February/March 2022

SIMPLE MODERN’S MIKE BECKHAM GENERAL GENOMICS SOCIAL ORDER’S BRIAN BOGERT

LEADERS OF BILLIONDOLLAR COMPANIES WITH OKC ROOTS SHARE HOW TO BE A UNICORN TOO.

UNICORNS OF OK C

T H E O N E . T H E O N LY.

A LEGACY OF FINE FURNITURE FOR 63 YEARS

Keven Calonkey Carl Professional Member ASID NCIDQ Certified

Est. 1958 • 109 East Main • Norman • 405.321.1818 • MisterRobert.com •

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

INVESTMENT CRITERIA

It’s more than capital. We leverage our team’s deep experience as leaders and innovators to position our portfolio companies for accelerated growth.

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

OKLAHOMA FOCUSED

Companies operating in sectors that are a natural fit for the Midcontinent

B2B TECH Companies with disruptive technologies and B2B strategies

SECTOR FOCUSED Insurtech, Biotech, Aerospace, Fintech, Energy Tech, Ag Tech

GROWTH MINDED Young companies with a desire to grow fast

CORTADO.VENTURES

CAPITAL EFFICIENT

Companies that leverage tech to scale quickly

405.698.1748 | INVESTORS@CORTADO.VENTURES | 12 E CALIFORNIA AVE OKLAHOMA CITY, OK 73104

Features

F E B / M A R 2 02 2

32

44

Unicorns of OKC

Bioinformatic Mavericks

Larry Nichols, Devon Energy chairman emeritus, discusses his role in the $27.7 billion company—plus views from several other business giants in the OKC community.

The biotech entrepreneurs behind General Genomics exemplify how Oklahoma City has become a biotech hub.

Departments

F E B / M A R 2 02 2

START UP 14 Insight Nominee’s Matt Stansberry uses numbers to prove purpose-led business is worth it.

16 My Daily Media Diet with Tango PR’s Brenda and Jorge Hernández.

18 Ask the Mentor Why a business coach can propel you forward.

20 The Future of …

OKC’s districts, with commentary from city and district leaders.

SW EAT E QU ITY

16

26 Small Business Brian Bogert’s Social Order empire.

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28 Giving Back Ranya Forgotson’s Curbside Chronicle and its expansions.

30 How I Did It Roam Coffee Company brews the only FDA-approved cold brew in the state.

E X IT STRATE GY 58 Downtime Randy Kamp has cycled thousands of miles for almost 50 years.

60 On Topic Where do you go for innovative or inspirational business ideas in Oklahoma City?

62 Linked In Networking events across the 405.

64 Out of Office Simple Modern’s Mike Beckham.

Volume 1 Issue 2

On the Cover Scott Rollins Photo by Charlie Neuenschwander

28 30

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LEASE 405.843.6656 MILLERARCH.COM

FINANCE

F E B R U A RY/M A R C H 202 2

FOUNDING ADVERTISERS We would like to thank the below metro businesses who help make 405 Business possible.

VOLUME 1 • NUMBER 2

PRESIDENT & CEO

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Kayte Spillman

kayte@405business.com ART DIRECTOR

• Airosurf Communications • Contemporary Endodontics of Oklahoma • Cox Business • Crew Workspace • Heartland Payment Systems • Heritage Hall School • Miller • Mister Robert • NvYA Technology • Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) • Sandler Training • Standley Systems • The Simon Group with Sage Sotheby’s Didn’t make the list? Don’t worry, we will continue to print the names of our Founding Advertisers and Premium Subscribers in every issue during our inaugural year.

For more information about becoming a Founding Advertiser or promoting your company in 405 Business, contact Vanda Holland at 405.308.2733 or vanda@405business.com

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Volume 1 / Number 2, 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. Periodicals postage paid at Oklahoma City, OK and additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to 405 Magazine, P.O. Box 16765, North Hollywood, CA 91615-6765.

CORTADO VENTURES SOARS TO LARGEST VENTURE CAPITAL SEED FUND IN OKLAHOMA HISTORY; PARTNERS TO BRING VENTURE STUDIO TO OKLAHOMA

C

ortado Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in ambitious, growth-driven companies, now runs the largest venture capital seed fund in Oklahoma history.

Cortado Ventures is helping to define a new generation of economic prosperity for Oklahoma. The fund has raised more than $20 million, and invested in more than 20 companies mostly in Oklahoma. Today these companies represent more than $300 million in enterprise value.

“Last year, these companies alone created 66 new technology jobs in Oklahoma,” said Nathaniel Harding, Cortado Ventures managing partner. “These are hightech jobs that may have never existed before in sectors where Oklahoma has the right stuff already for these sectors to continue to grow.”

Cortado Ventures’ team is made up of entrepreneurs and CEOs from many of Oklahoma’s most successful industry sectors. And the team leverages this deep experience as leaders and innovators to position the company’s portfolio for accelerated growth.

Cortado annual meeting, held December 2021

“We focus on really early-stage companies and those sectors that have strengths in Oklahoma, and that gives our fund a competitive edge,” Harding said. “We are so fortunate to have a transformative and unique impact that is going to help define Oklahoma’s success story for generations.”

In fact, Cortado Ventures is now partnering with an outside group to bring Oklahoma’s first-ever venture studio. Announcing the launch of 19days, a problemobsessed venture studio with an inaugural $10MM fund, 19days, in partnership with Gitwit, a digital innovation agency, plans to build and launch six business-to-business (B2B) tech ventures in Oklahoma.

“We are truly excited to announce this venture studio partnership,” Harding said. “This studio will bring exponentially more innovative companies, opportunities for entrepreneurs, and benefit to our investors and the sectors we invest in. This is a gamechanger for Oklahoma and new businesses working to grow in the state.”

P RO M OT IO N

NATHANIEL HARDING

Managing Partner, Cortado Ventures

Q&A WITH CORTADO VENTURES MANAGING PARTNER NATHANIEL HARDING: What is a venture capital fund?

“Venture capital funds are a type of investment vehicle that invest in and mentor new startups, frequently tech or biotech focused businesses. It is a fund led by General Partners where the money comes from several investors (or Limited Partners), and pooled together and managed by the General Partners. We commit to investing the money over a period of time in the kind of companies we specialize in. And we bring resources, knowledge and insight to try to help the companies grow.”

Why has Cortado Ventures grown so fast?

Our background and experience as founders and entrepreneurs that have built our careers in Oklahoma is a core strength of Cortado. We take that experience and help companies build roadmaps for growth while tapping into our expansive networks to identify ways to help these companies grow. We’re building strong, successful companies from the inside out.

You’ve been featured in national publications like Forbes and TechCrunch. How are you being viewed nationally?

We are among the top-performing funds in the country.

And that’s because we invest in early-stage businesses that leverage technology to scale in the fintech, biotech, aerospace, ag tech, energy tech, manufacturing and logistics sectors. It’s this targeted approach and knowledge of our strengths that is helping us get noticed in Oklahoma and well outside its borders.

Where are you looking to grow in the future?

We are looking for ambitious early-stage businesses who are capital efficient. We want to partner with their outstanding teams to help build truly differentiated products and define a new generation of economic prosperity for Oklahoma. And just two short years into creating Cortado Ventures, we’re well on our way.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT CORTADO VENTURES, VISIT CORTADO.VENTURES OR CALL 405-698-1748.

INVESTORS@CORTADO.VENTURES 12 E CALIFORNIA AVE., OKLAHOMA CITY, OK 73104

10

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Not That Kind of Unicorn anything is hard to conceptualize. It’s so much more than a million.

A couple of years ago, a tweet went viral that explained just how big a billion of anything is.

It explained: One million seconds is 11 days. (That’s a lot.) But one billion seconds is 31.5 years. (That’s so much more!)

No wonder that tweet went viral.

The human mind has trouble grasping how large this number truly is, so context, as they teach us in journalism school, helps us understand numbers so much.

I hope this context also helps you understand just how impressive it is for any company to reach a valuation of $1 billion. It’s so rare and special, financial folks dubbed those companies, and their founders and leaders, unicorns.

The entire world only has a little more than 700 unicorns, with the United States holding the lion’s share of those unicorns with more than 400. Depending on who you’re asking, Oklahoma lays claim to 10 unicorns. Pretty impressive, if you ask me.

More impressive, however, are the stories and the people behind these unicorn companies. In this issue, we talk to the co-founder of Oklahoma City’s largest unicorn, Scott Rollins, (pg. 32) who discovered not one but two lifesaving drugs that have radically changed people’s lives across the globe. And now, he’s turned his attention to COVID, creating a nasal COVID vaccine that is in trials in Australia but created and manufactured right here in the 405.

We talk to other OKC unicorns like Ken Parker and Gary Nelson, (pg. 36) who created billion-dollar companies of their own, and we asked them to share with us their wisdom that allowed their businesses to flourish like they did with

While interviewing, we heard:

A BILLION OF

Larry Nichols Devon Energy founder, chairman emeritus On growing Devon: “There are a handful of those that can strike it rich. They discover a field and immediately sell it and that’s fine.

But that isn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to build something sustainable and long lasting. And that is harder to do, really.

Think it through: What is it that you want to do? Figure out what that is, then go do it.”

the hopes they can help inspire you in yours. And, we talked to the OKC-beloved Larry Nichols (pg. 40), who built Devon Energy from the ground up with his father into a company worth about $27.7 billion today. That’s a lot of seconds.

But while this issue is full of the details of those who created billion-dollar businesses, that’s not all we’ve got. We also talked with some great guys making some pretty great cold-brew coffee. (pg. 30) And we take a deep dive on General Genomics and its work to propel OKC’s biotech field (pg. 45).

It’s a jam-packed issue, for sure. And, just so you know, my 10-year-old daughter was very disappointed that we weren’t featuring actual unicorns for this issue of 405 Business Magazine.

I was a little bit too, until I met all these amazing business leaders.

Kayte Spillman EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Scott Rollins Alexion Pharmaceuticals co-founder and Tetherex CEO On longtime business partner Russell Rother: “Russell and I were in graduate school together, and I talked him into coming to Yale for a postdoctorate. I left to start Alexion, and I brought him with me. He was a huge driver of the success of Alexion and then Selexys.

It’s been an unbelievable partnership, and we’ve been best friends since 1986. He’s pushed me, and I’ve pushed him. And it has lasted for 35 years.”

Stories Informing Tomorrow SUBSCRIBE TO THE MORNING RUSH EMAIL TODAY 405BUSINESS.COM/NEWSLETTERS

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S TA RT UP Dividing Lines OKC’s districts are growing up and spreading out.

