August/September 2022

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Innovator of the

TH E

I N N OVATO R

AWA R D S

Year Mike Beckham of Simple Modern

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33

34

2022 Innovator Awards

Innovator of the Year: Mike Beckham

405 Business’ inaugural awards of the 18 most innovative companies in the metro.

Simple Modern will see $100 million in revenue this year and is the No. 1 supplier of hydration products to Amazon and Target, just seven short years after its founding.

Departments

AU G U S T/ S E P T E M B E R 2 02 2

START UP 14 Insight Innovators build OKC. 16 My Daily Media Diet With Alyssa Murphy, founder of Siren Media.

18 Ask the Mentor Creating your innovation engine.

20 The Future of …

Workforce development in Oklahoma.

SW EAT E QU ITY 24 Small Business Therapitas focuses on therapy for Spanish-speaking clients.

24

26 Giving Back ReMerge’s Catalyst Cookies works to lower recidivism rates.

26

30 How I Did It SendaRide’s growth gives them a presence in eight states.

E X IT STRATE GY 58 Downtime Chip Fudge’s million-dollar car collection.

60 On Topic Why is innovation important to the growth of business in Oklahoma?

62 Linked In Networking events across the 405.

64 Out of Office Cortado Venture managing partner Nathaniel Harding.

64

Volume 1 Issue 5

On the Cover Innovator of the Year Mike Beckham, Simple Modern founder and CEO.

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6 4 7 1 Av o n d a l e D r i v e | 4 0 5 . 6 0 7 . 4 3 2 3 | n a i f e h f i n e j e w e l r y . c o m

Mark Your Calendar s!

A U G U S T/S E P T E M B E R 2O2 2

VOLUME 1 • NUMBER 5

PRESIDENT & CEO

Jordan Regas

jordan.regas@405magazine.com PUBLISHER

Rod Whitson

rod.whitson@405business.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Kayte Spillman

kayte@405business.com ART DIRECTOR

Christopher Lee

christopher.lee@405magazine.com SENIOR WRITER

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Presented by:

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Honoring the individuals, not-for-profits and companies who are making significant contributions to the greater social good in our region.

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405 Business magazine presents the recipients of its inaugural Purpose and Impact Awards, honoring

Lillian Meador

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING

Cynthia Whitaker-Attalla

professionals and organizations working to build a

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Make plans to attend the Purpose and Impact Awards in early October to help us recognize purpose-led leaders in our community.

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Volume 1 / Number 5, 405 Business Magazine (periodicals 21350) is published bi-monthly, six times a year, by Hilltop Media Group, 1613 North Broadway Avenue, Oklahoma City, OK 73103.

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Inspired. so beyond my sphere of ability and talent all I can do is marvel at the inspiration created in their wake.

For this issue, I got to talk to people in Oklahoma who are propelling unmanned, solar-powered flight forward. And innovators retooling products and processes so the visually impaired can have meaningful work. Also, I talked with healthcare leaders reinventing the way prosthetics fit amputees or how they are working to cure hearing loss.

That’s just four of the 18 different companies featured in this inaugural issue of 405 Business’ Innovator Awards (pg. 33). We know about these amazing innovators and their work because of you – our readers.

We opened up this issue, for the first time, to our readers to nominate the best innovation in Oklahoma.

We asked you to tell us about the inspiring innovators and innovative companies in Oklahoma, and you answered the call: We had hundreds of nominations for so many transformational companies, and our editors and publishers combed through the nominations to pull out these treasures. In addition, as is becoming the practice at 405 Business, we also asked leaders in the innovation field in Oklahoma to make sure we weren’t missing any of the heavy hitters that this innovation issue simply must include.

To all that gave us feedback and guided us, thank you. We’re proud to present the 2022 Innovator Awards, which presents an amazing look at the companies and the leaders driving innovation forward in Oklahoma.

Our cover story features Simple Modern’s Mike Beckham (pg. 34).

He’s a humble man whose outlook

While interviewing, we heard:

SOME PEOPLE ARE

Jay Martin Martin Bionics founder and president “We were created as the only creatures on earth who have the ability to truly innovate.

Innovating is a gift, which we all possess. There is no shortage of challenges that beautiful humans face around the world, and innovation is how we can impact those lives in creative ways.”

on both business and his life focus on doing good, treating others as he’d want to be treated and trying to be a steward of all that he’s been given. And he’s been given a lot: Simple Modern is on pace to reach $100 million in revenue this year.

With that growth and outlook, he’s certainly worthy of being named 405 Business’ Innovator of the Year.

The list of Innovator Awards highlights so many, but not all, of the intensely creative and innovative work in Oklahoma. In fact, I found myself telling so many of these companies that we would be reaching back out for further coverage – We’ve only just begun to scratch the surface on telling the stories of these companies and the lives and industries they are working so hard to change.

Kayte Spillman EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Matt West Hough Ear Institute chief operating officer “Innovation is the lifeblood of any business. Stagnation is the enemy. Local innovation spurred on by addressing either perceived or envisioned needs has the added benefit of keeping or recruiting resources that enhance the overall quality of life for Oklahomans everywhere.”

WE ARE AN EARLY STAGE VENTURE CAPITAL FIRM INVESTING IN AMBITIOUS, GROWTH-DRIVEN COMPANIES, DEFINING A NEW GENERATION OF ECONOMIC PROSPERITY FOR THE MIDCONTINENT. WHAT WE OFFER

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It’s more than capital. We leverage our team’s deep experience as leaders and innovators to position our portfolio companies for accelerated growth. To date, Cortado Ventures has invested in 27 companies amounting to a total enterprise value of nearly $600 million.

FOUNDER LED Entrepreneurs with innovative ideas that think outside-the-box

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SPONSORED

Why We Hate Salespeople!

By Mike Crandall – Sandler – “Professional Growth Solutions”

Let’s face it; most of us hate salespeople. (Except the salespeople who are completely unaware that everyone hates them). When we were little girls and little boys no one ever said “when I grow up, I want to be a saleswoman or salesman” – instead we wanted to be police officers, firefighters, doctors, nurses, teachers, etc. Why do you suppose no one said, “I want to be in sales”?

The answer is fairly simple – most of us were taught to dislike salespeople at a fairly young age, even if our parents were in sales.

When the telemarketer would call during dinner, we would hear our parents complain about them. When a salesperson came to the door, we would watch our parents lie to them to get them to leave. Or when we were out, we would experience our parents’ avoiding salespeople at all costs. Being around this it is no wonder why we did not want to be in sales when we grew up – and that we hate, or at least greatly dislike, salespeople so much today.

Because these messages were engrained in our subconscious as MIKE CRANDALL lives in Edmond, OK. He is a small children it has made us hyper-sensitive to salespeople. We are Consultant, Coach, Trainer, Speaker, and Author always on guard and defensive, most of the time we are worried about letting the salesperson get to close and catching us with our guard focused on the Subconscious Psychology of down. We were taught to believe that if we are not careful, they will Human Interaction and Motivation. His firm pull a fast one on us and convince us to part with money we do not specializes in Elevating Leadership, Management, want to give up or may not even have to spend.

These subconscious messages steer us in virtually every interaction & Sales Performance for Proactive Business we have today. It is not uncommon to see someone get extremely Growth. Mike is based in Oklahoma and serves uncomfortable even if they just hear, or believe, someone is in sales.

Visionary Clients across the United States.

We tend to avoid salespeople, mislead salespeople and even lie to them. Of course, this this is not a secret; over the years individuals and organizations have done just about everything to reduce the stigma He can be reached at of “sales” and their “salespeople.” We have seen everything from the Mike.Crandall@CGSOK.com strategy of outwardly sharing “our people don’t make commission” to the creative way organizations come up with new titles to make the or at (405) 844-1700. person sounds less like a salesperson (business development, service For more information, go to online to rep, market liaison, etc.) www.customgrowth.sandler.com Unfortunately, most of the efforts to reduce the stigma are erased when we meet what most of us think of as the traditional salesperson.

As soon as we hear a cheesy sales line, see an over enthusiastic smile, get asked an intrusive or uncomfortable question – our guard goes up and our hatred is renewed.

If you are in sales, and have any level of awareness, you have experienced this. And will certainly experience it again. If you would like a better / easier outcome next time. Let the prospect know it is okay to hate you, and that if you were them, you would feel the same.

Then proceed to share you may or may not be able to help them, only they can know that after you have a real conversation. This real conversation is how and where they can discover if they hate you because of you, or just because you are a salesperson.

The absolute best, and consequently the most successful salespeople understand this. They realize how all of the other salespeople make others uncomfortable and they let people know it is okay to not like them. It leads to disarming honesty and the opportunity for the prospect to lower their defense walls.

If you would like to increase your sales, improve your closing ration, lower the amount of quotes / bids / proposals you do, shorten your sales cycles, or make the entire sales process more comfortable embrace the fact you are hated. Only by understanding and embracing this can you make the interaction more comfortable for them, and for you.

S TA RT UP On the Job Workplace shortages seem to be everywhere. And while workforce development centers are adapting to meet Oklahoma’s changing employment needs, more needs to be done to fill in workplace gaps. p.2O

INSIGHT MY DAILY MEDIA DIET ASK THE MENTOR THE FUTURE OF

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INSIGHT

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Innovators Build OKC Innovation is part of the fabric of Oklahoma City, and it has helped drive us forward since our inception.

Here’s how to create more innovators to keep us going.

BY BRYAN CLIFTON PHOTO BY CHARLIE NEUENSCHWANDER

new rock stars. Magazine covers used to be full of musicians and celebrities. But times have changed. Innovators are the people we want to be and the people we want to be connected to.

At our core, OKC is a city built by innovators for innovators. In his book, “The Oklahomans,” John Dwyer describes the DNA of the place we call home: “Before the Trail of Tears, before the War Between the States, before the land runs and statehood and Dust Bowl, before the world wars and oil booms and busts and the OKC Bombing and Moore tornadoes, there were others who came to present-day Oklahoma. It seems the Sooner State has always been the land of the second — or third or last —chance for people from other places.”

Innovation is part of who we are. The people that make up this community aren’t chasing a new fad of innovation. It’s part of our identity, no matter how we came to call this place home.

Some people innovate because they have to. They don’t have another option. Others innovate because they want to. Our community and our history are a combination of both types of stories.

I N N OVATO R S A R E TH E

Innovators drive communities.

Innovation happens in community, and it is done for communities. Ideas change and morph over time based on conversations in coffee shops and Slack channels, in machine shops and constructions sites, and in classrooms and kitchens.

Innovation is not defined by an industry. Innovative people and companies can exist in any industry. Sometimes the most innovative are in mature industries that are ripe for disruption.

Innovators keep the pulse.

If you want to understand the health of a city, look at how it views innovation. Communities

Bryan Clifton, Nominee chief strategy officer

Innovation is part of who we are. The people that make up this community aren’t chasing a new fad of innovation. It’s part of our identity, no matter how we came to call this place home. that are growing and thriving have a healthy view and desire for innovation. They encourage risk-taking and are open to disrupting themselves in the pursuit of something better.

Innovation by its nature is disruptive. When innovators are present, expect things to change.

If things aren’t changing in a proactive manner, they will change in a reactive way once the innovators have left.

Innovation is a way of being.

I’ve yet to meet an innovator who wakes up each morning and tells themselves, “I need to be innovative today.” It’s not a choice they are making.

