cars to burn zero-carbon hydrogen using an existing enginge
Founded: 2018
Accelerators, incubators or competitions: Currently in the PSU Business Accelerator's Cube. Winner, CleanTech Challenge 2019 and the Oregon Entrepreneur Network's student entrepreneurship award. Runner up, Invent Oregon 2019, The New Venture Championship 2019
Outside funding: Competition winnings
How did your company come about? Turner Automotive began as a team representing RCC in Invent Oregon 2018. Our idea was one I didn't initially plan on pursuing until Juan Barraza invited me to the Portland State Business Accelerator (PSBA).
Why did you decide to build this startup at this time? The Climate is not getting better. While there are many solutions available, none of them are aimed at the masses or plan to reuse existing vehicles. I feel that the gap in the market we are addressing is a great opportunity. And as a college student, I have access to a lot of resources I may not have in the future.
Have you always wanted to be an entrepreneur? I have always wanted to be an inventor. For a long time, I felt that being an engineer was the best career option for that. However, I recently discovered that entrepreneurship is a great way for me to make my ideas happen.
Do you ever feel like you are missing out on anything because you are following this path at such a young age? While a lack of experience makes running a startup very difficult, I find people with more experience are always willing to help simply because I'm young. In fact, I think getting involved in entrepreneurship early has helped me discover what I want to do long-term, saving me from potentially going down the wrong path and discovering this later (or not at all).
Have you felt any specific challenges around your work because you are still so young and early in your career? Often I can feel my lack of experience slowing some things down, particularly in the business aspect. Though this has also been an advantage as it gives me the freedom to explore unconventional ideas inspired by other experiences I have.
Are there any founders or business people you look up to or want to emulate? I am always inspired by the people who brought technology from niche to normal in the past, like Henry Ford. This is why I value accessibility to the masses over the use of cutting-edge technology.
What are you most excited about for your future? While our current progress may seem slow, we are excited to finish our first fully-fledged prototype and test it on the streets of Portland. We believe that after the first full prototype, we will be able to get this technology into dozens of pilot vehicles, before expanding to the general public. I look forward to when Turner Automotive is in headlines alongside Tesla and Toyota.