Here’s a look and where and when OKC’s unique urban areas will see change. p.2O

Q&A MY DAILY MEDIA DIET ASK THE MENTOR THE FUTURE OF

14 16 18 20

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INSIGHT

S TA RT U P

86%

62%

of companies that overperform on revenue growth link everything they do to purpose of customers want companies to use their platforms to speak out on current events and issues such as sustainability, internal diversity, inclusion efforts and more.

Purpose by the Numbers Leading a business from a focus of purpose not only gives direction and inspiration to employees, but many companies also see bottom-line growth from customers looking for and responding to purpose-led companies. to meet a business leader or company that I admire that hasn’t wanted to make a big impact, make a difference or leave a legacy. These leaders and businesses don’t shy away from risk, but they are willing to commit to a purpose and dedicate themselves to taking action.

And similar to the idea of “big risk, big reward,” so goes our commitment to building businesses I HAVE YET

around purpose–the bigger the commitment, the bigger the potential impact. The more we invest in our people, customers, communities and causes, the more we discover our true meaning and our organization’s true purpose. Ultimately, purpose is about helping others.

Big Commitment What does a big commitment look like? Here’s the great thing: You get to decide.

Consider this: 86 percent of companies that over-perform on revenue growth link everything they do to purpose, an Insights 2020 study sponsored by the Advertising Research Foundation found. And, in a global survey by Accenture Strategy, results show that 62 percent of customers want companies to use their platforms to speak out on current events and issues such as sustainability, internal diversity, inclusion efforts and more.

Seventh Generation is raising the bar for its 2025 goals and taking steps to be a zero-waste company. By 2025, 100 percent of materials and ingredients will be bio-based, packaging will be reusable and reused, recyclable and recycled, or biodegradable, the water cycle will not be contaminated during a product’s life cycle and much more.

Consumers are acutely aware of where they

Big Impact What does a big impact look like? In Jim Stengel’s book Grow, research partner Millward-Brown Optimor found that the “Stengel 50” of purpose-driven companies experienced 10 years of pace-setting growth and grew three times faster than the competition. Here are some examples of what big impact looks like for companies willing to commit to change: Since 2004, Dove has completely changed how they communicate with their customers. They’re advocating for girls’ self-esteem and redefining what beauty is in the 21st century. By communicating with their purpose first, Dove’s sales have exploded, jumping from $2.5 billion to $4 billion after the shift.

Consumers are four-to-six times more likely to purchase, protect and champion purposedriven companies, according to a recent study from the Zeno Group, an international communications firm.

In 2001, Patagonia launched a “Don’t Buy This Jacket” Black Friday campaign. The message behind the campaign was to encourage people to consider the effect on the environment and to only purchase what they need. Despite their efforts, sales increased by approximately 30 percent in the nine months following the ad. The company received about $10 million in sales revenue from Black Friday campaigns, supporting the idea that consumers want to buy from a conscious brand.

They also donated all their revenues to environmental protection groups.

Research by Nielsen found that 48 percent of U.S. consumers would change their consumption habits to lessen their impact on the environment.

Want to make a big impact this year? Start with a big commitment to purpose.

Matt Stansberry is the founder, CEO and partner at Nominee, a brand consultancy.

PHOTO PROVIDED

are putting their time, money and resources.

Three-quarters of Generation Z and 80 percent of Millennials say it’s important for brands to take a stand, according to research from Sprout Social.

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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 Brenda and Jorge Hernández, founders of Tango PR, walk through what media makes a difference in their lives while recommending what we should add to our lives as well.

Where do you get your news first?

BRENDA: I like to know what’s going on in my local community first, so I turn to our local TV news channels. KOCO Channel 5 is one of my favorites. I love the morning news anchors, especially our friend Alejandra Briones. I do also refer to our local print media, Oklahoma City Free Press and The Oklahoman, for a more in-depth coverage of what’s going on in our community.

For national news, I turn to ABC and Univision, The Washington Post and The New York Times for print.

What app do you open first in the morning?

BRENDA: The first app I should be opening is my Bible app, but the GroupMe app is usually the first one that prompts me to open it. It’s the best way to keep up with my daughter’s busy sports schedule and plan our day/week accordingly.

JORGE: I usually open CNN and

Facebook first. That’s where both my family and community seem to spend most of their time.

What newsletter always gets clicked open?

BRENDA: Calle Dos Cinco in Historic Capitol Hill Monthly Newsletter.

There is so much going on in this up-and-coming district in south Oklahoma City. This is a great way to stay up to date and find ways to get involved and support the district.

What podcast do we need to be listening to?

BRENDA: United Voice Oklahoma.

These are great, in-depth conversations that promote a healthy dialogue on race relations in our community and around our nation.

It is so important for us to hear different perspectives from the people that live in our communities to better understand one another.

JORGE: I like to stay well informed about everything going on around our country so I try to listen to various NPR, ESPN and CNN audio podcasts.

What social accounts should we be following?

BRENDA: Visit OKC. It’s a great one to follow, yes, even if you are a local.

It helps you to appreciate all that our city has to offer. OKC Talk. They do a good job covering a wide variety of things happening in our community. I especially like to look at the feedback from their many followers, which gives me good insight into how our community feels about different issues/topics.

JORGE: Well, I take great pride in the work and growth taking place in OKC and in the Latino community.

So in order for me to stay informed and connected, I follow the LCDA, Calle Dos Cinco, Mayor Holt and of course Tango PR!

What music should we add to our playlist right now?

BRENDA: Stevie Wonder. Who doesn’t love a little Stevie Wonder in their life? Andrea Bocelli. You’ve got to listen to his amazing voice and get ready for the upcoming concert in OKC. JORGE: I really enjoy the smooth, ex-

citing and classic sounds of Michael Bublé, Journey, Earth, Wind & Fire and Mexican mariachi music!

What books are making you think?

BRENDA: My Bible is definitely a book that continues to make me think and keep me sane, especially during these uncertain days of the pandemic. I have also been reading another book that has made me think a lot about the future of our country, especially on the one-year anniversary of the insurrection at the Capitol, Jon Meacham’s The Soul of America.

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

BRENDA: I like to listen to internet radio, Spanish and English. Many times, I don’t have time to sit down and read something, but it does help me stay in touch with what’s going on while on the go or at home cooking.

SPONSORED

Professional Growth Solutions With Mike Crandall of Sandler Training

Recently I spoke at a conference for small business owners, I was asked to deliver a keynote talk on growing sales. Now, this is a common topic we work on in our firm, so it is not uncommon for us to share information on it. If you really think about it pretty much all leaders who own or run a business want to increase sales.

Often when someone wants to increase sales, they really want quick tips they can do themselves and apply to all situations. Those are not super common, however there are a few things that fit into this request. When a leader / owner just wants quick tips that they can do themselves we always share the same tips, as getting better at these three things will always help your team / you with sales. These things sound simple, however for most people they are not easy. Focusing on them and working to get better at them will always help with sales improvement.

MIKE CRANDALL lives in Edmond, OK. He is a Consultant, Coach, Trainer, Speaker, and

Three Steps to Better Sales

Author focused on the Subconscious Psychology

1. Be Curious

firm specializes in Sales, Management, and

One of the greatest mistakes salespeople make is talking too much about the wrong things. When we focus on being curious, we are able to change the dynamic from talking to asking questions. Curiosity causes us to ask questions. When we ask questions, we create a conversation that allows for mutual discovery and comfort.

2. Be Suspicious

Another great mistake salespeople make is not digging in when they hear generic things. Often a prospect will say something like looks good, or I am interested. Most salespeople don’t dig deeper to find what that really means.

Which often leads back to the issue in number one where they talk too much about the wrong things. When we are suspicious, we don’t take the first answer, or piece of information; instead, we ask more questions. Which continues to drive mutual discovery and comfort.

3. Do Not be Emotionally Attached to the Outcome

of Human Interaction and Motivation. His Leadership Development for Proactive Business Growth. Mike is based in Oklahoma and serves Visionary Clients across the United States.

He can be reached at Mike.Crandall@CGSOK.com or at (405) 844-1700.

For more information, visit www.customgrowth.sandler.com

When prospects talk about salespeople one of their biggest complaints is how emotional the salesperson often gets during the sales interaction. This is typically because the salesperson has an emotional attachment to the outcome of the sales call. They get excited because they think they will get the sale, or they get frustrated (or even angry) because they think they will not get the sale. Obviously, this is the most difficult of these three steps, however it is the most important. When the salesperson is emotionally tied to the sales interaction the prospect does not feel comfortable.

Getting better at these three things will allow the salesperson to become more comfortable in the interactions with prospects. This creates a situation where the prospect can be more comfortable. When both parties are more comfortable, we can get to yeses and nos faster and save time in sales. In addition, we are often able to make larger sales and make them faster when we focus on these three things.

Now let me ask – of these three things, what do your team and you struggle with? How much difficulty is it creating for your organization? How much longer is it making your sales cycles? What impact does it have on your closing ratio? If you do not know with 100% certainty – think about how much it is costing you? If you don’t know or don’t like the answers – find a Business Growth Consultant who can help.

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S TA RT U P

ASK THE MENTOR

Put Me in, Coach Leadership coach Jeremie Kubicek explains why instituting a coach into your business can propel executive leadership, employees and the entire company forward.

P E OP L E TEN D TO drift back to mediocrity.

Have you ever noticed that?

We get excited to work out, set our goals and before you know it have drifted back to the exact place we were in the beginning.

Whether it’s a new diet or a special project, most people only drift right back to the average.

It is human nature to settle down into a routine that is safe and … average. Honestly, most people don’t want someone pushing them to higher levels unless they choose to make the higher level their objective.

Coaches are the people we accept on the sports field, in a production or in academics to push us to higher levels. We join teams to be called up to higher levels in our selected activity. Shouldn’t the same be true inside our work?

I get it. The “coach” label that many choose to wear in the business field has a stigma of curiosity to it, like, “What do they actually do?” or, “Have they actually done this job?” Credibility is so important, but so is the desire to be better. And I will challenge you that an executive or a team leader with a coach will outperform one without. And if you want to see your team grow or your company reach higher levels, then I strongly encourage you to make coaching a cost of doing business and implement coaches with your leaders.

Coaches come in every shape and size, and they should fit a leader well. I have coached leaders literally around the world (Russia, England, the United States and online virtually in dozens of other countries), and what I have found is that a coach does three things that are particularly helpful to the person and the organization.