It’s the default way they see the world. Being innovative and solving problems is part of the lens through which they view the world. They can’t explain why they did something. It just felt right.

They are led by intuition.

Being innovative is a belief about yourself. It’s an assumed character trait. Having an innovative

idea is an action. It’s a one-time event that may or may not be able to be repeated.

Act like a child.

If you want to build your innovative capacity, act like a child. Children have a plethora of ideas.

They view creativity, make-believe and imagination as something to freely explore. At some point in our lives, we can lose this carefree attitude and start to mute our ideas. We put questions between our ideas and what they can become.

Spend time in places where you’re challenged.

Put yourself in conversations where you leave with more questions than answers. Notice the world around you and ask “what if ” questions.

We all have the ability to innovate. Some people have simply had more reps at it.

Bryan Clifton is a serial entrepreneur who is partner and chief strategy officer at Nominee, a branding agency in Oklahoma City.

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M Y D A I LY M E D I A D I E T

S TA RT U P

My Daily Media Diet Alyssa Murphy is the founder of Siren Media, an all-woman marketing agency in Oklahoma City. Murphy praises The Lost Ogle, tells us why Polynesian music makes her sentimental, and why she’s recently switched off daily news podcasts.

Where do you get your news first?

Before the pandemic, I would listen to podcasts like The Daily or First Up on NPR’s app to get an overview of headlines. I know I’m not alone when I say that my brain couldn’t take any more negative world/national/local events during the peak of COVID. Today, I skim social media for headlines from various news sources each morning. My favorite news sources to follow are local news via social media (The Lost Ogle, The Oklahoman, KOCO, KFOR, KWTV), national news (NPR, BBC, The New York Times), and business/economic news (The Wall Street Journal, Forbes).

What app do you open first in the morning?

If I’m in the mood to see what events are trending but not necessarily breaking news: Facebook. If I’m in the mood for cat videos, makeup, art and daily affirmations: Instagram. If I’m curious about breaking news or live event coverage: Twitter.

What newsletter always gets clicked open?

As a business owner, my first objective in the morning is to delete all of the emails in my inbox that are spam or promotional material.

However, I find great value in the Hoot Worthy newsletter by my friends and colleagues, Skye and Shelley, at the Folded Owl. If you care about diversity, equity and inclusion, social justice, political advocacy and social media, I highly recommend signing up.

What podcast do we need to be listening to?

I quit listening to daily news podcasts because my anxiety was out of control. Instead, I have been listening to audiobooks — a LOT of Brené Brown, business books and habit-building guides. My favorite book of the year, so far, is “Dare to Lead” by Brené Brown, which has its own podcast. This book helped me put a finger on why I have struggled with corporate cultures in my past. After listening to the book via Audible, I subscribed to the podcast and started a book club with my team at Siren Media.

I’m re-reading the audiobook with them, and we’re going through the guided group reading discussions that you can find for free on her website. And, if you love spooky ghost story podcasts as much as I do, I am a die-hard fan of Spooked by Glynn Washington. I’ve listened to every episode there is!

What social accounts should we be following?

If you’re in Oklahoma: The Lost Ogle. I hope every Oklahoman follows them. These guys do an amazing job of talking about news and drama that bigger outlets don’t touch. And, they do it in an Onion-esque way. I always get a laugh out of their writing. If you’re in Oklahoma City: OKCTalk. They do a great job of covering new restaurants, events and more. For laughs: @tonytalks on Instagram, @leigh_mcnasty on Instagram, Erin Miller on TikTok or Instagram @ overthemoonfaraway. If you’re a woman looking to build wealth and financial strategy, @herfirst100k on Instagram

What music should we add to our playlist right now?

I am of Pacific Islander descent and grew up hearing my grandfather’s stories of life on Guam and surviving the horrific Japanese occupation of the island as a boy. Anything remotely Polynesian or Micronesian reminds me of him and is sentimental to me. I was recently introduced to Hawaiian Slack Key artist Keola Beamer.

It’s not your stereotypical steel guitar sound that you might think of. This form of music has very interesting roots and has helped me feel ground myself in the mornings before the busy day takes off.

Is there any other media you consume that we’ve missed?

What we consume after our “busy” hours is important, too. Your media diet is what you’re feeding your brain, after all. If I feel like I’m taking myself too seriously, I’ll try to watch something funny here and there like stand-up comedy, improv (“Whose Line is it Anyway?”), sketch comedy, etc. If you’re looking for a new standup special to watch on Netflix, I’d highly recommend “Catherine Cohen’s The Twist ...?

She’s Gorgeous.” My husband and I choked laughing at this special. She’s amazing.

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ASK THE MENTOR

Creating Your Innovation Engine Looking to fuel your own innovative spirit?

Here’s a 10-question Innovation Engine to get your gears going.

BY JEREMIE KUBICEK PHOTO BY CHARLIE NEUENSCHWANDER

create something new or improve something that already exists, dramatically.

I N N OVATI O N M EANS TO

Tesla is an innovation to traditional gas vehicles.

Uber is an innovation to the traditional taxi system.

Netflix is an innovation to cable TV and movies in general.

Amazon innovated ordering and distribution.

And on and on.

That is why these types of founders are called innovators.

They have improved something dramatically in a way that is brand new to our expectations. And innovation is not solely for Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos but is free for everyone who has vision and initiative.

For almost a decade, I lived in Atlanta and then London. As we were evaluating where to move back to in the United States, we chose Oklahoma over Denver, D.C., Atlanta or Nashville.

My kids wanted to be closer to their friends and family. My rationale came down to the types of people that lived here – pioneers.

While we might not have the most innovation per capita compared to other cities, we do have leaders with a “who says we can’t” mindset. Oklahoma innovators with a pioneering spirit.

So, what is your innovation? What is your vision for something to improve?

My innovation is on creating a better way to do leader development globally to cynical adults. My son and I are also working on a better way to train parents of 13-to-18-year-old kids better than the current models. We have a vision to raise up liberators in every city and sector.

If you want a practical way to find out what your vision or innovation could be, I have created an Innovation Engine that allows you to ask the right questions to get the right outcomes.

What do you think needs improvement? (Innovation) Why does it need to improve?

How does it need to improve? (Get specific) Who else is doing something like this and how is your innovation different?

How will your innovation affect others?

Jeremie Kubicek, founder of GiANT and author.

Innovation can be small as much as it can be large. It can be an innovation in your family or your personal life as much as it can be inside your business or to the market at large.

Who are your allies to help you?

How will your innovation help the world?

What will this innovation do for you?

What is keeping you from doing it?

Who says you can’t?

Innovation can be small as much as it can be large. It can be an innovation in your family or your personal life as much as it can be inside your business or to the market at large. The key is to take the time to answer the right questions to get to the improvements that can change the world for the good.

Jeremie Kubicek is an innovator and founder of numerous companies such as GiANT, billion, Six Summers, Culture Wins and others. He is an fourtime author and speaker and lives in Arcadia at the Prairie at Post, which he co-developed.

Premium Subscribers Below is a list of our inaugural premium subscribers. As a way of thanking them for their support, we are introducing them to our readers with each issue. Join our growing list of premium subscribers while enjoying the perks of being a part of the 405 Business community. Didn’t make the list? Don’t worry. We will continue printing the names of our premium subscribers within each issue during 2022.

Shelley Leveridge Folded Owl Trent Tipple Emily Morris Flourish OKC Jacqueline Sit Gooden Group Foster Zeiders Nfcda Energy LLC Andrea Fillmore Strategic Hype Tim Cooper Cooper House Julie Watson Mark Behrman LSB Industries Craig Shimasaki John Lippe Federal Corporation Myers Lockard Hunzicker Brothers, Inc. Kristy Freeman Clark Ginny Freeman Shelter Insurance Agency John Hudson Attorney Raven A Goswick Debbie Bolding Kirsten Burgiel Expeditors International Paul Taylor Taylor Valve Technology, Inc. Ainslee Crum Pella of Oklahoma

Russell Kim Diamond Capital Ken Parker NextThought JP Craig Lingo Construction Jacob Lingo Lingo Construction Collins Peck Lingo Construction Stan Lingo Lingo Construction Morgan Harris Green Bambino Amanda Penrod RFX Solutions Brian Harvey Hub International Mid-America Laurie Stansbury Senior Helpers of Greater Oklahoma City Barbara Mitchell Darren Lister Drew M. Braum Jr. John Archer John L. Kelly Thomas W. Hughes Laura Fleet SendaRide Timothy Hsieh OCU School of Law Charles Oppenheim Robert J. Ross

Founding Advertisers Adaptation Financial Airosurf Communications BC Clark Jewelers Contemporary Endodontics of Oklahoma Core Group Cortado Ventures Cox Business Crew Workspace Express Employment Professionals Full Sail Capital

Heartland Payment Systems Miller Mister Robert Naifeh Fine Jewelry NvYA Technology OKC Philharmonic Sandler Training Standley Systems Wilshire Cabinet and Closets

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THE FUTURE OF

The Future of Oklahoma’s Workforce Many industry sectors are still suffering through post-pandemic workforce shortages, and newerto-Oklahoma industries like film production are ramping up need for employees as well. Workforce development centers are adapting to bring new skilled labor to Oklahoma, but gaps remain.

BY GREG HORTON

sufficient workforce for two large-scale, concurrent film productions.

But Matt Payne, co-CEO and co-founder of Prairie Surf Media, the state’s largest film production studio, said that crew is still coming in from all over the United States to supplement the workforce shortage in the film industry.

“We’re bringing them in from California, Georgia, Texas, and Louisiana mainly,” Payne said, “and we need them in every department.”

Large-scale productions like “Tulsa King,” the current Taylor Sheridan project that features Sylvester Stallone, can require as many as 400 crew members, and relatively smaller projects, like “Reagan,” the biopic featuring Dennis Quaid in the title role, need up to 200 crew. Given that Oklahoma is new to the major production landscape, it’s no surprise that we have workforce shortages. The lack of skilled and unskilled workers is a common subject post-COVID, beginning with hospitality.

Keith Paul, president and founder of A Good Egg Dining Group (Cheever’s, Tucker’s, The Drake, etc.), said staffing continues to be a major problem in restaurants.

“We hired 200 people in the last six months, and we’ve lost 100,” Paul said.

“As a company, though, we’re only about 30 people short. I’ve seen others as short as 10 people per restaurant. So the problem isn’t as critical for us, but it’s still there.”

According to data from the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, the 10 sectors that needed the most employees posted a total of 54,717 job openings in the first half of 2022. Those 10 sectors include more than 1,500 employers, among them hospitals, which had 10,606 postings and 109 employers competing, with an average of 97 vacancies per employer. Full-service restaurants posted 4,378 openings with 250 employers competing, an average of O K L A H O M A C U R R E N T LY H AS

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17 openings per employer. Some of the openings are certainly due to retirement, career change, relocation, etc., but the net effect is large to massive gaps in many sectors.

Payne said Oklahoma schools have been “incredibly helpful” in building the film industry, and they’re adapting their curriculum to help with workforce development statewide.

“The career tech schools have created pathways for high school students to get into the film industry,” Payne said. “And they’ve helped with adult education as well. Some skills transfer readily to film, like design and construction, and so the schools have been offering classes in construction, painting, set decoration, food styling, etc., and the classes fill up immediately. The demand for labor is there, and it seems the desire to be involved in film is there too.”