A good coach will create a self-awareness foundation for the leader that benefits the individual and the team because the leader learns what it is

1.

like to be on the other side of them and learn how to adapt and change.

Those weekly initiatives that we all have will be completed more efficiently because the leader has a sounding board to deal with all types of issues. Good coaches turn friction into alignment for those who do the work.

2.

If you choose to work with a coach, your whole life is impacted, which comes back to benefitting the company. Many issues aren’t at work, but rather at home. By solving issues in all of life, it will benefit the company in the long run.

3.

Stop the drift. Turn away from average and become intentional by choosing a coach to turn you into an all-star.

Jeremie Kubicek is the author of four books about leadership, and he is the executive chairman of the OKC-based GIANT Worldwide, a leadership company certifying coaches and consultants to train and serve companies and their employees.

Coaches are the people we accept on the sports field, in a production or in academics to push us to higher levels. We join teams to be called up to higher levels in our selected activity. Shouldn’t the same be true inside our work?

1800 NW 122nd St. • Oklahoma City, OK 73120 • 405.749.3004

CHECK OUT OUR NEW WEBSITE HERITAGEHALL.COM

20

THE FUTURE OF

The District Divide: The Future of OKC’s Districts Oklahoma City started with half a dozen unique districts, but how these districts will spill over and grow while new districts emerge will reflect the growth of the overall city. District leaders and Mayor David Holt discuss how OKC’s districts can grow while remaining true to their roots that established them in the first place.

BY GREG HORTON

DOWNTOWN OKLAHOMA CITY PARTNERSHIP

Oklahoma City’s districts have grown up a lot during the last decade, with plenty of changes –from MAPS 4 to organic business development– planned during the next decade as well.

S TA RT U P

A D I STR I C T CA N be thought of as a section of a city that is to some extent “frozen in time.”

That’s according to Gina Sofola, the founder and owner of Sofola and Associates, a planning and project management firm in Oklahoma City.

Sofola was project manager on the recent Page Woodson project, a brilliant bit of placemaking that created a new neighborhood with what had been an abandoned high school as the centerpiece.

“A district emerges when you have an asset or cluster of assets, as with an entertainment district, that can catalyze growth and join diverse businesses and neighborhoods around a central theme,” Sofola said. “The theme is usually related to what made it known as a ‘place’ to begin with. Without the common theme or economic engine—entertainment, dining, shopping, business, art—it doesn’t become a destination.”

From a technical standpoint, a district is also a geographic area within a city that has an additional overlay beyond the basic zoning requirements of the city. Essentially, the overlay implements a second layer of planning control that incorporates neighborhood-specific covenants, policies and goals. For historic neighborhoods, that overlay can, according to Sofola, reduce risks to residents, investors and businesses in the area that might otherwise be negatively impacted by changes in the neighborhood or surrounding areas.

Downtown OKC formed in 2000, and the City of Oklahoma City established its first Business Improvement District in 2001. The Downtown OKC Partnership now oversees six districts, all of which are part of the Downtown BID and so pay an assessment for maintenance, development and promotion in a public-private partnership. The original BID group has evolved— Midtown and Film Row were added later—and just last year, Downtown OKC remapped the edges of City Center (formerly the Central Business District) and the Arts District.

“We finally just acknowledged what everyone was already calling Film Row and West Village,” said Kristen Vails, director of placemaking for Downtown OKC. “The Arts District always incorporated the two areas, but now that they’ve developed independent identities, we’ve started noting them on the branding and marketing for the district.”

The remapping highlights an ongoing issue with districts, including historic areas such as Paseo: The district will ultimately have to deal with how the public thinks of the district. Paseo is the rare area of the city where regional and national chains have been prevented from developing, a choice that preserves the feeling and aesthetics of “local.”

In terms of Sofola’s “common theme,” Paseo is bound together with a shared purpose—visual and performing arts—and an architectural aesthetic that makes photos of the district instantly recognizable. Plus, the only new development in that area in decades respected the aesthetics of the district in such a way that Scratch, Frida and Oso fit seamlessly into the landscape.

Rachel Cope, president and founder of 84 Hospitality, has restaurant concepts in two neighborhood districts, The Plaza and Paseo. It’s actually three, counting Edgemere, but more on that below.

“There are distinct advantages to neighborhood districts,” she said. “You have built-in clientele, and there is a comfortability and quaintness that comes with it that you cannot build that helps make our restaurants feel timeless. As the neighborhoods continue to develop and fill in commercially, the property values go up, and that is where the disadvantages emerge.”

Cope noted that rising prices can drive out small businesses, making room for regional and national chains with budgets that can afford the price increase. It’s the business version of what we know as gentrification, and its impact affects district residents too.

“Districts are good and bad for property values,” Sofola said. “People will flock to a district with good governance, but increased values can lead to gentrification, and that prices out those whose creativity and risk-taking developed the original identity, so the original advocates for the place are driven out.”

21

“There are distinct advantages to neighborhood districts.

You have built-in clientele, and there is a comfortability and quaintness that comes with it that you cannot build that helps make our restaurants feel timeless.”

— Rachel Cope

Back to public perception of a district: Paseo’s uniqueness, the governance that led to it being one of the great destinations in the metro and its commitment to local have combined to make it the best food district in the city: Frida, Scratch and Goro are among the city’s very best restaurants.

But that popularity has spilled over into neighboring Edgemere, where Burger Punk (owned by Cope), Flora Bodega and the inaccurately named Paseo Daiquiri Lounge now operate.

It’s a different district, but the public doesn’t care. From a user experience standpoint, the edge of Edgemere is now Paseo—although it’s not beholden to the rules that have made Paseo what it is.

Sofola said it’s not unusual for spillover to lead to tension between districts.

“Occasionally, a memorandum of understanding can help matters, but spillover isn’t necessarily good or bad for a district,” she said. “The growth around a successful district should be expected as more investors and entrepreneurs want to share in the success.”

Areas like the Ironworks District (roughly Main St. to Linwood, and Western to Indiana) need redevelopment and new builds. Their future livability is completely reliant on an infusion of capital and entrepreneurship. Mayor David Holt said areas like this highlight the necessity of properly defining “gentrification.”

“It’s no coincidence that Oklahoma City’s growth has coincided with the development and growth of our districts,” Holt said. “And gentrification is a real issue when prices threaten to force out the people who originally had a stake in those neighborhoods, but all development isn’t gentrification. The Wheeler District now sits where an abandoned airport was; that’s not gentrification. Developers have an obligation to work with existing stakeholders, and advocates have to make sure they aren’t standing in the way of improvements the neighborhoods need and the stakeholders want.”

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S TA RT U P

THE FUTURE OF

Left: Bricktown is poised to see major changes this year, with a new hotel under construction and several new (or new to OKC) restaurants breaking ground soon.

Below: Elliot Nelson’s McNellie’s anchors a large corner in Oklahoma City’s midtown district, and he will soon run the former Bleu Garten as well.

B R I CKTOW N

The entertainment district has more room to develop than any other downtown district. The new Renaissance Hotel is under construction, and Provision Concepts has signed an agreement to operate a modern-American restaurant called Culprits on the ground floor. The Texas-based Truck Yard, a food truck and entertainment complex, will break ground in June, and Brian Bogert’s first Dave’s Hot Chicken franchise is under construction in the old Sonic restaurant space.

MI DTOW N

It’s fair to say there’s lots of potential still, but several problems, too. The area around NW 10th between Harvey and Hudson has become problematic for residents and police during “club hours.” Loud cars, gunfire, overflow crowds and trash plague the area. On the edges, though, good development is happening, including expanding the Make Ready Project on NW 13th, the continued growth of Harvey Bakery and the soon-to-open Lunar Lounge in the Plaza Court development. Tulsa-based Elliot Nelson (McNellie’s, Fassler, etc.) has signed an agreement to run the former Bleu Garten.

ASI AN D ISTRICT

Here’s another underdeveloped area where spillover has fueled success for small businesses. Jenny Nguyen, co-owner of Lee’s Sandwiches and VP of the Asian District Cultural Association, is working on a vermicelli bowl concept at NW 25th and Classen scheduled to open in late summer. Gong Cha, a national bubble tea concept, will be moving into 2800 N. Classen. A locally owned laundromat named Spin City should be open when this issue comes out. Nathan Cao is developing a multi-family complex called New Saigon on NW 26th and Western, a 36-unit complex to feature “smart studios” that Cao calls “the most affordable for new construction in the urban

core,” with prices around $800 per month. The transit-oriented development is designed to capitalize on phase two of the OKC Streetcar.

I R O N WO R K S DI ST R I C T

This is the most ambitious placemaking project in the city right now.

Young entrepreneurs like Reed and Adrienne Jaskula (Fair Weather Friend Brewing), Riley Marshall (Bar Arbolada and the soon-to-open Flycatcher Club) and the Tower Theatre team (Beer City) are creating an entertainment cluster at NW 3rd and Klein that promises to bring further growth to an area that ranges from blighted, including significant levels of crime, poverty and abandoned property, to improving—Fair Weather Friend, Dead People’s Stuff, Edge Craft Barbecue, etc.

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S W EAT EQU ITY

Getting Social

CHARLIE NEUENSCHWANDER

Brian Bogert’s The Social Order Dining Collective continues to expand: He’s bringing a newto-OKC franchise, Dave’s Hot Chicken, to Oklahoma with eight locations this year. p.26

SMALL BUSINESS 26 GIVING BACK 28 HOW I DID IT 30

26

SMALL BUSINESS

Hobnobbing with Brian Bogert Brian Bogert’s The Social Order Dining Collective consists of franchise favorites like Texadelphia and Fuzzy’s, and Scissortail Park’s Spark. But it all might not be here if not for his grandfather’s bar.

BY GREG HORTON PHOTO BY CHARLIE NEUENSCHWANDER

opened Hobnobbers, the popular bar atop the Centennial Plaza tower at NW 59th and May, before Bogert was born. The bar is gone now, but the memories of being in Hobnobbers as a toddler and throughout his childhood have bubbled up for him over the past few years as the growth of The Social Order Dining Collective (he is the founder) is accelerating.

“Hobnobbers is one of those memories that I’m sure had some subconscious effect on me in choosing hospitality,” Bogert said.

“As these memories have resurfaced, I think the time spent with my grandfather there introduced me to the allure and romanticism of the industry.”

That allure concretized for him at 15, when he ran the grill at the Quail Creek Country Club–the Terrace Room at that time.

“At some point, my manager decided this teenage kid was trustworthy and responsible enough to run the place,” Bogert said. “So I did everything from seat people, to take the orders, to cook the food, to tab them out. I was hooked by the idea of providing service at that level. I started telling people I’d have my own restaurant one day.”

The first restaurant was Texadelphia in Bricktown, a franchise operation that Bogert chose because of his familiarity with a Dallas location where he and his friends ate regularly while students at Southern Methodist University.

“I went to work for Accenture in Dallas after graduation, and that taught me what I didn’t want to do with my life,” Bogert said. “I didn’t want to burn out for a corporation; I wanted to work for myself.”

He called the franchisee of the Dallas Texadelphia, and he admits he was nervous.

“I loved the restaurant, and I wanted to bring it back to OKC,”

Top: The exterior of The Jones Assembly.

Above: A sampling of food from Spark, located on the edge of Scissortail Park.

THE SOCIAL ORDER DINING COLLECTIVE

B R I A N B O G E RT ’ S G R A N D FAT H E R

S W EAT EQ UITY

27

Brian Bogert, creator of The Social Dining Collective, inside one of his concept restaurants, The Jones Assembly.

“We want our people to be able to see this as a career. People need a vacation, and hospitality workers shouldn’t have to double up shifts or front-end excess work just to take time off. We’re happy to make this happen.”

he said. “But I don’t even think I knew what franchising was at the time. I had no idea how he’d respond, but he was very helpful and kind — nuts and bolts of franchising, running your own business, specifics about Texadelphia, etc.”

Bogert said that with both Fuzzy’s and Texadelphia, he was lucky enough to get into the company early enough to help with developing the concepts.

“We were experienced with running a bar, so when we got the Fuzzy’s store in Norman, the Texas-based concepts still didn’t have a bar menu. We developed the bar menu, color schemes, fish-bowl cocktails, all kinds of things, and we proceeded simply by asking what guests wanted.”

Many of the answers were eventually adopted system wide, and now, as he prepares to open eight Dave’s Hot Chicken franchises in Oklahoma, he’s grateful to be getting in after the ground-level development is done.

“This will be the first time I’ve started a franchise location where all that preliminary work was already done,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it, and at the same time, I have a slight concern that decisions made on the West Coast won’t necessarily fit well here. A franchise needs to be adaptable enough that the main elements remain, but some elements need to be localized.”

Moving into 2022, Bogert is most proud of the changes Social Order is implementing to help employees. The company is really a management holding operation, with concepts paying in to take care of management issues, and he credits president and partner Courtney Mankin with seeing the big picture issues that led to the formation of Social Order. To improve the relationships with employees, the company began a matching 401K program for all 500 employees starting Jan. 1, 2022, and hourly employees will also receive paid time off.

“We want our people to be able to see this as a career,” Borgert said. “People need a vacation, and hospitality workers shouldn’t have to double up shifts or front-end excess work just to take time off. We’re happy to make this happen.”

GIVING BACK

Curb Appeal Ranya Forgotson, with co-founder Whitley O’Conner, has built three separate businesses during the last eight years all with the aim of helping provide dignified employment and skills to people transitioning out of homelessness.

And she’s not done: The fourth is coming in 2022.

BY K AY TE SPILLMAN

was still in college, she dared to believe that starting traditional businesses employing and empowering homeless people could not only work but also be transformative to Oklahoma City.

Eight years and soon-to-be four businesses later, she was right.

First came The Curbside Chronicle, a monthly magazine similar to street papers found across the country all with the same theme of providing dignified employment for people transitioning out of homelessness, which was made possible with support and funding from the Homeless Alliance.

The f irst issue hit in 2013, and she and co-founder Whitley O’Conner worked for the next two years to secure additional funding, run a publication and support employees aiming to become stable as people began responding to both their product and their mission.

“Street papers are this beautiful blend of journalism with advocacy and a voice,” she said. “It is a business that allows people to be part of the WHILE RANYA FORGOTSON

solution, and it is advocacy that allows services to be included for those that need them. It’s been an eight-year journey to see all that potential grow.”

And grow it has: She said The Curbside Chronicle currently sells 12,000 magazines a month, with contributions of as little as $2 a month. In total, the organization now employs more than 200 people who are experiencing or transitioning out of homelessness.

“I like to view that as 12,000 interactions where someone shares a word or can connect to one of our employees,” she said. “Our street sales allow people to rethink negative stereotypes. Typically, once people find out what we are doing, they want to be a part of it. What we do is not possible without that collective power.”

The organization also now employs housing case managers and employment specialists, and it provides other wrap-around services to help employees.

“We are very low barrier,” she said. “We accept people as they are. Just come as you are, and we’ll figure it out. I’ve seen hundreds of people recon-

THE CURBSIDE CHRONICLE

28

S W EAT EQ UITY

29

“It is a business that allows people to be part of the solution, and it is advocacy that allows services to be included for those that need them. It’s been an eight-year journey to see all that potential grow.”

— Ranya Forgotson

Opposite: Curbside Chronicle is Oklahoma’s only street paper, employing people working to transition out of homelessness.

Above: Curbside Flowers, a full-service flower shop which opened at the end of 2020, began after street flower sales showed a strong demand.

Left: Curbside Flowers’ employees create handassembled bouquets while going through a job skills program.

nect with family, reconnect with friends and their community. I’ve seen so many get sober, get mental health, regain their confidence that they can work and take care of themselves.”

Then in 2016, Forgotson said she thought selling flowers on the street for Valentine’s Day would be a way to increase both revenue and employment opportunities, based on successful wrapping paper street sales from the previous year. She said she underestimated the success: They sold 100 bundles in less than one day.

“We had no idea what a big deal we had stumbled into,” she said. “It grew to where we were selling 1,000 bundles, and we sold 2,000 this past year.”

So, with some funding from the Oklahoma City Community Foundation Great Idea Challenge, Curbside Flowers opened a brick-and-mortar location just about a year ago, Dec. 15, 2020.

The youth program, Sasquatch Shaved Ice, came next, which helps young adults aged 16-24 learn job skills, financial education and college and career readiness training. With the street paper, the flower shop and the shaved ice business that now has three locations–one in the Plaza District, one in Bricktown and a mobile unit available for booking–generating revenue now comes from multiple fronts.

“We must generate revenue to support us,” she said. “We have a lot of social services that other typical businesses do not have.”

And they aren’t done. In 2022, look for Curbside Apparel, a screen-printing business, to launch as well.

“We want to change the narrative of homelessness and broaden the empathy around it,” she said.

“If people understand homelessness and the root causes of homelessness, that will change the way we approach the problem.”

And thus, the more businesses she can spin off, the farther her cause can spread.

“The more we can seep into everyone’s lives, the more social problems and solutions can be a part of the everyday,” she said. “And we’ll normalize solutions to these problems and increase the impact we can have. I’m so grateful that Oklahoma City has embraced it because it’s incredible.”

30

HOW I DID IT

Roam Where You Want To Roam Coffee Company, the only FDA-approved cold brew coffee company in Oklahoma, has roamed its way into nine different Oklahoma restaurants, co-ops and other establishments.

BY KRISTEN GRACE PHOTOS BY CHARLIE NEUENSCHWANDER

hidden, cold brew lab, Dom Noel laughs.

“It’s easy to make cold brew,” Noel said. “You can make cold brew in your bathtub. But it’s very difficult to make excellent cold brew. And that is what we set out to do.”

Before creating Roam Coffee Company together, Miguel Soares and Dom Noel originally met and became friends in 2010 in a Jujutsu class.

“Because neither of us originally grew up in Oklahoma, we eventually became one another’s family,” he said. “We’re brothers.”

At that time, Soares, with a background in the Marines and aviation, had been experimenting with creating his own coffee at home.

“My wife was not happy with how much money I was spending at Starbucks every month,” he said, a bit chagrined.

When he let Noel, an engineer grad from OSU, have a taste of what he’d been creating, Noel suggested that the two of them go into business together.

Roam Coffee Company is the only FDA-approved cold brew coffee company in Oklahoma, and it took them 18 months of hard work to make it happen.

“The health inspector laughed when we talked to him about it for the first time,” he said. “We bootstrapped everything.”

Soares said the company is named after a roaming goat, and it begins with the story of coffee, as rich and storied as any treasure in history.

“Originally grown in Ethiopia from the 1500s, coffee berries have been pirated and stolen,” he said. “Nations considered these berries a drug and a treasure, and those who know how to blend its richness into what we drink each morning–well, those wizards were our alchemists.

“An Ethiopian goat herder walked down a mountainside one morning and noticed a few of his goats were acting very strange. Jumping around, dancing. He eventually discerned that they were eating some of the berries from the coffee tree. To investigate, he did, too. He then began dancing with his goats STANDING IN THEIR

Above: Roam Coffee Company’s FDAapproved cold brew coffee.

Right: Coffee beans roasting at Roam’s cold-brew lab in Oklahoma City.

Opposite: Roam Coffee Company founder Miguel Soares with Ian Flemming, from Sincerely Coffee Roasters. Sincerely Coffee Roasters roasts Roam Coffee’s cold brew.

S W EAT EQ UITY

“Because neither of us originally grew up in Oklahoma, we eventually became one another’s family. We’re brothers.”

as well, and then shared them with other people in his village. Eventually coffee beans began to be roasted and boiled into a drink–and then stolen and spread into Yemen. And wherever coffee went, it was brewed, enjoyed together in a communal environment, and then there were talks of philosophy and science, which eventually led to talks of government and revolution.”

Listening to Soares and Noel talk about the flavor prof iles in their cold-brew coffees–where and how the beans were processed, the notes, the ratios, the soils where the beans were grown, the altitudes in which beans are brewed–is like listening to great wine sommeliers.

“Coffee, much like wine, is affected by the environment that it grows in,” Soares said.

Soares and Noel have a five-year game plan that involves opening a tasting room in Oklahoma City that has a coffee on-tap area, a lab where curious coffee connoisseurs can taste the flavors of new beans, see the lab and explore the process, as well as taste new recipes being developed.

As Roam continues to show up for community functions like the Hangover Brunch and the Girl Scouts Cookies and Cocktails, they said they look forward to watching their partnerships grow with other coffee companies in Oklahoma, and they expect that you will see much more of them in the future.

If so, you’ve been warned about their coffee, which very possibly can lead to good conversation, possibly even revolution.

Take note.