Set construction pays about $30 an hour, so the incentive is obvious and immediate. In February this year, Francis Tuttle offered a six-week set production design class – a boot camp – on six consecutive Saturdays. The curriculum covered prop building, set decoration, painting and other tasks related to creating film sets. They worked on a different aspect each week, and by the end of the class, they had converted an old, empty space into a hospital set for filming.

Amanda Fortney, the program developer at Francis Tuttle, said that upon completion, all the students were offered jobs on the “Tulsa King” project.

“All of them couldn’t say yes, but the ‘Tulsa King’ people came to the school to offer them all jobs,” Fortney said.

Payne said the increase in film tech classes is working the way career tech schools is supposed to function.

“Industry needs dictate what the career tech schools teach,” Payne said, “and they’ve definitely stepped up.”

Cody Mosley is the director of workforce and economic development at Francis Tuttle. He said that during COVID the service model changed.

“We used to be reactive,” he said. “We’d wait for the needs to come to us. Now we’re identifying the gaps and creating curriculum to meet the need. It’s a much more proactive process.”

The role of career tech according to Mosley is to “craft short-term pathways” to new careers.

“We’re not bound by the same models that high schools and colleges use,” he said. “We can start a class anytime – no semesters or quarters – and we can build the curriculum to give students the essentials to get on that pathway quickly.”

Mosley said his department is designed to “target fear,” the kind of fear that comes with making big life changes like career direction. Questions like, “Can I do this?” and “How do I even get into this

field?” can prevent potential students from saying yes to a new direction.

“Take manufacturing for example,” Mosley said.

“Whatever you have in your head, it’s not that. I talk to parents who still think it’s a dirty job, so it’s clear that they haven’t been on a modern manufacturing floor. Our intro to manufacturing pathway takes the fear out of the unknown and equips students with knowledge and experience.”

Another sector career tech is serving is aerospace, the second largest industry in Oklahoma.

“Our aerospace pathways include work with composites, and that’s one of the fastest expanding areas in manufacturing and implementation,” Mosley said. “They’re used in aircraft, drones, windmills and other products important to Oklahoma. We also teach sheet metal work, molding process, cutting, lay up process – an array of skills for aerospace.”

While the career tech model provides solutions for industries like film, manufacturing and aerospace – and it can even help with food service in the area of pastry, general culinary and front-of-house training – it’s a process solution for one admittedly important aspect: staff training and career change or development. The complicating factor in the workforce shortage is that some jobs just aren’t being filled, and no one seems to know why, especially in hospitality.

Mosley said he believes COVID was an extended job interview for companies in which employees and potential employees evaluated the companies instead of vice versa.

“The companies were being interviewed whether they knew it or not,” he said. “Their culture, beliefs, values, pay, treatment of employees – all of it was being evaluated, and many people had plenty of time to ask if they were in the right place.”

As food service has learned painfully, many of those evaluations didn’t go well. Employees left bars and restaurants, hotels and resorts never to return (so far). The marijuana industry scooped up many of them, but others left hospitality and retail completely. Messaging by career tech schools, colleges and universities – OCCC for example has a film program – and recruiters are helping with the transitions, but a comprehensive solution is yet to appear.

For career tech, though, this is a chance to evolve into a more efficient solution for businesses, of which Francis Tuttle has already served more than 700 this year. They’ve implemented a new, $99 candidate fast-track program that covers the basics of project management, communications, problem solving, Excel I and II, and cybersecurity in 30 hours.

Once complete, students get a ticket to an inviteonly job fair.

“We’re producing students who become great candidates in many fields, and employers know they have the skill set,” Mosley said.

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“The career tech schools have created pathways for high school students to get into the film industry.

And they’ve helped with adult education as well...The demand for labor is there, and it seems the desire to be involved in film is there too.”

Matt Payne co-CEO and co-founder of Prairie Surf Media

S W EAT EQU ITY Helping Hands

LOGAN WALCHER

SendaRide care partners, like Brock Hunter, help deliver patients to and from medical appointments. Started a mere five years ago, the company has already expanded to eight states. p.3O

SMALL BUSINESS 24 GIVING BACK 26 HOW I DID IT 30

SMALL BUSINESS

Tapping Into an Untapped Therapy Community Therapitas, the largest provider of bilingual services in Oklahoma, recently doubled its Shepherd Center location, and now completes nearly 2,000 play-based therapy visits every week – almost exclusively in its clients’ native language, Spanish.

BY DANIELLE OBERLOIER

ROCK CLIMBING. ZIPLINING.

Trampoline jumping. Those activities might not typically register as therapy.

But on any given day at a Therapitas pediatric clinic, you’ll see children engaging in play of all kinds, with wide eyes and the sort of laughter you’d hear on a playground.

“We emphasize play-based therapy, so if you walk back into a therapy area, you’d probably think that it’s just a bunch of grownups playing with kids all day, and it often is, but it’s play with purpose,” said Kelly Hawkins, Therapitas Director of Clinic Operations. “Children learn best through play, but there is always a goal we are trying to achieve, or a clinical observation being made.”

Therapitas, a rapidly growing group of pediatric therapy clinics serving the Latino communities in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, specializes in outpatient speech, as well as occupational and physical therapy aimed at treating the whole child.

They started out solely as a bilingual speech and language clinic, but the last five years have brought pivotal growth to the organization – with the addition of occupational and physical therapy services, as well as the opening of a Tulsa location.

They are now the largest provider of bilingual therapy services in the state.

And they’re poised to grow some more.

In May, they held a soft opening for the expansion of their Oklahoma City Shepherd Center location – a move within the center from a 5,000-square-foot space to a 13,000-square-foot space. As if that jump was not significant alone, their south Oklahoma City location is currently in negotiation for acquiring a nearly 15,000-squarefoot clinic. And that’s after upgrading to 7,000-square-feet just five years prior.

KayeLani Irvin, Therapitas Clinical Director at Walker and a bilingual speechlanguage pathologist, works with a patient.*

*Patients’ names withheld for privacy.

PHOTOS PROVIDED

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S W EAT EQ UITY

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Above: A Therapitas patient* works on the motor-skill-building exercise of brushing her teeth.

Above left: Caleb Reed, certified occupational therapist assistance, licensed, works with a patient.*

PHOTOS PROVIDED

A critical part of their mission is to help with those ‘hurdles:’ The clinic works to increase access by reducing or eliminating barriers in terms of language and clinic geographical placement.

“It’s honestly very humbling and exciting,” Hawkins said. “We’re growing faster than we anticipated. We currently have 43 therapists on staff across our three Oklahoma clinics, and by the end of the summer we anticipate a staff of nearly 50 therapists.”

Hawkins, who joined Therapitas in 2016, began her career with Therapitas as a co-clinical director and afternoon speech-language pathologist before moving into her current role. For her, it’s all about the mission – to create access for underserved communities and bridge the gap between providers and Spanish-speaking families.

“Our mission is to ensure that Latino children have access to the same therapy services as any other child,” Hawkins said. “Our families encounter a number of hurdles in their pursuit of services for their children.

It’s about closing the gap for these families.”

A critical part of their mission is to help with those ‘hurdles:’ The clinic works to increase access by reducing or eliminating barriers in terms of language and clinic geographical placement. Families can speak directly to a majority of the therapy staff in Spanish, and all front desk personnel are native Spanish speakers. All Therapitas clinics are also strategically located in underserved areas in close proximity to public transportation. And for much of their client base, walking to appointments is possible. When transportation is especially difficult for their patients, they even offer ride services.

“We’re very intentional in where we put all of our clinics,” Hawkins said. “Where do our families live? Where are our services needed? We know there are barriers like transportation and fluctuating work schedules. One of the ways to remove those barriers is planting ourselves in the areas we’re needed.”

Across all three Oklahoma clinics, Therapitas averages around 1,800-2,000 therapy visits a week – and not a single person in need is turned away. Their influx is largely in part due to referrals and word of mouth. But those referrals often start with outreach.

“It’s grassroots sometimes,” she said. “Knocking on physician doors, going to schools to talk about bilingualism and the importance of serving. Our referral base continues to grow and we are serving more children now than we ever have. And I have to believe that is because our patients and referring providers have seen and felt the benefit of the services we provide.”

Within this period of tremendous growth, demand for more services still remains high. To broaden their impact, Therapitas is working to expand offerings to additional healthcare services, such as autism testing and diagnosis.

“We have families waiting 18 months to two years for autism testing, only to be called days before the appointment, to be told that due to Spanish being the primary language in the home, the child cannot be tested at that location, and they have nowhere else to go,” Hawkins said.

Admittedly, Hawkins wasn’t connected to Latino community before her time at Therapitas. But the day-to-day connection to the families they serve has created a tenable commitment.

“It is in my DNA now,” she said. “I will speak up. I will be a voice. It’s because of these families.”

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GIVING BACK

Life-saving Cookies Catalyst Cookies, a ReMerge program teaching job skills to moms with nonviolent felony charges as a part of its two-year program, is helping to keep women out of prison and reunite them with their children.

BY LORI WILLIAMS PHOTOS BY LOGAN WALCHER

cookie is soft in the middle and crusty on the outside. At second bite, the rainbow sprinkles dance in your mouth. Come to think of it, this cookie could be named after Brittany, who just celebrated her graduation from Catalyst Cookies’ 12-week program.

“It’s kind of bittersweet,” Brittany said. “I love making cookie dough. But now I get to transition to a regular job.”

Looking forward to a regular anything is significant for this mom who, like everyone in this program, is facing non-violent felony charges in Oklahoma County. Without substantial intervention and support, these moms are unlikely to break the cycles of imprisonment, poverty and drug or alcohol abuse, as 58% of incarcerated women are rearrested according to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. Catalyst Cookies is designed to be part of the solutions for employment issues and high recidivism rates. It is part of a larger program known as ReMerge.

T H E B I R T H DAY C A K E

Rebuilding at ReMerge “ReMerge is a two-year program that’s a lot of hard work,” said Melissa Walton, ReMerge Director of Community Engagement. “The moms have to completely rebuild themselves and their social networks.”

Since its launch in 2011, ReMerge has graduated 166 women who parent a total of 404 children.

“That’s a 62% graduation rate,” Walton said, “which is good for a diversion program.”

ReMerge added Catalyst Cookies in 2021, which means Walton will soon have updated graduation data for ReMerge’s enhanced

Top: Program participants* Rickie and Amber stir in ingredients to the mixer while making cookies.

Above: A participant boxes a dozen freshly made cookies.

*Last names withheld at the request of ReMerge for the safety of program participants.

S W EAT EQ UITY

Top: Program participants* Chardonnay, Jennifer, Rickie, Ana Rutherford, Catalyst Cookies coordinator, Sharelle, Melissa and Amber stand in front of recently baked cookies.

Left: ReMerge launched in 2011 and added Catalyst Cookies to its program in 2021.

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“I’ve noticed that a lot of people like to buy our cookies. I hope they know they’re helping to save our lives.”

– Brittany, Catalyst Cookie program graduate

two-year program.

“We think that adding these job skills will help moms move through the process,” she said. “We’d like to see a 75% graduation rate.

“Incarceration costs about the same as coming to ReMerge. But consider what we provide: food, transportation, sober housing, an addiction recovery program plus mental and physical health care.