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UNICORNS OF OKC

33

O K L A H O M A’ S L A R G E S T U N I C O R N

Scott Rollins, Alexion Pharmaceuticals co-founder and Selexys Pharmaceuticals and Tetherex CEO, created two different lifesaving and life-changing drugs that have created large valuation companies based on Oklahoma technology. And, with the sale of Alexion to AstraZeneca in 2020 for $39 billion, Rollins earns the title of founding the largest unicorn – or a business with a billion – dollar-or-more valuation – to have Oklahoma roots. He’s not done either. Up next: A nasal COVID vaccine currently in trials in Australia.

BY

KAYTE SPILLMAN

PHOTOS BY CHARLIE NEUENSCHWANDER

IGHTNING DOESN’T USUALLY strike twice. Unless you’re Scott Rollins.

“I’ve been very fortunate twice now to be involved in the development of two lifesaving drugs that have their entire roots in Oklahoma technology,” Rollins said.

And those drugs – and the companies formed around those discoveries – led Rollins to co-found, with another Oklahoman Russell Rother, the largest-ever unicorn, or a business with a valuation of more than a billion dollars, with Oklahoma roots.

And a billion dollars isn’t even close to the valuation of the unicorn company Rollins’ founded, Alexion. Try $39 billion. In 2020, AstraZeneca acquired Alexion for that much.

In fact, Rollins’ story is one of those great Oklahoma stories you’ve probably never heard.

He grew up in Moore, and he went to college – earning his doctorate in microbiology and immunology – at the University of Oklahoma. During his graduate work, he was researching to find a drug that could treat a molecular defect of an extremely rare blood disorder, Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria.

And he did.

“The drug protects the patients’ red blood cells, and it basically saved their lives,” he said. “There are thousands and thousands of patients alive today because of this drug.”

When he first discovered the drug, he said he didn’t realize all that it would become.

“At that time, it was a great discovery, and it was determining a key mechanism in a group of patients with a very severe disease,” he said.

That discovery became a business during a post-doctoral fellowship in molecular immunology at Yale University.

“It was the transition from basic research to entrepreneurial thinking and developing a company around technology,” he said. “And that happened because I was at Yale in a very different kind of environment from an entrepreneur and business standpoint where people were much more in tune with tweaking technology and building companies around it.

34

It forced me to leave academia and take a chance on developing this technology.

“It obviously worked out very well.”

Obviously.

Rollins then spent 16 years in the northeast developing Alexion, using the Oklahoma-based research he created while at OU as the foundation. Growth was rapid: Rollins founded Alexion in 1992 and by 2000, it was valued at a billion dollars.

“It was sort of mind boggling,” Rollins said. “As a scientist and a drug developer, you are focused on developing the drug and doing the clinical trials. You are not really focused on the valuation of the company and what your shares are worth on any given day.

To suddenly wake up one morning and realize your company is worth a billion dollars is pretty interesting.”

He said all of the elements were in place in the Northeast to make the company grow that did not exist in 1990s Oklahoma.

Rollins returned in 2008 to a very different Oklahoma when he came back to start another company, Selexys Pharmaceuticals.

“Oklahoma had grown quite a bit,” he said. “When I left in 1990, it probably would have been impossible or very difficult to put a company together and raise the kind of money that is necessary to build a biotechnology company at that level. When I came back, I had the experience and people had someone they could invest in. They had a C-level executive that had a track record of success, which didn’t exist in Oklahoma. We had a great story to go out and tell potential investors.”

Conditions were now such that he could create a company in Oklahoma and raise his family where he wanted, he said.

“It allowed me to come back home to my parents and my in laws, who are very important to me,” he said. “I had a young daughter at the time. We also thought Oklahoma was a better place to raise her than the hustle and bustle of the Northeast,” he said. “I had the freedom and the choice to go wherever I wanted to go and do whatever I wanted to do, so I came home to try to do again what we had done.”

And he did do it again. This time, Rollins, as president and CEO of Selexys Pharmaceuticals, with his team, focused on developing the first new treatment for sickle cell disease in more than 50 years. The Selexys drug they developed reduced the number of annual sickle pain crises by 50 percent in trials.

“IT’S NOT THE BUCKETLOAD OF MONEY ASSOCIATED WITH THESE DRUGS. IT’S WHAT I DID FOR MANKIND, AND I GOT TO DO THAT IN MY HOME STATE WITH OKLAHOMA TECHNOLOGY THAT HELPED THOUSANDS AROUND THE GLOBE. “

35

But this time, it was all done in Oklahoma.

“All of our manufacturing was done in Oklahoma,” Rollins said. “All of the cell line development was done here, all the clinical trials. All the basic science research was done at OMRF. It’s a pretty rare thing, I think, to have done this all in Oklahoma. We couldn’t have built Alexion in Oklahoma in 1990. It had to be on the east coast. But we can do it now.”

The company sold to Novartis for $665 million in 2016.

“When we started, we raised about close to $36 million, and a lot of that was local money,” he said. “And then within several years, we turned that into a $665 million dollar acquisition

by Novartis that produced a great therapy for sickle cell patients. It’s a great story for everyone.”

But his story isn’t done yet. Rollins is off and running on his third company, Tetherex Pharmaceuticals. He’s now focused on people with severe asthma, and he’s developing a COVID vaccine that is a nasal spray.

“We’re doing a COVID vaccine trial in Australia now,” he said. “Most people don’t have a clue we have a cutting-edge COVID vaccine being developed in Oklahoma. It is an intranasal vaccine, no needles. And hopefully it will develop immunity in the nasal tract to combat the virus at the source.”

After all these years growing companies that grow in valuation beyond most CEOs’ wildest dreams, Rollins said the real satisfaction, however, is in the science that can transform and save lives.

“That’s really what you want in your obituary,” he said. “It’s not the bucket-load of money associated with these drugs. It’s what I did for mankind, and I got to do that in my home state with Oklahoma technology that helped thousands around the globe. I’ve met a lot of the patients that have been treated with my drugs and I’ve heard their stories. If you’ve seen a patient with PNH or sickle cell patients, and they can’t get up and walk because they are in so much pain.

Then you give them these drugs, and it completely changes their lives. They are able to work again. It literally saves their lives and changes their lives. That’s what makes you feel good when you get up in the morning.”

UNICORNS AMONG US

BY

KAY T E S P I L L M A N

PHOTOS BY CHARLIE NEUENSCHWANDER

UNICORNS OF OKC

37

OKC unicorns – Ken Parker and Gary Nelson – and others who evaluate the market and assist with entrepreneur

growth discuss what is needed to grow a successful business in Oklahoma that can reach well beyond its borders.

S

O, WHAT DOES IT TA KE TO BE A U NIC OR N – to create a billion-dollar company?

These companies are dubbed unicorns for a reason, after all: They are extremely rare. In fact, the United States has north of 400 unicorn companies, which is far more than any other country as CB Insights, a financial data analyzation company, lists only 779 unicorn businesses in the entire world.

You might have better luck seeing an actual unicorn than starting a unicorn company.

But, Oklahoma has had its fair share of unicorn companies like tech startups Alexion, Paycom, Solarwinds, Alkami and RiskMetrics Group and legacy Oklahoma businesses like Devon Energy, Continental Resources, Chesapeake Energy, Bank of Oklahoma and BancFirst. The state is producing top talent that is creating top-tier companies. ”A company that has over a billion in market cap or private value has something that can grow extremely quickly,” said Mike Moradi, venture partner at Cortado Ventures, an Oklahoma-focused venture capital fund. “Maybe one in a million or one in thousand will see that kind of growth.”

He said Oklahoma jumpstarted its innovation with the creation of the Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology in the 1980s, as well as developing groups like i2E focused on growing entrepreneurship and innovation and passing state legislation to support innovation in the 1990s.

“All of that helped, and there is still plenty of work to be done going forward,” he said. “But there is no geographic lock on innovation. We have every bit of the great scientists and innovators here.”

Capturing those Oklahoma-grown scientists and entrepreneurs and helping them get off the ground is where OCAST comes in.

“We’re working with people basically on anything from concept to commercialization,” said Amy Walton, OCAST Director of Government Relations and Strategic Initiatives. “We are here if they need resources or client services support. Our job is to make them successful because, in turn, that makes Oklahoma successful.”

Walton said OCAST is seeing an influx of entrepreneurs move to Oklahoma as funding possibilities have increased because of legislative changes in the state, lower cost of living and availability of land and other resources.

“We are seeing an exodus from our coastal states, and we’re seeing those people move to the middle of the United States where land is available and cost of business is less,” she said. “Oklahoma is a perfect opportunity for them. We have a business-minded legislature and executive administration that have helped to tell that story for companies that are coming into this state and are here growing in this state. People are realizing that it is not very easy to get legislative support in those places. You have people that really want people to be successful in Oklahoma. It’s a short line to leadership in Oklahoma.”

Walton said for the companies she works with, she sees those who are most successful are the ones that can adapt quickly to changing market or technology needs.

They must learn how to pivot and open their minds for what they could be,” she said. “Let’s think bigger. What is cross cutting with the technology that you have? Let’s think bigger than what you have. Unicorns are rare. The United States has like 400-500 total, and the fact that Oklahoma is playing in that space is amazing.”

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Ken Parker RISKMETRICS GROUP $1.5 billion valuation HOW HE GOT IT DONE Be ready to pivot.

Focus on people.

K E N PA R K E R WA S T H E F I R ST person in his family to graduate college. His high school math teacher took an interest in him and gave him access to the school’s only computer at the time to help develop his interest in math and computers.

“They had a computer that had never unboxed,” he said. “That was my introduction to computers. The teachers would open the classroom at night so I could have access to it at night and that started my love for computers.”

After graduating from Oklahoma Christian, then earning a master’s in computer science from the University of Colorado and an initial job in aerospace, Parker landed on Wall Street with JP Morgan with an office overlooking the New York Stock Exchange.

“It was pretty different for an Oklahoma country boy,” he said. “But the commute ended up being the undoing to that arrangement, so that’s when I moved back to Oklahoma.”

He came home and started a company f irst focused on online education in 1995. About four months into the concept, a buddy from his JP Morgan days, Ethan Berman, suggested he and Parker pivot towards a company that provided risk management tools to financial institutions.

Berman served as CEO and co-founder along with Parker. The pivot paid off.

“We started with 20 people in New York on Wall Street, two people in London on Fleet Street, and three

of us down on my ranch in Noble, Oklahoma,” he said. “We grew to 1,200 people (at the time of the sale to MSCI). After eight years, we moved off my ranch and we moved to Norman and continued to grow. After 10 years, we did an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange that I used to overlook years before. Two years after the IPO, we sold for $1.5 billion to MSCI in 2010.”

After RiskMetrics became the world’s largest independent provider of risk management solutions, Parker said his greatest takeaway is to not forget people are the most important component to success.

“There are a few gigantic lessons you learn on a journey like that,” he said. “Greatest lesson I learned is that people are most important. It’s not the technology or the idea or the product or the clients. People are most important. And who you attract and who you retain, who you develop and how you operate is what makes you successful.”

Pick the right people and everything else can fall into place, he said.

“The essence of success is, no matter what you are undertaking, people are most important,” he said.

“That should guide every part of it.

Choose carefully who you are going to get involved with and then you choose what problem you are going to solve, what culture are you going to have and then you get into the myriad of other advice you can give. But start with the right people.”

NOTABLE UNICORNS OF OKC

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$1.73B market cap (Gary Nelson)

$39 Billion AstraZeneca acquisition 12/2020 (Scott Rollins, Russell Rother)

$24.75B Market Cap (Chad Richison) $18.4 Billion market cap (Harold Hamm)

$2.2B

$2.3B

$7.3B Market Cap

$27.7 Billion market cap (Larry Nichols )

$1.55B M&A after $1B IPO (Ken Parker)

$4.3B

TEC H

$15.5 Billion

LEG ACY

Gary Nelson ALKAMI $1.7 billion valuation HOW HE GOT IT DONE Find your funding. Hire the right leadership.

“I HAD NEVER HEARD THE TERM UNICORN until I saw in the paper someone calling me one,” said Gary Nelson, who founded Alkami, which provides cloud-based digital banking products and is now valued at $1.7 billion.

In fact, not only did he not realize he was a unicorn, he said he didn’t know Alkami had the potential to reach unicorn status when he started it.

“It would be easy to say that I knew at the beginning, but that would be a total fabrication,” he said. “We knew the market needed a refresh, and I liked the idea of a small, nimble company taking on the big boys. In the early days, it was just a head game. I was just thinking, ‘How was I going to fund this thing? Where do we get funding? I had the best salesperson on the planet. He was just a key player. It took several years to know it was going to be successful. We never missed a payroll, which is amazing for a startup. The only person that didn’t get paid was me, which is not unusual.”

He said the four things needed to build a successful company are a really good idea, sources for funding, leadership that knows what it is doing and an executor to develop and sell the idea or product.

“It takes all four of these things,” he said.

But, he said the funding component is why many otherwise-solid businesses fail. Once investors are at the table, however, growth can start to occur, if the other pieces have solidified.

“You’ve got to have strategic investors who bring millions to the table and that’s not going to be a local, small investor,” he said. “That’s where so many companies come to a halt. Then, it’s all about bringing in the right people at the right time. After our investor came on board, we were able to recruit an executive from Dallas out of retirement. Then, clients started coming on, and if you have a client that does well then it begins to sell itself. That’s when this thing started to roll downhill pretty quick.”

unicorns. And the company doesn’t show signs of slowing as Devon was the S&P 500’s highest performing stock of 2021.

As founder and now chairman emeritus of $27.7-billion Devon Energy, Larry Nichols helped pave the way for Oklahoma’s

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KAYTE SPILLMAN

PHOTOS BY CHARLIE NEUENSCHWANDER

UNICORNS OF OKC

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ARRY NI CHOLS WAS 29 when his father called him with an idea to start and oil an gas company in Oklahoma City. And he turned him down.

He was already a lawyer in Washington, D.C., and his sights were set on a law career in our nation’s capital. After some familial negotiations, he decided to come home, thinking he’d work with his dad for a few years and round out some skills that would add to his law career.

That was 1971. Fast forward a quick 50 years, and Devon Energy now boosts a valuation of $27.7 billion and was the highest performing stock among the S&P 500 in 2021. Nichols never made it back to that law career in D.C. “I never thought about it again,” he said.

Instead, quite simply, Larry Nichols helped pave the way for Oklahoma’s unicorns as one of the first – and certainly one of the longest-lasting – unicorns in the whole bunch.

Starting with 4.5 employees (they shared a receptionist half of the time with another company), Nichols said the first few years were about surviving. The company doubled in size for many years, but he said it wasn’t hard to claim such growth when starting so small.

“We were a tiny company,” he said. “We were barely making it financially. We had several transactions that if we didn’t do those transactions, we would have gone broke, literally.”

He said they worked towards a gradual method of growth, not imaging they could expand to the oil behemoth they are today.

“We were looking on how we could survive to the next year,” he said. “Our vision was focused on how to make it bigger and better that next year.”

Bigger and better, that’s an understatement. The 1973 oil embargo forced oil to jump from $3 to $5 a barrel (yes, it hovers around $80+ per barrel these days) and Devon was off to the races.

“People said five dollars was a fluke, and it would go back to three,” he said.

“That made it a lot more interesting, and the interest in investing and drilling grew dramatically.”

“I REMEMBER DEBATING WITH MYSELF,

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‘DO I NEED TO BE DOING THAT? IS IT OK THAT I DON’T KNOW ALL THOSE DETAILS?’ BUT I STAYED FOCUSED ON THE FINANCES AND TOOK A BROADER VIEW.”

Nichols said during those years he started noticing Devon was operationally different than other oil and gas companies. He didn’t get in the weeds of the drilling, and he attributes this difference to one reason for their success.

“The other small, family-run oil and gas businesses, most of those people in town that I knew, they knew all the engineering details of every well they had,” he said. “I didn’t know that, and I didn’t want to know that. I was thinking about other things.

How can we grow the business? I remember debating with myself, ‘Do I need to be doing that? Is it OK that I don’t know all those details?’ But I stayed focused on the finances and took a broader view.”

Focusing on the finances led Nichols to take the company public in 1988, and through both drilling and slow and steady acquisition, the company continued to grow.

“The decision to go public in 1988 was interesting,” he said. “It was one of those pivotal points where you look at the industry. During the ‘70s and ‘80s, it was a boom time not like anyone has ever seen since. It

is unimaginable the excesses—good and bad —that went on during that time.”

Devon’s growth during the last half century also mirrors the growth of Oklahoma City. During the ‘80s, many people tried to lure Devon away to bigger cities, but Nichols never considered it.

“It’s our city,” he said. “We live here. Now, back in the ‘80s, Oklahoma City was a dump.

It was an absolute dump. Our building was next door to a broken-down chain-link fence, and the hotel across the street was uninhabitable.

“But we never considered leaving. The Houston mayor would recruit us. We were here. And all our employees were here, and we didn’t want to move. We were doubling every year, so we were doing quite nicely.

Now there are also advantages of being away from all the competitors too. If you are around everyone, you also start thinking like everyone too.”

Waiting on Oklahoma City to grow up paid off too.

“Oklahoma City has changed so dramatically, and I look at a Houston or Dallas, and

they are bigger, but as far as sophistication and ability to do business, it is so similar.”

He said in one negotiation after an Houston-based acquisition in 1999, Devon offered to 200 new employees that at any point in the next three years, if they left Devon for any reason (outside of fraud,) Devon would pay to move them back to Houston with “no questions asked.” But, because of the growth of Oklahoma City during the next decade, in 2007, when closing operations in Houston, the conversation had changed.

“In 2007, we decided to get out of the Gulf of Mexico, and we closed the Houston office,” he said. “It was a 9:30 meeting and we told them, ‘For most of you, we have job openings in Oklahoma City. If you want to apply, let us know.’

By the time I got home, slightly over 90 employees had discussed with their spouse moving to Oklahoma City and wanted to apply.”

Nichols is known for a humble, kind demeanor that often masks he started, led and is now chairman emeritus of the largest energy company – which in turn fuels Oklahoma’s largest industry – in the state. Having stepped down in 2016, he’s made way for new leadership, but he spends a full workday everyday (“I’m not there by 8 now; but I’m there by 9,” he said.) on boards at The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Urban Renewal and a recent two-year term as president of the American Petroleum Institute, among others.

But, after 50 years, all the success also points back to a company he started with his father.

“It was great fun,” he said. “There are a lot of great father/son relationships and businesses that don’t work. Ours worked, one, because of our personalities. And the second advantage I had was I already had another job and another career. I wasn’t dependent on him for a job, and he wasn’t keeping me off the streets.

“We never had a disagreement.

We had debates and arguments, but it was a great, working relationship from day one.”

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BIOINFORMATIC MAVERICKS M A K E

O K L A H O M A

G E N E R A L

H O M E

G E N O M I C S ,

BIOINFORMATICS I N T E L L I G E N C E

A

ARTIFICIAL P L A T F O R M ,

S E T S U P S H O P I N T H E M E T R O A N D I S H E L PING TO POSITION O K L A H O M A EMERGING

BY DANIELLE OBERLOIER

A

R A P I D L Y

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HOTSPOT.

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PHOTOS BY CHARLIE NEUENSCHWANDER

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hree dads and a pandemic sounds like a hit-or-miss cable sitcom, but in the realm of Oklahoma becoming an emerging biotech hub – it’s a real-life catalyst.

For friends A.J. Rosenthal, Warren Gieck and Caleb Stuart, the motivation behind forming General Genomics started out quite simple: their kids.

In March 2020, work-from-home mandates were on the uptick, the news cycle was bleak and a general sense of uncertainty was hard to ignore. The pandemic was taking shape across the country, and the trio was starting to see the impact on their families. School closures were rampant – as were worries and questions from their children. At one point, Rosenthal’s then 6-year-old outright asked not just whether he would get COVID-19, but whether he would survive it if he did.

That question was enough to spur Rosenthal to call upon Gieck, his former General Electric colleague with a background in artificial intelligence and machine learning, and later, Stuart.

Why not put their combined scientific research, engineering and legal expertise to use for good, amid a global pandemic?

“Warren was one of the heads of AI at General Electric,” Rosenthal said.

“I called Warren up and I said, ‘Hey, what if we actually took a lot of our algorithms and black box equations that we used in the oil field and in the industrial space when it came to aviation, and then some of the health care models, and applied them to the human body?’”

While some of us were perfecting the art of sourdough starters – a science in its own right – General Genomics was creating a bioinformatics artificial intelligence platform to help determine a person’s susceptibility to disease and how certain treatments might affect their body based on their genetic makeup.

If you’re a newcomer to the world of biotechnology (presumably a great deal of us are), bioinformatics is a field that combines biology and information technology to understand biological data.