And that’s not all: Each mom’s team includes a case manager, therapist, health and wellness program manager, child reunification program manager, education and employment coordinator and a peer recovery support specialist.”

The help and skill building isn’t even the best part – successful completion of the program means their criminal case is dismissed.

“What makes ReMerge truly different from other diversion programs is that, upon graduation, our moms are eligible to have their charges dismissed, removing a substantial barrier to the rest of their lives,” she said.

Top: Participant Chardonnay shows off cookie dough ready for the oven.

Middle: Participants Sharelle and Melissa adjust cookies in the oven.

Above: Pam Bracken, ReMerge director of workforce and Ana Rutherford, Catalyst Cookie coordinator, in the Catalyst Cookie kitchen.

Entrepreneurs in the Kitchen That, of course, is good news to these moms who need jobs to sustain their families. The training provided at Catalyst Cookies lays that foundation. In the kitchen, moms learn in-demand skills like communication, problem-solving, entrepreneurship, customer service and marketing.

“Marketing includes cookie presentation,” Walton said. “Our customers love the enclosure cards that are individually signed by our moms.”

And entrepreneurship?

“We’re always looking for small business owners who want to talk about entrepreneurship while joining our moms for a Thursday lunch in our beautiful ReMerge dining space,” said Ana Rutherford, Catalyst Cookies program coordinator.

Brittany finished packaging her last batch of cookies. The scents of oatmeal and chocolate and salted caramel linger in the air.

“I’ve noticed that a lot of people like to buy our cookies,” Brittany said. “I hope they know they’re helping to save our lives.”

That’s a mouthful, but it’s oh-so sweet.

PROMOTION

Who is Full Sail Capital?

We are a team of fiduciaries, and we consider our clients family.

As a Registered Investment Advisor, wealth management is our business, but our focus goes much deeper than that.

We take personal interest in our clients’ dreams, and we’re committed to helping each of them reach their specific goals.

That’s what true fiduciaries do. We are required by law to act in the best interests of our clients, and that is a point of pride for us because putting the interests of clients ahead of our own is a fundamental value sewn deep into the fabric of our culture.

What is the client experience?

There is nothing better than knowing you belong. When you feel welcome, familiar, and comfortable with the people around you. That’s when you know you’re home. That sense of family begins to form the first day we meet with our clients, listen to their unique stories, and begin to tailor pathways toward their goals. The feeling continues to grow over the months, and years we work together on estate plans, retirement savings, investments, real estate, or other objectives. We build our relationships with trust and integrity at the core, in an effort to provide our clients peace of mind.

How is Full Sail Different?

In addition to being investment advisors and market analysts, our team members are credentialed Investment Advisor Representatives who hold professional designations, including J.D., CPA, CTFA, CFA and CFP. This breadth of education, training, and experience allows us to do more than help people manage their investments. Together, we share a passion for meeting people where they are in life and helping them meet their financial needs and accomplish their objectives for the future, whatever they happen to be.

What is Full Sail Capital’s investment philosophy?

Investment opportunities seem to be proliferating with trendy prospects that have catchy names like crypto, SPACs, NFTs and meme stocks. People hear about them from friends, see them online or learn about them from television pundits. It’s our business to research every new twist in the ever-evolving world of investing. And rest assured, with decades of experience in the markets, we have seen the shiny objects rise and we have watched them lose their luster. At Full Sail Capital, we approach investing with an evidence-based philosophy. In our role, we look to develop a plan that is right for each client.

Full Sail Capital, LLC is an investment adviser registered under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

Registration as an investment adviser does not imply any level of skill or training. The oral and written communications of an adviser provide you with information about which you determine to hire or retain an adviser. For more information please visit adviserinfo.sec.gov and search for our firm name.

If you have questions, give us a call. We want to help.

405.286.2100

|

FULLSAILCAPITAL.COM

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HOW I DID IT

SendaRide client Sara Parker gets help into the car from Care Partner Brock Hunter.

ideas come when you’re down and out, and flat on your back. For Laura Fleet, that time was five years ago, after spine surgery, when she was navigating both recovery and traveling to and from physical therapy sessions.

First, she scheduled a ride with an existing rideshare company. When the driver arrived, she couldn’t hobble out of her front door in time. The driver, assuming she was a no-show, canceled the ride and left.

Then, Fleet tried a taxi. That driver waited patiently for her but didn’t – perhaps legally couldn’t – step out of the car to take her arm, and she needed assistance getting from her front door to the car.

“When I was in the cab I thought, ‘Wow, this doesn’t feel right for a vulnerable person,’” Fleet said. “I can’t drive because my reflexes are compromised on pain medication, and I don’t know anything about the driver. Are they background checked?”

Finally, Fleet looked in to a wheelchair-accessible van, which proved to be too much.

“I told my husband, ‘There needs to be an app for this,’ and he said, ‘Well, create it.’ It was one of those sarcastic marriage conversations,” Fleet said, with a smile.

David Fleet’s casual comment planted a seed.

“I spent the rest of my recovery kind of white boarding what it would look like from, selfishly, my perspective as a patient and rider in the back seat,” she said.

Drawing from 20 years experience as a healthcare attorney, Fleet launched SendaRide, a door-to-door nonemergency medical transportation company in 2017. Fleet’s fleet is distinctively different from other rideshare options. The drivers (called “care partners”) undergo extensive background checks. All rides are recorded and can be broadcast live to loved ones through the app.

In addition, care partners know how to navigate the ins and outs of various health facilities, and the SOMETIMES THE BEST

Rideshare Plus Care Laura Fleet created SendaRide, which provides door-to-door medical transportation for patients, a need she encountered when she was recovering from surgery. Just five years later, her company is now serving clients in eight states.

BY EVIE KLOPP HOLZER | PHOTOS BY LOGAN WALCHER

S W EAT EQ UITY

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Left: SendaRide founder Laura Fleet talks with SendaRide employees Faith Foote and Liz Dunaway.

Below: Care Partner Brock Hunter. Drivers like Hunter take patients to and from appointments, assisting them in and out of vehicles as needed.

With an emphasis on delivering positive experiences, SendaRide has expanded from Oklahoma City and Tulsa to metropolitan areas in Texas, Florida, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky.

booking process includes a series of questions to ensure specific rider needs are met. Need someone who speaks Spanish, is COVID vaccinated, and can accommodate a service pet and an oxygen tank? No problem.

“Our drivers are not driving around town wondering when their app is going to ‘ding’ that they have a ride,” Fleet said.

“Rather, they are notified when they are best matched to a rider.

We have lots of riders that would like the same driver every day, because they establish great friendships.”

One longtime customer is PACE in Oklahoma City.

“We started using SendaRide four years ago to provide HIPPA-compliant, door-to-door transport service to our seniors,” said David Williams, manager of transportation services for PACE. “With easy booking and ride tracking through their proprietary web portal – and excellent customer service – they continue to be a great resource for us.”

With an emphasis on delivering positive experiences, SendaRide has expanded from Oklahoma City and Tulsa to metropolitan areas in Texas, Florida, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky.

“I didn’t anticipate it would become this big of a solution, but these expansions to other states were all by word of mouth – by people who have used us and moved on to another state or hospital,” Fleet said.

In addition to serving those undergoing therapy sessions or medical procedures, SendaRide’s customer base includes the elderly, Alzheimer patients, the blind, and those with dementia, Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy.

“We provide a good chain of custody, if you will,” Fleet said.

“Ninety-seven percent of our rides are booked by hospitals, health clinics and physical therapy clinics because they want to make sure the patients are able to arrive to their appointment.”

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morale-boost, offsite, mix-and-mingle, launch the product, and host the afterparty

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT crewworkspace.com

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2022 I N N OVATO R AWARDS

New ideas, new products and new ways to approach problems are what alter, advance and propel companies forward. In fact, 50 percent of the annual growth of the U.S. GDP is tied to new innovation, according to analysis by economists from the U.S. Chamber Foundation.

And that’s why 405 Business Magazine wanted to focus on the innovators working throughout Oklahoma to push our companies, products and thinking forward. Through a nomination process that netted hundreds

of nominations, the 405 Business editorial team selected the recipients of the firstever Innovator Awards, highlighting CEOs, entrepreneurs and other business leaders driving innovation in Oklahoma.

We’re proud to present these innovative leaders and their companies, and we can’t wait to see what they do next.

BY GREG HORTON AND KAYTE SPILLMAN PHOTOS BY CHARLIE NEUENSCHWANDER

2022

I N N OVATO R

AWARDS

Simply Innovative

INNOV A T O R O F T H E Y E A R

Mike Beckham

Mike Beckham co-founded Simple Modern, the largest supplier of hydration products to Amazon and Target, which will see $100 million in revenue this year. In doing so, he created a corporate culture that makes no apologies for putting generosity above profits. And if that wasn’t enough, he recently invested millions to open a manufacturing plant in Oklahoma City – solving his own supply chain issues while also helping to move more manufacturing back into the region.

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2022

I N N OVATO R

AWARDS

n 2015, Mike Beckham and a couple of his buddies wanted to start a side business to see if they could have a little success selling products online.

“We wanted to sell online and have a commitment to generosity,” he said.

“And that was about it.”

They weren’t even sure what they wanted to sell.

“We started by looking at products – and some of them would have been terrible ideas,” he said.

“Pet gates, compost bins – eventually we liked the idea of something we could make out of stainless steel because that’s hard to screw up.”

They landed on water bottles. And Simple Modern was born.

“We sold our first drinkware in March 2016,” he said. “And we had almost immediate success there.

It just started a period for us where we would launch a product, (and) it would be successful. We’d put all that money back in to buy more product.

“We were 100 percent bootstrapped. We had a couple hundred thousand of my money, and we didn’t raise outside capital. We had to be very creative, and I have this theory that one of the benefits of scarcity is that it helps make you more focused.”

Simple Modern certainly has been focused.

Fast forward just seven years: The company will hit $100 million in revenue this year, and Beckham projects growing revenue by 60-80 percent next year alone. They sold 6.5 million hydration products last year, and the company is on track to about double those sales this year to at least 12 million. Simple Modern is now the largest supplier of hydration products to both Target and Amazon, and its products are growing at a more than 100 percent rate with Walmart after launching with them earlier this year.

“More is happening in a day now than would happen in a month in the beginning,” Beckham said.

And surpassing the $100 million mark in revenue in seven years without outside capital underlines the skyrocketing, organic growth.

“It was a huge milestone to get there,” he said.

“It’s almost like a unicorn – in how rare it is getting to the scale we are at as fast as we have without outside capital. It’s very, very rare.”

GIVING MINDSET

Not having any outside capital has also allowed Beckham to grow the company exactly how he wants – which is one focused on generosity.

First, while Beckham owns more of Simple Modern than anyone else – 45 percent – he is one of 16 owners of the company who are also employees.

“We view Simple Modern through a stewardship lens,” Beckham said. “The company is not mine, even if on paper I’m the biggest owner.

This mindset permeates the entire organization, helps us think long term and hopefully be more selfless.”

Beckham intends on being pretty selfless himself. He said he is committed to giving away 98-99 percent of all earnings he personally receives from Simple Modern. Before entering the business world, but after graduating from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in finance, Beckham was the director of a campus-based Christian ministry, Cru, for eight years. He said this career in full-time ministry laid the foundation for how he views wealth and the importance of stewardship.