“Engineers, data scientists and doctors right now don’t really talk to one another,” Rosenthal said. “And said bioinformatics is kind of blending all those together. When you go to the doctor, do you always go when you’re super healthy? Or do you normally go to the doctor when you’re sick or hurt? Why can’t we use supercomputers to actually start predicting when we’ll start having issues?”

Rosenthal, a product of the Navy and nuclear engineering, said unifying those fields for good has the potential to improve the medical field and people’s quality of life. Doctors will better understand how to treat individuals based on more specific, personalized data (Think: understanding the likelihood of prescribing opioids to someone who may become addicted).

Data scientists will be able to innovate and collaborate alongside doctors to treat – even cure – diseases (and end pandemics) faster. Individuals will gain more autonomy to make better informed health decisions. And so on.

With the predictive algorithms they’re patenting, General Genomics is able to draw numerous health correlations for individuals based on a combination of factors like genetics, supplements and environmental conditions. And eventually, they’d like to put those discoveries right in the hands of everyone, everywhere. Basically, a world where you can access a secure, electronic medical record with all of your health information and insights at any time.

How, exactly? It all starts with collecting data, and by thinking about the human body like an engineer would: as a system.

“It’s always an outside set of eyes that fix the biggest problems,” Rosenthal said. “Warren and I both come from an engineering background where we’re system failure analysts. We stare at everybody as a system. Ten fingers, 10 toes, two eyes and a nose. We’re simple. We’re not crazy complex. It’s just the derivative of the gene set that we have that built us.”

And a connection to the Sooner State doesn’t hurt, either. That was the key to accelerating this burgeoning biotech startup and setting up shop in Oklahoma.

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General Genomics was calling Midland, Texas, home until they met Shelley Klingler.

With a robust background in oil and gas, an influential circle, a recent severance and desire to put it to good use, Klingler became their first angel investor. And it wasn’t a board room or networking event that brought Klingler and General Genomics together, but rather a serendipitous Midland grocery store run-in with Rosenthal that emboldened her to invest.

Rosenthal was working out of Midland at the time. Klingler, a part-time Midland resident, was in town from Oklahoma City on business. Their shared trip for some pandemic staples (Klingler was actually waiting for Rosenthal to stop blocking the aisle) turned into two strangers discovering other areas of common ground, including backgrounds in the oil and gas industry, former military careers, football team rivalries and a lot of motivation to solve annoyances in the healthcare industry. Sure, that’s a lot to unpack after bumping into a stranger at a grocery store, but it was the kickoff of pandemic shutdowns, and it was the wine aisle.

When Rosenthal explained his endeavors with General Genomics, and the ultimate goal of not just being able to determine disease susceptibility and treatment responsiveness, but a means to provide people with access to their personal, comprehensive medical data right at their fingertips, she was in.

“I knew in my gut, and my gut’s never wrong,” Klingler said.

And she knew Oklahoma was a prime location for General Genomics to not only grow, but also extend its impact. With

her connections, they could make it happen. Particularly in the OKC metro.

“Why Oklahoma? I was like, ‘Why not?’” she said. “You’re perfectly located, you’ve got plenty of land, it’s a low cost of living and there’s good people – there’s a lot of good people here and they want to do good things.”

Not to mention one of the country’s largest data sets dating back to the 1940s at Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, or OMRF, in Oklahoma City, the nonprofit biomedical research institute dedicated to helping innovators. An ideal resource for Rosenthal and Gieck, and a potential key to perfecting their algorithms.

With Klingler on board – and soon at the helm as VP of Stakeholder Relations – doors began to open in Oklahoma, along with additional funding, government support and research assistance.

Quickly, talks with Representative McBride and Secretary of Science and Innovation Elizabeth Hutt Pollard led to funding opportunities with the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, or OCAST, an agency determined to foster innovation and expand and diversify Oklahoma’s economy with technologies such as bioscience.

And that immense data set at OMRF? Access granted.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better investor and supporter – everything from common thoughts, understanding, ideology – everything,” Gieck said. “And the push that she’s done for us has been amazing. We certainly wouldn’t be in Oklahoma doing what we’re doing if it wasn’t for her.”

“WHY OKLAHOMA? I WAS LIKE, ‘WHY NOT?’ YOU’RE PERFECTLY LOCATED, YOU’VE GOT PLENTY OF LAND, IT’S A LOW COST OF LIVING AND THERE’S GOOD PEOPLE – THERE’S A LOT OF GOOD PEOPLE HERE AND THEY WANT TO DO GOOD THINGS.”

SHELLEY KLINGLER, VP STAKEHOLDER RELATIONS

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THEY SEE THE STATE’S FUTURE AS A BIOTECH HUB TAKING SHAPE AND UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANT ECONOMIC IMPACT IN MOTION. MORE INNOVATION, MORE JOBS. MORE JOBS, MORE TALENT. MORE TALENT, MORE PROSPERITY FOR THE STATE.

That push also played a huge part in General Genomics’ most recent success: a model that can genetically predict who is more susceptible to lupus.

It’s a breakthrough that would not have happened so rapidly without the vast autoimmune data set acquired by OMRF. They also are currently working with Bridges Health to develop AI powered software to serve patients in Oklahoma, in addition to forming academic partnerships with the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University.

This steady success and growth have the team positive about what’s next and confident in the decision to plant roots in Oklahoma.

“We know that with some of the programs that the state of Oklahoma has – the relocation program – we can attract people here,” Rosenthal said.

They see the state’s future as a biotech hub taking shape and understand the important economic impact in motion. More innovation, more jobs.

More jobs, more talent. More talent, more prosperity for the state.

And while the economic potential is thrilling for the General Genomics group, it always comes back to people.

“We’re really excited for our future and to provide something that’s better for people – to empower people,” Gieck said. “We’re not there to tell you what treatments to take, we’re there to show you the options and treatments available to you, and the potential side effects. And then you can make your own decision.”

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P RO M OT I O N

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ASK THE EXECUTIVES We asked executives from different industries’ sectors to weigh in on some often-asked questions we hear. Here’s some answers to questions you want to know — like what do your clients really think of you? — in this special advertising section that goes straight to the top.

ASK THE EXECUTIVES

P RO M OT IO N

What is your best advice you give others in your industry?

The best advice I can give is to price your services based upon the value you create for your clients, not the time it takes you to complete a task. The more experienced you are the quicker you come to valuable solutions, and this greatly benefits your clients.

What advice do you give to prospective clients?

Clients should select a partner to work with on projects, not a vendor that only values you for the amount of fees you pay. Partnerships create a relationship in which both parties need the other to be successful, and so they each work toward that goal.

What expertise do you have that makes you stand out from peers in your industry?

Miller provides 100 percent project funding for clients and provides full development services from land acquisition to building design, construction and property management. Miller is your single source expert for facility development and project funding.

How many years of experience do you have in your field? What are some of the major things you've learned during your career?

My experience spans four decades. Over that time, I’ve learned that the most important thing you can do is be true to your word. Underpromise and overdeliver. And listen more than you talk.

Darin Miller CEO

MILLE R

405.843 . 6 6 5 6 MILLER ARCH.C OM 13401 N W E STE R N AV E # 302, OKL AHOM A CIT Y, O K 73114

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What would you say is your area of expertise? Why did you decide to focus on this area?

I have worked in every aspect of the architectural design and construction process. My well rounded knowledge in all aspects of the facility development process, including financing, makes my input highly valuable for clients.

What would your clients say about you?

My clients would say I am a very trustworthy partner and bring tremendous value to the partnership.

P RO M OTION

ASK THE EXECUTIVES

Tell us the history of Mister Robert.

Mister Robert Fine Furniture began 63 years ago, when my parents started a store that assured its customers the best in fine furniture and home décor. I was literally raised in the business, and after graduating with my degree in Interior Design, I passed the NCIDQ exam and became a Professional member of the American Society of Interior Designers. With over 20,000 square feet, Mister Robert has become the destination for individuals wanting to invest in their interior spaces. I am honored to continue my parents’ legacy.

Why is it important to hire an Interior Designer?

They can help you avoid costly mistakes, make sure you consider all potential aspects of your interior and ensure your project concludes with the best possible result. In short, hiring an Interior Designer will help make your home or office more livable. We use professional knowledge and skill to assist the client in creating a space that meets their needs and desires in the most aesthetically pleasing way.

What are some of your favorite brands for furniture and décor?

My favorite brands meet a high standard for quality, uniqueness and beauty. I want leathers to be top grain and fabrics to be both beautiful and durable. Frames should be made of hard woods, with 8-way hand tied springs where possible.

Keven Calonkey Carl INT E RI O R D E SI G NE R

MISTER ROBERT

405.3 2 1 . 1 8 1 8 MIST E R ROB E RT.C O M 109 E M AIN ST, N O R M A N , O K 73069

What are the top trends you are seeing in design?

I am seeing an increase in demand for eclectic home furnishings. The same is true with color; fabric offerings are increasingly diverse, with more patterns and brighter colors available than we have seen in many years. Finally, more consumers and manufacturers are interested in not just the cost of their products, but where and how they were made.

Sustainable furniture manufacturing is increasingly important to customers.

Tell us about a few of your most meaningful or memorable projects.

It would be impossible for me to select a few projects, because I enjoy all of them. Interior design is my vocation, and I find helping people create spaces that meet their needs to be my purpose in life. Together, we make their space unique and specifically designed for them. Working so closely with each client, we become friends, and these friendships are longlasting and exceptionally meaningful.

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ASK THE EXECUTIVES

Cannon & Associates YO UR FIERCE ADVO C ATE S™, MILITARY DIVORCE AND CRIMINAL DEFENSE P: 405.6 5 7 . 2 3 2 3 F : 405.65 7 . 2 4 1 3 JP C ANN ON L AW F IRM .C O M 1425 SOUTH FRETZ AVENUE EDMON D, OK 7 3 0 03

P RO M OT IO N

Why military divorce?

Our founder, John Cannon, is a serving Judge Advocate in the Oklahoma Army National Guard and we care deeply about those that serve and their families. We seek to ensure the federal protections and complex regulations that impact divorce for service members and their spouses are enforced and the benefits provided by the military, including military retirement and health care, are protected.

Why criminal defense and family law?

We have the honor and responsibility of serving some of the best people in Oklahoma going through some of the worst times in their lives. It our mission to be Fierce Advocates™ for families and freedom and walk beside clients in difficult times.