“Functionally, the plan is for it to all go away,” he said. “It’s a ridiculous number that I couldn’t spend in 100 lifetimes. And none of this money will bring me joy and fulfillment.”

It’s this intentionality and giving mindset that he used to build the culture at Simple Modern.

Each year, the company donates at least 10 percent of annual profits to charities, with 70 percent of those donations going to nonprofits focused on education, clean water supply, human trafficking and homelessness. The remaining 30 percent is divided among every employee — about $4,000 each — to give to the charity of their choice. In 2022 alone, Simple Modern will give more than $1 million to 45 different nonprofits in Oklahoma and around the world.

“The amount of money that the company is now worth is a really daunting challenge,” Beckham said. “There is no way I can be as good a steward on my own as I can be with a group of people with the same commitment as me.”

The culture extends to everyday business interactions as well. Recently, when meeting with a new Amazon Marketplace representative, the Simple Modern team could tell the woman was distracted.

She was from Ukraine, and her family was still in the country. And the meeting coincided with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“They were there for her as a person and seeing how they could help her,” he said. “She started to organize a relief effort, and they worked to get her a contact at the United Nations that could help her and then donated to her fund.

PHOTOS PROVIDED

Simple Modern started seven years ago, focusing on producing hydration products. Today, the company is the largest supplier of bottles like these to both Amazon and Target.

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Marykate Hall, Simple Modern culture and administrative coordinator, sits with Mike Beckham in the conference room at Simple Modern’s headquarters in Moore.

“You don’t do those types of things because you have some hidden motive to sell more stuff; you do those kinds of things to help people and because it’s the right way to treat people. When people don’t treat you in a transactional way, it stands out.”

MANUFACTURING IN OKLAHOMA

Simple Modern has manufactured all its products overseas, but the company recently announced plans – and secured a five-year lease on a 175,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in

Oklahoma City – to invest $4-$5 million to start manufacturing drinkware in Oklahoma City.

The company was slated to begin production in Oklahoma City in July 2022, and will hold a grand opening in September, with the goal of producing one million Simple Modern products in Oklahoma City in one year.

“I spent a lot of time in China and in factories,” he said. “And my sense was this is not rocket science; we can do this in America. The manufacturing sector has been hollowed out

“ You don’t do those types of things because you have some hidden motive to sell more stuff; you do those kinds of things to help people and because it’s the right way to treat people. When people don’t treat you in a transactional way, it stands out.”

— Mike Beckham, Simple Modern founder and CEO

here. We have forgotten how to make things in this country.”

Beckham said that once the factory is manufacturing at capacity, he expects to make 1,000 products an hour with one to two people involved.

He said he hopes to build the facility to employ 100-200 people making 30-40 million units a year.

“This was a rare situation where I could ask, ‘What is best for my community?’” he said. “’What is best for my company? Best of the customers? The partners?’ This new manufacturing facility was best for all of them. Everyone is going to have better outcomes because of this. It will be much better than to ship those things with the tariffs and shipping costs. I shipped 15 million pounds of air in the last year!

Not just culturally, but really financially, it could be a really great deal, as good or better-quality products to our customers at as good or better prices.”

Creating his company his way certainly left room for innovation at every turn, and Beckham said the company’s mission statement (“We exist to give generously.”) allows for the future of Simple Modern to be whatever it needs to be.

“We’ve really built the company around values, and our mission really makes us very product agnostic,” he said. “Our company values have nothing to do with water bottles. It just so happens that we sell water bottles.”

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Innovation Advocate of the Year

Amy Walton

FORMER OCAST DIRECTOR, GOVERNMENT RELATIONS AND STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

When Amy Walton, who was until recently OCAST’s director of government relations and strategic initiatives, talks, passion about pushing Oklahoma’s innovation forward just spills out.

She’s telling stories about innovative startups, tech companies moving to Oklahoma or how an entrepreneur is changing his or her industry.

“Innovation is in everything we do,” Walton said. “We are always looking for a way to work smarter not harder.

Innovation allows us to think critically and creatively about improving a process or designing something completely new that solves a problem. It gives us the opportunity to advance technologies to always be improving the way we do things.

Not only is innovation a product of something tangible that we can see and touch, it takes on a deeper meaning.”

And, while Walton just recently left, she’s quick to point all praise back to the substantial work OCAST is doing to propel innovative companies in Oklahoma forward: The governmental state agency has funded 132 startups with millions of dollars of funding deployed, creating 5,384 jobs in the past five years alone. And they boast an average return on investment of 22 to 1, meaning for every one dollar of state funding OCAST receives, it returns $22 in economic development.

Why is innovation important to the future of Oklahoma?

“Innovation allows Oklahoma to compete in the global marketplace. This brings new dollars into the state and grows the GDP.” What role does the state of Oklahoma plays in innovation growth? “The state of Oklahoma was really strategic in their vision when they thought about what they wanted to do to grow Oklahoma when they created OCAST. We are a technology-driven economic development engine for the state. Through the years, we have evolved to meet the needs of Oklahoma innovators, entrepreneurs and manufacturers.

If you think about it when OCAST was created the personal cell phone did not even exist. Now days we carry around miniature computers in our pockets. As technology has evolved, so has OCAST. We have become more nimble, focused more on developmental opportunities that are closer to market.”

Biotech Innovator of the Year

IMMY Labs During the pandemic, IMMY Labs became synonymous with COVID-19 rapid testing. But, the lab did not even exist before March 2020. Sean Bauman, IMMY president and CEO, said he saw a massive need arise for easy testing, and he knew they could be the innovative team to solve it.

“We started a company and reported our first patient result in 10 days,” he said. “Nobody starts a lab in 10 days. If you said, ‘six months,’ I’d say you’re crazy. But that’s what can happen when you have people focused single mindedly on a problem.”

He said the true innovation was in how they delivered the rapid tests, not that they were providing them.

“We didn’t invent the PCR test,” he said. “We didn’t invent Chick-fil-A. We just said we want to do COVID testing like Chick-fil-A.” Chick-fil-A truly was the model: Bauman videoed himself driving through Norman’s Chick-fil-A to see how they ran they operations. Later, he had the Norman Chick-fil-A franchisee owner come talk to his team on how to implement their practices to IMMY’s COVID testing.

Soon, IMMY Labs was running thousands of COVID tests every day.

Then, IMMY Labs pivoted again to provide vaccines. The prototype for how the lab delivered mass vaccinations was Bauman’s mom, who has mobility issues, he said.

“We looked at ‘what’s our bottleneck? How many vaccines can we give?’” he said.

The streamlined approach worked. First, they vaccinated 10. Then 100. They worked with Embassy Suites for a conference room and did 1,000. Then 5,000. Then, they administered 10,000 in a 12-hour period.

In the end, IMMY Labs administered hundreds of thousands of COVID tests and vaccines. But IMMY – which Bauman’s parents founded in 1979 – has seen record years for the last 15 years, and in 2007-08, IMMY pioneered a simple test to help determine fungal meningitis, which impacts HIV patients significantly.

“We are reducing the number of people who are dying, just because we adapted technology that already existed,” he said. “We got to see the problem and walk in their shoes. It is an incredibly rewarding thing to do.”

Innovation Advocate of the Year Finalists

Katy Boren, Oklahoma City Innovation District president and CEO Hannah Schmitt, The Treasury owner

Biotech Innovator of the Year Finalists

DNA Solutions Ascend BioVentures

2022

I N N OVATO R

AWARDS

Finance Innovator of the Year

TokenEx

Aerospace Innovator of the Year

Skydweller Skydweller is pushing unmanned, carbon neutral flight further than Oklahoma — or anyone — has ever seen. Its aircraft was the first to fly around the world using solar power, flew continuously for five days and nights, and was the first solar aircraft to break the 24-hour cycle.

And the recently secured government contracts mean the company’s funding future is solid. Skydweller established its headquarters in Oklahoma in June 2020, after purchasing the Solar Impulse 2 aircraft and its intellectual rights the previous year. And then the U.S. Navy awarded a $5 million contract to investigate Skydweller’s ability to perform maritime patrols. And the U.S. Department of Defense Innovation Unit awarded a $14 million contract to find emerging technology for the U.S. military, and that’s in addition to the $32 million raised during Series A funding, along with another $8 million in oversubscribed funding.

“While the Solar Impulse 2 aircraft, which Skydweller purchased in 2019, was record breaking in its own right, Skydweller is continuing to push the envelope of solar powered aircraft,” said Clay Pearce, Skydweller director of structural engineering and manufacturing. “We are building a pseudo satellite capable of perpetual flight – 30, 60, 90 days. Maybe even longer.

“The SI2 achieved a 5-day flight; to extend that operational window we are developing structures, hardware, software and weather prediction that are enabling fully autonomous flight in the near future. We are having to break the paradigms that are typically evident in aerospace to arrive at a fully integrated aircraft system that has a mission cycle like none ever seen before.”

TokenEx, a data protection platform providing cloud tokenization and encryption, has seen 40 percent growth year over year. Headquartered in Oklahoma City with 70 employees located throughout Oklahoma, the United Kingdom and remote workers across the world, the group recently partnered with K1 Investment Management for Series B funding.

“I saw tokenization as a simple solution to a series of complex problems businesses were running into with digital payments,” said Alex Pezold, TokenEx founder and CEO. “First, there was the security aspect of trying to minimize risk to comply with regulations enforced by the card brands. Businesses were spending a ton of time, effort, and money jumping through these compliance hoops instead of focusing on their core competencies and actually growing their businesses.”

What has been the most innovative project you’ve worked on in the last year? “I would say the most innovative project we’ve completed in the past year is the ability to secure mass data environments. Data is the new gold, or– since we’re in Oklahoma – it’s the new oil. The problem with data is that if it’s valuable, then it’s probably sensitive. The sensitivity of the data creates risk for our customers, and when they’re collecting as much sensitive data as they are, it equates to massive financial risk for them. TokenEx solves the risk problem for our customers, so their financial exposure is reduced or completely eliminated.”

Why is innovation important to the growth of business in Oklahoma?

“Well, first of all, I think it’s a huge part of our history and who we are as Oklahomans. When we first became a state, you had people with different ideas and backgrounds coming together to turn frontier settlements into modern cities virtually overnight. That’s something I don’t think we get enough credit for as a state. Ingenuity and the entrepreneurial spirit are such integral parts of our story.”

Aerospace Innovator of the Year Finalists

Finance Innovator of the Year Finalists

Vigilant Aerospace RPX Technologies

i2e Cortado Ventures

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Dining Innovator of the Year

The Social Order Dining Collective

Brain Bogert and Manny LeClercq are the founding partners of The Social Order, a dining collective that includes locally owned concepts like The Jones Assembly and Spark, as well as locally owned franchises Fuzzy’s Taco Shop and Dave’s Hot Chicken. While good food is at the forefront of much of what The Social Order does, it is their commitment to ongoing evolution and innovation in hospitality that sets them apart.

“Our company ethos is to always innovate, evolve and think of new ways to offer hospitality, new menu items, entertainment, and general ways to engage on a more personal level with our guests,” Bogert said.

The innovation goes beyond guest experience, though, because no company can offer hospitality without a great team. Bogert said the team focus has helped with retention, which is critical in a staffing shortage. The Social Order offers hourly and full-time employees PTO and 401K, a move that has helped morale and growth.