What should someone look for in a criminal defense firm?

In the unfortunate event you or your family need criminal defense services, it is important to find a law firm that you Know, Like, and Trust. These three words have so much meaning; however, it truly gets to the core of finding the right counsel. Often, the practice of criminal defense involves the defense of one’s liberty—where there is no room for error in hiring an attorney.

What should someone look for in a family law firm?

The practice of family law is unsurprisingly submersed in tense environments and high emotions. Those seeking representation in divorce and custody are often confronting a battle over their livelihood, children, retirement, and possessions. For many, this battle will be the most difficult they face, which is why it is important to have a Fierce Advocate™ who will protect and fight for your interests.

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OCTOBER 2022 Powered by Women profiles are an opportunity to feature the female leaders guiding your business to success. This is an opportunity to demonstrate your company’s commitment to diverse leadership in our business community.

Powered by Women profiles are featured in the October/November edition of 405 Business Magazine.

C A L L VA N D A H O L L A N D FOR MORE INFORMATION vanda@405business.com 405.308.2733

E X I T S T R ATEGY

DOWNTIME ON TOPIC LINKED IN OUT OF OFFICE

Launched

KIMBERLY D PHOTOGRAPHY

Ward 7 councilmember Nikki Nice speaks at the 405 Business Magazine Launch Party. p.62

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DOWNTIME

Wheels in Motion Randy Kamp has owned many restaurants throughout Oklahoma, including Kamp’s 1910 Café, but it’s his passion for cycling that has been a constant in his life for almost 50 years.

BY K AYTE SPILLMAN

a lawyer and a CPA, having practiced law for 15 years. He owned nine different Johnny Carino’s franchises throughout Oklahoma before selling them last year. And of course, his Kamp’s 1910 Café near Automobile Alley and in the atrium in Oklahoma Children’s Hospital might be his most well-known ventures.

But, this storied professional career isn’t even his longest, most enduring passion. That’s reserved for cycling.

R A N DY K A M P I S

EX IT S T R AT EGY

“When I ride by myself, where I’m going is all I have to focus on. I can think through things and get some perspective on what is happening.”

—RANDY KAMP

Left: Randy Kamp, with his wife and daughter, at the top of the Fremont pass while riding in the Ride the Rockies, a 400500-plus mile ride through the Rocky Mountains.

Above: Randy and his wife Linda on a tandem bike beginning a 24-hour bike ride.

“I started riding a bike in a big way at a very early age,” Kamp said. “I got my first 10-speed bike when I was about 10-11 years old. Having a multispeed bike gave me a level of independence that I wouldn’t otherwise have had.”

Before long, Kamp was riding century rides, or rides that were a distance of 100 miles.

“My first century ride was in 1973,” he said.

“They took us in a van to Davis, Oklahoma, and dumped me out with a map. And they basically told us to ride home.”

It was a different time. After college and law school (and a time devoted to weightlifting; “I had a 31-inch waist and a 25.5-inch thigh”), he returned to his love of cycling.

“I took the bar in July and rode a 100-mile ride in September,” he said.

Soon, his wife joined him in his passion, and his kids did as well. For many years, Kamp averaged about 3-4,000 miles a year on his bike.

Lately, it’s been more like 2,000-2,500 a year, not that he’s really counting.

“I’ve never been a big mileage guy,” he said.

For him, it’s been a lifelong passion that he has shared with his family and children and been a way to build friendships as well.

“Some of my best friends I have to this day I met from riding my bike,” he said. “When I was young, biking was my freedom and independence. When I got older, it was my form of playing golf. I want to be physically fit, but what keeps me coming back is the relationships I’ve made.”

Kamp has been riding for close to 50 years now, and along with a few collisions with cars and broken bones, he’s also had trips through the Rockies, cycling trips with friends and his daughters, Lauren, Jessica and Rebecca, and many miles on a tandem bike with his wife Linda.

“It’s been a lifelong love,” he said. “Some of the stuff I learned, I don’t know how else I would have learned it but from my rides. I know there are times when I need to go out and clear my head on a bike.

I just need to get away from it all. When I ride by myself, where I’m going is all I have to focus on. I can think through things and get some perspective on what is happening.”

And, the Kamp love of cycling will officially pass to the next generation. His oldest daughter Lauren married a man who also loves cycling.

“He took her out on a 35-mile bike ride on their first date,” he said.

Now that’s love.

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EX I T S TR ATE GY

ON TOPIC

Where Do You Go for Innovative or Inspirational Business Ideas in Oklahoma City?

Traci Walton

Steve Burris

Shannon Rich

C O- F OUNDER PLEN T Y ME RCAN T ILE

KE VO P RO P E RTIE S C E O A N D FO U N D E R

O K L A H O M A H A L L O F FA M E P RE SID ENT A ND CE O

I think we go to the people that frequent our shops for inspiration. We follow their lead. I think we do that locally and we see how that applies to the markets that we go to. We see how we can facilitate that and how we can serve our customers.

I don’t know if this is how everyone on the planet thinks, but this is how I think: I don’t ever wake up with creative ideas. I look at the world and when anyone says there is a problem with something I think, ‘How do you fix that?’ To solve problems, it really just comes from what is the roadblock and what is in the way? Start from the very beginning and go back to the basics. What is the core thing you are trying to do? In Oklahoma, we have too much regulation and that always hurts industries. I was a real estate commissioner, and I saw this all the time.

People create a law to stop something, and you create five more problems you didn’t see and didn’t intend to do. Too many laws and too many regulations impede growth and stifle inspiration.

I get inspiration when we are told what we can’t do, and then we figure out how to do it anyway.

When COVID hit, we were a few weeks out from an event for 400 people and 30 breweries. We got together and we figured out how to pivot and move it all to our parking lot. So, I look for people who solve problems or have been creative in finding solutions and bring that back to what we do. Put the right team in place and let them be creative and then they make it happen. I am just fortunate to be surrounded by the best and brightest. Our people, it’s the unique thing that makes us Oklahomans. We get to see people in their zone and in their lane and it really brings out the best. For the Oklahoma Hall of Fame as this is our 95th year, this is our year of purpose. We are renewing our sense of purpose this year.

I think we seek engagement to find inspiration too. We ask questions on social media.

We take great stock in those things. We ask for feedback for things we find at market.

What do you think of this? Would this work in your home space? But our inspiration comes from the people we see every day.

I think we try to honor what is uniquely Oklahoma. We’re not trying to trend towards either coast; we try to embrace who we are and give some depth around that.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY KATHY LEE

Area business leaders talk about what motivates them to grow or helps them solve problems that arise.

Edmond Insider Reach 60,000+ Edmond Readers!

We created this special section, Edmond Insider, as a way for you to reach the Oklahomans who live, work and play locally. It’s an excellent opportunity to showcase your business and share your advertising message with thousands of readers throughout central Oklahoma. According to our user research, 59% of our readers have a household income of $100,000 or higher, and many of them reside in Edmond, Arcadia and Piedmont.

FOR MORE INFORMATION To discuss a comprehensive advertising plan that includes our other platforms, contact your 4O5 account executive or call 405.842.2266.

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LINKED IN

405 Business Magazine Launch Party Launch Party packed more than 100 business leaders in Crew Workspace, a coworking space in downtown Oklahoma City, where magazine leadership not only introduced the magazine to the public but also recognized 10 people featured in the first issue poised to change Oklahoma City in the next 10 years.

These outstanding leaders, featured in the 10 for the next 10 article in our January/February issue, spoke about what they think the future of Oklahoma City will be and how their industry will change as well.

T H E 4 0 5 B U S I N E S S M AG A Z I N E

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1 Mayor David Holt addresses the crowd as he accepts his recognition as one of 405 Business Magazine’s 10 for the next 10.

2 Adam Mitchell, Jessica Ockershauser, Randie Vasso and Nicole Lombardo.

3 Rachel Cope, Vince Lombardo, Dr. Julie Watson, Councilmember Nikki Nice, T.W. Shannon, Geoff Camp, James Spann, Danny Maloney and Mayor David Holt stand together as nine of the 10 recognized in 405 Business Magazine’s 10 for the next 10.

4 Liz Cobb and Madison Bules.

5 Kris Murray with TW Shannon and Drake Scifers.

6 Dr. Julie Watson, Integris Health chief medical officer, discusses the future of healthcare in Oklahoma City.

7. Rod Whitson, 405 Business Magazine publisher, greets the standing-room only crowd.

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EX IT S T R AT EGY

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1 Bricktown police officers drink coffee with Black Rifle Coffee Company staff. Black Rifle Coffee Company is now open at 14215 N Pennsylvania Ave in OKC. A grand opening is scheduled for March 5.

2 Police officers at the original Moore location with Black Rifle Coffee Company staff.

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Black Rifle Coffee Company Grand Opening Company, a veteran-owned coffee company, is opening a new location in Oklahoma City this March.

This makes the second location for the company in Oklahoma, with a location in Moore as well.

405 BUSINESS: KIMBERLY D PHOTOGRAPHY

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Mike Beckham’s ‘Simple’ Office MIKE B E C KHA M , Simple Modern CEO, sold his first hydration product in 2016. Just six years later, he’s the

biggest hydration product supplier to Amazon, Target and well on his way to being the largest for Walmart too. In 2022, the company is looking to sell to 11 million customers.

His corporate offices are tucked back from a busy retail area in Moore. Here’s a look at where the founder of this company – and several other e-commerce businesses that have cumulative sales of more than a billion dollars – spends his workday.

Wall of photos “I built this wall of photos to represent the importance of relationships and the important relationships in my life,” Beckham said. “Ultimately, relationships are of central importance in my life and we’re trying to build this business around that.”

Paintings Top: a painting by an artist who is a family member.

Bottom: a painting by a student from Love Works, an organization that encourages entrepreneurship in kids.

Wall Street Journal The Wall Street Journal featured Simple Modern in an article about supply chain frustrations during the last quarter of 2021. “I wrote a thread on Twitter that went viral,” Beckham said.

“A few million people had seen it, and then it led to this article.”

Wall of photos “I built this wall of photos to represent the importance of relationships and the important relationships in my life,” Beckham said. “Ultimately, relationships are of central importance in my life and we’re trying to build this business around that.”

Simple Modern products Simple Modern sells 12-15 core product lines with several thousand different items in total.

CHARLIE NEUENSCHWANDER

Plants “My mom loved plants,” Beckham said. “And when I worked in the nonprofit and ministry world, I realized I needed to cultivate a hobby. It brings life to the office.”