“So often, employees in our industry must work longer or harder prior to vacation to save up enough money, and then are not compensated during their vacation time,” Bogert said. “Sadly, that is just the way our industry has worked for a long time, and we wanted to turn that upside down.”

Because of their commitment to innovation, the company “experienced total systemwide revenue growth of 46 percent in 2021 versus 2020 and 12 percent growth over pre-pandemic 2019,” according to Bogert, and year-to-date 2022 is trending toward 22 percent growth and $40 million in revenues system wide.

Dining Innovator of the Year Finalists

84 Hospitality OK Cider Co.

Startup Innovator of the Year

John Habeck MOTIVE CEO

John Habeck launched Motive, an e-commerce showroom for car dealerships, in late 2021, and the startup is currently compounding revenues by an average of 57 percent monthly and has been generating free cash flow since March.

Headquartered in Oklahoma, Motive also already has expanded to Washington.

“We believe that the auto industry is a fantastic place to innovate,” Habeck said. “Across the sector, core activities and structures are threatened with obsolescence. The auto industry is experiencing a seismic shift from top to bottom, and it will undergo more change in the next 10 years than in the previous 100 years.”

Habeck said more than 80 percent of current car buyers first find the car they are interested in buying on the dealer’s website.

“Our platform is truly one of the most mission-critical applications in use across dealerships’ tech stacks,” he said.

“We want Motive to become the digital layer for dealerships of the future, providing a tightly integrated end-to-end vehicle discovery and purchase experience.”

Motive looks to upend how cars are purchased, based on how consumers habits are also rapidly changing.

“Dealers are selling new cars in a radically different manner than they have in the past,” Habeck said. “Today, most new vehicles are built to order, and few are purchased off the lot. As a result, dealers have little surplus inventory.

Habeck said Oklahoma is poised to capitalize on the need for innovative companies to transform many industries, like Motive wants to do in auto sales.

“Oklahoma entrepreneurs have a secret that the rest of the country has not yet discovered,” he said. “Businesses here have a unique combination of intrinsic advantages that other states cannot replicate: a low cost of living, a dense concentration of intelligent people and a general culture of challenging the status quo. So, if your goal is to build a business juggernaut, Oklahoma is the place to do it.”

Startup Innovator of the Year Finalists

Steve Adams, Bison Underground AJ Rosenthal, General Genomics

Transportation, Logistics and Supply Chain Innovator of the Year

Spiers New Technologies Dirk Spiers, Spiers New Technologies founder, created the company at the end of 2014 because he knew the need to repair, reuse and recycle battery packs for use in hybrid and electric vehicles was going to exponentially increase in the years to come.

He was right – and the growth of Spiers New Technologies is proof: The company has grown to ten times its 2014 size. Spiers started with an empty warehouse and less than 30,000 square feet in Oklahoma City and has grown into more than 830,000 square feet in Oklahoma, across the United States and Europe. Rapid expansion is planned, with a new facility opening soon in Las Vegas.

The company is Oklahoma grown when it didn’t have to be. Spiers is originally from the Nertherlands, but his director of business development — Tyler Helps — started as an intern the during the company’s infancy, through a program with OCAST. Starting with just a handful of people like Helps, the company now employs almost 500 people.

“When we first started, everyone thought we were crazy,” Helps said. “What we were doing, no one had heard of. We had to go to the customers and go knock on their door. And today, it is reversed. Everyone is coming to us.”

And he means everyone. The company services all the major car manufacturers, and forecasts considerable growth in future years as the automotive industry remakes itself to focus on electric cars.

“I don’t think we’ve ever really even seen such a change in mobility since the Model T came out,” Helps said. “Dirk saw the writing on the wall. He saw the future clearer than most people. Vehicles will become electric. This is a problem that had to be addressed. And he did.”

Transportation, Logistics and Supply Chain Innovator of the Year Finalists

US Fleet Tracking Embark OKC

2022

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AWARDS

Manufacturing Innovator of the Year

Frontier Electronic Systems The road to Mars goes through Oklahoma: Frontier Electronic Systems started in 1973 because an OSU professor, Dr. Edward Shreve, and Peggy Shreve wanted to keep newly graduated engineers in the state, and its focus on advanced technology led them to work on complex space flight and defense programs.

“Frontier manufactures electronic hardware that is currently flying in space, and will be flying on the Artemis missions,” said Brenda Rolls, Frontier Electronic Systems president and CEO. “We 3-D print many different manufacturing fixtures and models to assist with complex assembly of products such as the hand controllers and control panels the Orion astronauts will use to pilot and operate the spacecraft.”

If space travel wasn’t enough, Frontier Electronic Systems has seen a 60 percent increase in revenue in the past two years and a business backlog of more than 200 percent during the same time.

“Innovation has been a fundamental element in the company’s longevity and success, and we have seen the transforming impact of technology advances in our engineering and manufacturing capabilities,” Rolls said. “FES was founded as an engineering company with the intent of building an enterprise with innovation at its core, and the ability to manufacture our designs or those of our customers was always part of the founders’ vision.”

“Frontier uses innovation to drive design, development, characterization, and test simulations prior to physical build of products, yielding a robust movement from concept to production.”

Manufacturer of the Year Finalists

Kratos Defense and Security Solutions AVPro Inc.

CIO Innovator of the Year

Mike Potter

COMPSOURCE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY CIO AND VP OF STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT Mike Potter, CompSource Mutual Insurance Company chief information officer, is completely reinventing what IT looks like for the company, which has been around since 1933.

“In early 2023, we’ll deploy what has been a multi-year, multipronged digital transformation strategy that will further enhance those capabilities and meet customer needs in ways we never have before,” Potter said. “More than 150 employees and contractors are contributing to this multi-year project, which will completely

transform our organization’s capabilities and perception in the market.”

Potter said the mutual insurance industry has seen an unparalleled level of competition since about 2015, and, despite the challenges, CompSource has maintained market share at or near 30 percent in recent years and exceeded target revenue by $6 million last year.

Potter is quick to attribute this success to the collective team, but he also said it is because of the innovative solutions IT has provided.

“We’ve implemented incremental IT enhancements throughout the past few years,” he said. “We’ve seen a consistent pattern of year-over-year growth and, despite numerous challenges, 2021 proved to be especially successful.”

How do you define innovation? Innovation driven from the challenge of significantly growing a company is typically disruptive and includes the application of technology enablers. It requires asking the hard questions and isn’t afraid to turn business on its head and go beyond the point of just improving a process to reach a level of innovation otherwise unattainable. It also demands that we are constant students, surveying leadingedge technologies and developing technology roadmaps for our future.

What has been the most innovative project you’ve worked on in the last year? Undoubtedly, leading the organization through a comprehensive digital transformation. This project has challenged me and the leaders I’m surrounded by,

unlike anything else in my career. I’m at an inspiring place right now. Where I sit today is a bit like watching the confluence of rivers.

I can see where we were. I can see where our digital transformation is headed, and just ahead, I see where those merge into a massive force. It’s thrilling and genuinely the opportunity that led me to this organization in the first place.

CIO Innovator of the Year Finalists

Jason Baffrey, OCAST public information officer Chris Shilling, Chickasaw Nation Department of Commerce chief technology officer

2022

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AWARDS

Real Estate Innovator of the Year

The First National Building

Gary Brooks remembers never paying much attention to The First National Center until September 2015. The building was in receivership, and vast swaths of the nearly one-block complex were badly in need of repair.

“I just felt like the time was right,” Brooks, a partner in The National, said. “At the same time, it takes thousands of people to make a project of this scale work, and dozens of leaders – from the mayor to the lenders – to step out in front and take the risk with you.”

Those risks have led to the complete renovation of the nearly one-million-squarefoot facility, transforming it into a beautiful complex of hotel, condominiums, dining and retail. For Brooks, the innovation is mostly located in engineers and designers who can take a 90-plus-year-old building and turn

it into a modern, beautiful entertainment, dining and lodging project that keeps most of the building’s physical history – architecture, art, stonework, etc. – intact while also providing a high-quality, thoroughly modern guest experience.

“We looked at 106 case studies from around the country – and visited many of them – to cull the best ideas for projects like this,” Brooks said. “The combination of food and beverage, hotel, and retail is very common, and it’s a perfect use for beautiful, historic buildings.”

Real Estate Innovator of the Year Finalists

Chisholm Creek Wheeler Home

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Healthcare Innovator of the Year

Martin Bionics

Education Innovator of the Year

Robert Palmer

ADVANCED RADAR RESEARCH CENTER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Robert Palmer and some colleagues established the Advanced Radar Research Center in 2005, and he’s led it ever since. Now, the center is the largest academic radar program in the nation, with about 100 employees expending about $10 million a year working to advance radar science. He’s expecting significant growth too: Palmer expects the center to grow 100-200 percent in the next 2-3 years.

“Our niche in the academic radar community is building complete/ fielded radar systems, including hardware, software and applications,” he said. “Recently, we have focused on phased array radars, which are the most sophisticated radars used for defense applications and more recently by the weather community.”

Palmer said the innovation driving the center is drawing faculty from across the country and students from all over the world.

“There is no other organization like the ARRC in the country,” he said.

“We are academic, but have a start-up feel and culture. Our members (faculty, staff, and students) are the best in the world, and we have put OU on the map regarding innovations in radar. Customers now come to us for solutions.

How does your innovation strategy help drive your growth? As a university research center, we thrive on innovation. Without it, we cannot survive, and honestly, shouldn’t survive.

What role does innovation play in the ARRC? OU and ARRC are now known as the top academic radar program in the country, pushing innovation forward for the betterment of science, the defense industry and the general public.

Education Innovator of the Year Finalists

Emily Gideon, Eastern Oklahoma County Technology Center director of educational services J. Taylor Tribble, EduSkills president

With the creation of Martin Bionics Socket-less Socket technology, the company reinvented the way prosthetics fit for amputees. And the market has reacted: Martin Bionics has seen record sales, month over month, for the last nine months.

In fact, Martin Bionics is up 800 percent in sales compared to last year’s sales, with similar growth numbers projected moving forward.

“It’s not about just replacing a limb and walking again, but rather is about changing quality of life for amputees, so they can live life to the fullest,” said Jay Martin, Martin Bionics founder and president. “Amputees often struggle with discomfort, and negatively impacted quality of life from conventional rigid sockets. Our Socket-less Socket technology eliminates so many of the challenges with wearing a conventional socket, and allows them to live life again, doing things that were long lost with life in a conventional socket.”

Innovation isn’t new to Martin. From 2012-2015, Martin worked with NASA to create iron-man-like exoskeleton suits for space and military applications.

“Since then we’ve continued to innovate and have created a paradigm shift in how prosthetics can be fit — similar to sneakers,” he said. “Martin Bionics is just at the beginning compared to where we will go. We’ll continue to advance our technology and will be introducing tech that will go far beyond where we are today. Martin Bionics will remain as a forefront leader in prosthetic innovations.”

Healthcare Innovator of the Year Finalists

Hearts for Hearing Mercy Virtual Care

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Enterprise Innovator of the Year

Kristian Olivero

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, OKLAHOMA CITY AIR LOGISTICS COMPLEX Kristian Olivero, Oklahoma City Air Logistics Technical Director, leads a team of scientists, engineers and others at Tinker Air Force Base, meaning his current authorized manpower is 11,135 employees.

His team handles maintenance, overhaul and repair of 228 aircraft, 363 engines and 34,000 components each year. Last year alone, the complex had 9.8 million production hours and saw revenues north of $3.5 billion, reflecting revenue growth of about 8 percent over the year before.

“We are responsible for 75 years of platforms that range from 1950s era B-52 to our newest KC-46 tanker,” Olivero said. “Innovation is a continuous theme as we sustain legacy platforms that find creative new ways to break, and our modern fleets that leverage modern technology, as we continuously modernize the shop floor to optimize throughput, quality, safety and cost effectiveness.”

How do you define innovation? “Innovation is hard work. Yes, it involves creativity and good ideas — a better way of doing business, a new process or a new technology. But … you have to try all the bad ideas to confirm they are the bad ideas. You have to do prototypes and iterations to cover the chasm between a great lab test and safe enough and reliable enough that our airmen can depend on it to protect their lives and ours. You have to find funding for something that never needed funding before. … Innovation is turning 100 ‘Nos’ into ‘YES.’” What has been the most innovative project you’ve worked on in the last year? “Certainly, we get a lot of recognition for advanced manufacturing — the benefits of being able to fabricate parts quickly is profound and we are printing thousands of parts from tooling and fixtures to those flying on United States Air Force weapon systems. The work we are doing with a number of government, industry and academic partners to move this capability into airworthy applications is hard work but will have significant impact on readiness.”

Why is innovation important to the future of OC-ALC? “The why is pretty easy — having an advanced, effective and cost-effective Air Force is critical to our nation’s security. One thing that is really driving us into the future is expanding our agility and effectiveness through collaborative partnerships. For years, the barbed wire fence around Tinker Air Force Base has not only provided physical security but has been an invisible barrier to the transfer of ideas. Today we are proud of partnerships with Oklahoma universities, industry and other government organizations that allow the team to quickly crowdsource answers to our toughest problems.”

Hospitality Innovator of the Year

Killer Squid Hospitality J. Mays and Chris Kana opened Cafe 7 in 2008, and two years later they welcomed Stephanie Morrical (now Miller) to the team. In 2022, they’ve taken the name Killer Squid Hospitality, and the moniker could not be more appropriate for Mays and Kana, both OSU HRAD alum. Mays grew up in a restaurant family, but hospitality is central to all the partners, all of whom are minority partners in Tulsa concepts, too. Across the company this year, the concepts are seeing growth rates of 9 to 22 percent, thanks in part to excellent service, delicious food and creative bar programs.

The team shares a love for welcoming (and feeding) people, and it shows up in their concepts. Cafe 7 was a capstone project that turned into a real-world success story because it was designed to put excellent, affordable food in front of people, especially families, for whom dining out can be an expensive indulgence. They’ve had hits and misses, but The Hamilton has been a runaway success, and Mays gets the credit for convincing his team that Okie-centric, upscale-casual dining could work on the backside of a mall.

“Innovation for us is not settling until we feel like we have found the absolute best way to do anything,” Mays said. “Take our cocktail list at The Hamilton for example – we opened with certain spirits, vermouths and wines, and since then we have constantly been tinkering and tweaking these things to create what we feel is the best representation of what we are offering.”

Dado’s Pizza, a Harlem-based concept, is next. Kana’s college friend started the business, and he’s partnering with Killer Squid to open a second location in OKC. The concept will include a device that converts standard water into NYC water, because – per Mays – “NYC water does something magical to dough.”

Enterprise Innovator of the Year Finalists

Tom Lerum, Continental Resources corporate planning and energy innovations manager Elliot Chambers, Oklahoma Secretary of the Commissioners of the Land Office

Hospitality Innovator of the Year Finalists

Cathy Cummings Coury Hospitality

2022

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AWARDS

Energy Innovator of the Year

EightTwenty EightTwenty started as an electrical contractor in 2017. In 2021, the company pivoted to solar energy and everything took off: EightTwenty’s revenue grew five times from 2020 to 2021, and the company expanded from 10 employees to 59, now supporting offices in Louisville, Kentucky, northwest Arkansas and Dallas.

“As an energy state, we knew solar can be a big part of our future,” said Tony Cupucille, EightTwenty CEO and co-founder. “Our passion is to serve residential and commercial customers in Oklahoma and surrounding states to empower them to live solar.”

Talent and Workforce Innovator of the Year

NewView Oklahoma The innovation at NewView Oklahoma, the largest employer of blind and low-vision individuals in Oklahoma providing both rehabilitation services and employment to people with vision loss, is fueling some rapid growth: Since 2020, requests for NewView Oklahoma’s services have increased by 28 percent.

And the increase in services is matched by an increase in revenue from $32.9 million in 2020 to $39.9 million in 2021 through diversifying revenue streams, pivoting to evolve services to better meet community needs and increased donations.

“We’ve taken the position that we need to be early adopters and adapters,” said Lauren Branch, NewView Oklahoma president and CEO. “NVO is consistently evaluating the future and casting a vision for what is next, and they have adopted a culture that focuses on creative problem solving. At NewView, nothing is impossible, but getting where you are trying to go might require some creativity.”

Providing an accessible workplace, where approximately half of all employees are living with a disability of some sort, requires innovation: Like the pressure buzzes on firehoses the company manufactures. In 2000, NewView earned a contract with the U.S. Forest Service, and they are still the sole provider of fire hoses today. NewView worked with the manufacturer to add an auditory notification that actually proved to be more accurate for testing than the traditional visual reading had been.

“The manufacturer of that device now incorporates the auditory notification for all their customers,” she said. “Our adaptations have created ‘Aha!’ moments that have influenced our industry through systems that can be replicated and implemented elsewhere.”

Talent and Workforce Innovator of the Year Finalists

Francis Tuttle Technology Center Independent Shopkeepers Association 50

Why is innovation important to the growth of business in Oklahoma?

Oklahoma cannot rest on what we have done in the past - we must build upon it. With a wonderful heritage in energy, we need to be seen as a proponent of any and all types of energy that can attract the best and brightest minds in the country.

What do we not know about innovation in Oklahoma? When we started, solar adoption was .09% in a state with the sixth most sunlight.

That said, the openness and bipartisan adoption of technology that makes sense is rapidly adopted. We have a very innovative state made up of innovative people. People always think starting a solar company in Oklahoma is a hard endeavor that must have tremendous resistance. It is, in fact, just the opposite. It has been filled with encouragement of customers, partners, legislators and employees that want dynamic solutions that will fuel our state and its residents for decades into the future!

Energy Innovator of the Year Finalists

Bison Underground DEX Pump

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Technology Innovator of the Year

Hough Ear Institute Hough Ear Institute, a non-profit research institute with 15 full-time employees from all over the world who now call Oklahoma home, boasts an impressive five commercialization partners, including two international pharmaceutical companies, that are helping bring the research institute’s technology and innovation to clinic.

“Between hearing loss, tinnitus, and now traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases, potential global revenues are on the order of several billions of dollars for these indications, especially if any combination of these innovations were to make it to market,” said Matt West, Hough Ear Institute chief operating officer.

And while a lot is on the horizon for Hough, the research institute has been responsible for significant innovation already: Hough played a key role in the design of the modern cochlear implant, which has restored hearing function to more than 400,000 people with the most severe hearing loss worldwide. And now, Hough has since pivoted from prosthetic hearing devices to focus on pharmacologic solutions to hearing health.

How do you define innovation? “New ideas with legs. I love to see good ideas go places, especially when they are translated and realized in ways that enhance our quality of life.”

How does your innovation strategy help drive your growth? “Our goal is to have sufficient foresight and flexibility to be responsive to discovery rather than reactive. This requires having good people and infrastructure in place and having a willingness to collaborate in areas where our institutional knowledge has not yet caught up with our aspirations. There’s always risk incumbent in that kind of pursuit, but for us, it keeps us stepping out into innovative space. As a non-profit, we must partner with commercial entities to help bring our ideas to market.

This inherently requires letting the innovations that we have nurtured along the way leave the nest to fly on their own, so we try to operate in simultaneous modes of sowing and harvesting. Sometimes this requires us to build the bridge beneath us as we go, but the goal is to do that from a responsible position of conceptual strength as often as possible, either through good planning or good collaborative relationships.”

Technology Innovator of the Year Finalists

Utopia Plastix Lumata Health

S P EC I A L P R O M OT I O N A L S ECT I O N

Financial Frontrunners Leading the race, ahead of the competition and far in front of the rest of the field—these are the traits that define a frontrunner. The metro area is fortunate to host several financial institutions that are frontrunners in their field. In this section, we highlight select frontrunners and the work they’re doing to stay on the forefront of financial services.

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P R O M OT I O N

FINANCIAL FRONTRUNNERS

Adaptation Financial “I DEVELOPED A SIMPLE PHILOSOPHY

– ‘The situation is the boss,’” said Founder and CEO Alan P. Niemann.

There are a plethora of financial service companies, and with multiple insurance and investment options to choose from, one might feel they are missing out on something better. Adaptation Financial, Inc. specializes in catering to individual investors with forty employees in six offices across three states.

Adaptation Financial, Inc is an Oklahomabased Hybrid Independent Registered Investment Advisory firm that manages over $750M of client assets helping all ages, incomes, genders, and interests with their financial future.

“Helping clients adapt in an ever-changing world is more than a catchy phrase to us,” said Niemann. “I’ve been helping my clients adapt for 38 plus years, and with all the continued economic change today, it is more important than ever that financial plans adapt along with the life changes in our client’s journey. This expansion is imperative to continuing to serve our clients and community.”

Recently, CFO Kacey Butcher was selected to be a member of the Forbes Finance Council. “Members are respected leaders who are selected for the council based on the depth and diversity of experience in the financial services industry,” according to Forbes.

“I am excited to have been selected as a Forbes Finance Council member and look forward to connecting with other industry professionals,” says Kacey Butcher. “As we continue to expand through mergers and acquisitions, as well as through recruiting efforts targeted towards next gen talent, this forum will be a great asset for future growth opportunities within the financial services and wealth planning industry.”

Adaptation Financial, Inc. offers clients an open architecture. This means the firm can offer products from multiple companies without advisor incentives to place one product over another. Advisors also strive to form personal relationships with clients rather than viewing them as “another investor.” Clients will feel confident in their choices while watching their assets grow, securing their future, and building their legacy.

Securities offered through Registered Representatives of Cambridge Investment Research Inc., a broker-dealer, member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor. Financial planning services through Adaptation Financial Advisors, Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor. Cambridge and Adaptation Financial Advisors are not affiliated.

405.475.7817 700 CEDAR LAKE BOULEVARD OKLAHOMA CITY, OK 73114 INFO@ADAPTFA.COM ADAPTFA.COM 53

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FINANCIAL FRONTRUNNERS

Legacy Financial Advisors JOHN SKURKEY, FOUNDER AND CEO OF

Legacy Financial Advisors LLC, said there is something deeply satisfying about helping a family or small business craft a financial plan.

“Seeing a client come in with uncertainty and leave with the assurance that they have a plan for the future, that will take care of them for generations to come, is everything to us,” he said.

Skurkey brings more than 30 years of experience to his independent wealth management firm that specializes in working with small business owners, as well as individuals, families and those nearing retirement. In fact, the husband-wife team of John and Jacquelyn and their skilled staff excel at understanding clients’ planning needs regardless of the stage they are in.

“As a testament to John’s commitment, knowledge and passion for serving our clients, he holds the highest professional licenses and designations in the industry: the CFP® Certified Financial Planner, AEP Accredited Estate Planner, CLU Chartered Life Underwriter, ChFC Chartered Financial Consultant and MSFS Master of Science in Financial Services, as well as SEC Series 6, 7, 63 and 65 Licenses,” said Jacquelyn Skurkey.

The diversity of Legacy members’ ages is directly beneficial to solving the needs of multi-generational businesses and families, and allows the team to specialize in estate planning, business succession planning, asset management and retirement planning.

“Our family clients find that we serve many of their needs above and beyond what many would consider typical financial planning. We take a multigenerational approach that looks at the big picture of our clients and families,” Skurkey said. “Helping our clients discover and prioritize what is most important to them now and in the future is our primary goal.”

Legacy is a small firm, which allows more flexibility with their clients, giving them full access to the team. “It’s as easy as picking up the phone,” Skurkey said. The approach has led to rapid growth, even as they build relationships across generations.

In a field that tends to be dominated with shortsighted ups and downs, Legacy Financial Advisers brings stability with holistic plans and big-picture strategies. Part of that strategy is a “quarterback” approach to financial planning that takes advantage 54

of John Skurkey’s lifetime of experience, education and network of relationships, including working directly with other experts as needed to help clients have a better understanding and a clearer picture of the decisions they are making and how that is affecting their wealth.

Clients appreciate the values that Skurkey and his team bring to the task of financial planning. “We understand that all clients are important, and deserve emotional stability and well-being when it comes to their financial needs,” he said.

The passion that drives the Legacy team comes from adherence to their core values: Integrity, Stability, Knowledge and Compassion. Seeing that commitment puts clients at ease.

“Our loyal clients know they have an experienced team with over 30 years of access to industry professionals that are working together on their behalf,” Skurkey said. “This experience and our ability to communicate clearly allows us to bridge the gap and help our clients with all aspects of their planning needs.”

Securities and advisory services offered through Centaurus Financial, Inc. a registered broker/dealer, a member of FINRA and SIPC and a registered investment advisor Legacy Financial Advisors, LLC. And Centaurus Financial, Inc. are not affiliated companies.

Supervisory Branch Address 2300 E. Katella Ave., Ste 200, Anaheim, CA 02806

JOHN V. SKURKEY, CFP®, MSFS, CLU, CHFC ACCREDITED ESTATE PLANNER LEGACY FINANCIAL ADVISORS 405.470.9190 10005 N MAY AVE. OKLAHOMA CITY, OK 73120 LEGACYADVISORSOK.COM

P R O M OT I O N

FINANCIAL FRONTRUNNERS

Valliance Bank A FOCUS ON RELATIONSHIP BANKING IS

what sets Valliance Bank apart. It’s a principle by which Valliance operates, with a focus on understanding customers’ goals and objectives to drive customer satisfaction. Valliance believes in bringing the bank to you, offering personal, business and private banking solutions for clients across multiple locations in Oklahoma and Texas.

“We focus on making each client’s experience the best possible by providing tailored solutions to meet their specific needs,” said Vice President Lindsay Clark. “We strategize with them to develop a plan to fulfill the vision for their business.”

Valliance Bank was established in Oklahoma City in 2004 as a financial partner to business owners and executives interested in customized solutions to their banking needs. The bank has grown to now include locations in Norman, Okla. and Fort Worth and McKinney, Texas - all chartered to focus specifically on the needs of their local customers.

“We are a local, community bank,” said Samantha Robertson, assistant vice president and commercial lender. “That’s important, because we respond in a way that others simply cannot, as well as give back to the communities in which we serve. We don’t focus on transactions; we focus on relationships.”

Valliance has assembled a team of friendly, knowledgeable bankers who are responsive and willing to do whatever it takes to satisfy customers’ needs every day.

“We get financial obstacles out of our clients’ way, so they can spend time building their business,” Jennifer Hamer, senior vice president and client relationship manager said.

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Racing to Restore

LOGAN WALCHER

Chip Fudge might have a car collection worth millions today, but he bought his first car at 16 with a friend for $75. p.58

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Chip’s Classics Chip Fudge, chairman of Claims Management Resources, has collected cars since he was a kid. Now, he has a car collection worth millions and a full-blown passion to save and restore what others discard.

BY KRISTEN GRACE PHOTOS BY LOGAN WALCHER

Chip Fudge’s earliest memory is his father giving him a model car with a remote control at Christmas. They built it together, igniting his love of cars and putting them together. A few years later, he would attend Grand Prix races with his stepfather, photographer Jack Fudge, watching the races from atop his shoulders.

He acquired a motorcycle at 13 to assist him at his first job – a paper route. At 16, he and his best friend bought a 1958 Chevrolet for $75. After getting it running, they sold it for $250. That excitement, and his friend, are still with him to this day.

OKLAHOMA CITY ENTREPRENEUR

Above: Chip Fudge stands in front of his car collection.

Left: Several cars from the million-dollar collection.

In a throwaway culture, Chip Fudge lives out the virtue of restoration of old things, not only as a hobby, but as a lifestyle.

“That was just the beginning of my hobby,” he said. “Now I see cars as works of art.”

Currently possessing more than 30 cars and six motorcycles in his collection, Chip can tell you a dozen stories where he has lost money on buying and restoring antique cars. He’ll also tell you about the first time he sold one of his cars for more than a million: Three years ago, a 1970 Lamborghini Miura.

In a throwaway culture, Chip Fudge lives out the virtue of restoration of old things, not only as a hobby, but as a lifestyle. The Fudge family has been in the collection agency business since 1957, but Chip would rather talk with you about the things he is making beautiful and useful again. He loves saving older properties almost as much as he loves restoring old cars and motorcycles.

“There is some psychological reason why I do these things, and it extends not only to cars and motorcycles but to real estate and even furniture,” he said.

He credits his love of finding old, well-built, well-designed items to his grandmother, who took him and his sister antiquing in Holdenville during childhood summers.

Chip speaks of buying Dead People’s Stuff, an architectural antiques store at 1900 Linwood.

“My son and daughter own it now,” he said. “It came f illed with doors, toilets, stained glass windows and mantels. They save and refurbish things.

We live in a world of throwaway stuff and limited resources. New objects are missing the patina of history. If we can repurpose something in a cool way, we have an obligation to do so.”

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Why is innovation important to the growth of business in Oklahoma?

Katy Boren

Elizabeth Larios

Elaine Hamm

OK LA HOMA C I TY I NNOVAT ION D IST RICT PR ESI DENT AN D CE O

THE ALLIANCE FOR ECONOMIC D E V E LO P M E N T O F O K L A H O M A C I T Y P R OJ E C T M A N AG E R

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There is a proven link between innovation, entrepreneurship and regional economic outcomes. Innovation, R&D expenditures, investments in technology and the development of a qualified workforce are premises for ensuring competitiveness, progress and the diversification of our city’s economy, resulting in sustainable economic growth.

The desire and ability to be open minded to new ideas is essential for us to be a top state. The key to innovation in Oklahoma is innovators. We need to grow them, encourage them and even recruit them. Business growth will follow innovators. Business leaders do not have to be innovators themselves, but they do have to have the ability to listen and adopt new ideas from their employees. Oklahoma leaders must be open to collaboration with those who challenge the status quo and find ways to innovate processes together. The future Tesla of the world will not need to be recruited to come to Oklahoma, but it can be birthed from Oklahoma. Homegrown innovators creating thriving businesses should be our goal.

The only way Oklahoma can progress and grow economically and socially is through innovation. Innovation not only results in new inventions and technologies that we all benefit from, but innovation also has the power to be transformative to human development too. Innovation is born from a need to solve a problem and from the frustration from the status quo. And, something I have learned as a scientist and entrepreneur, once you learn how to solve a problem, you learn how to solve other problems — and that is when really exciting and changemaking momentum can build. Upskilling Oklahomans through innovation strengthens our state and Oklahoma’s role in the future.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY LILLIAN MEADOR

Three business leaders working to drive change and innovation in Oklahoma discuss why innovation is key to future economic growth in Oklahoma.

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Republican National Committee opens Hispanic Community Center The Republican National Committee recently opened a Hispanic Community Center at 305 S.W. 25th St. to serve as a community gathering space and event space. The RNC has opened more than 30 across the country, and this center is the first one in Oklahoma.

Owner Angela Muir with the staff of Boom Town Creamery.

Boom Town Creamery now open PHOTOS BY SHEA ALAN

Boom Town Creamery opened this summer, naming itself after the Sam Anderson book about Oklahoma, “Boomtown.”

Owner Angela Muir graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and worked during the 2000s creating custom wedding gowns and an eco-friendly accessories line. In 2017, she opened Lilo’s Shaved Ice in Kansas City, Mo., selling it in 2020 when she moved to Oklahoma City.

Estela Hernandez, field director for Sen. James Lankford, addresses the audience at the Hispanic Community Center grand opening. Hernandez is also a commissioner on the Oklahoma Commission on the Status of Women.

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Owner Angela Muir inside Boom Town Creamery.

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OKC Black Chamber and Kindred Spirits host 405 Business Issue Release party PHOTOS BY RAYLEE LEWIS

The OKC Black Chamber of Commerce and Kindred Spirits co-hosted an issue release party to celebrate the June/July issue of 405 Business magazine, featuring Black-owned business leaders and discussing the trials and triumphs of Black-owned businesses in Oklahoma City.

Stephen Nelson and Dr. Quintin Hughes at the event. The magazine featured Hughes on the cover for his work with the Northeast OKC Renaissance Board and featured Nelson’s catering and event business as well.

Kindred Spirits bartender Kaci Craft pours a drink during the event.

Staci Nelson with Chante’ Gilmore and Maggie Ann Green.

Sharina Perry, Utopia Plastix founder, with her signed copy of the magazine.

Maya Burleson, Rohoni Candle Club owner, with J.D. Baker, Cortado Ventures Platform Manager and 405 Business contributor.

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Harvard’s Harding Some of the highlights? Harding is one of three Oklahomans ever named to World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders.

He served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force, serving in Kabul, and he’s co-founded and served in leadership positions with several oil companies and consulting firms. And most recently? He just completed the Harvard Business School Executive Education’s Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century Program.

Above: Nathaniel Harding’s office is filled with mementos from his three kids as well as gifts from his time on various community boards, like the student art he received while chairman of the John Rex Elementary School board.

Far left: Hardhats and shovels from groundbreaking ceremonies from MAPS projects. Harding was on the MAPS III board for 12 years, including serving as chairman for the Oklahoma City Streetcar.

Left: A map of central and eastern Oklahoma color-coded oil fields. The map, a nod to Harding’s longtime involvement with Oklahoma’s oil and gas industry, became a successful sun-blocker and Zoom background for Harding as the map sits in front of his large office window overlooking the Bricktown canal.

CHARLIE NEUENSCHWANDER

Cortado Ventures managing partner, launched the rapidly growing venture capital fund in May 2020, funding entrepreneurs who have a focus on innovation in Oklahoma.

The firm set up shop overlooking the Bricktown canal, and his office is filled with reminders of his career – which is only 20 years old but is crammed-packed with enough accomplishments for three lifetimes.

NAT HA NIE L HA RDING,