Creating My Best Life. A Better World… Leading Omni Portland.
I like to think I earned the cowboy hat and boots that have become sweat-drenched and mud-caked in the past year. My hands, which previously only knew the sharp aluminum edges of a MacBook, have learned many hard lessons from barbwire and tough rope. It has been a time focused on my family and building our dream property… a legacy to hand down to our generations to come.
Our time in Hawaii was about creating a place where my children could connect with the land, be close to their food and develop a sense of adventure… but I realize having an opportunity to create that kind of experience is an immense privilege, that yes, comes from years of hard work and sacrifice, but even more so from the legs up given to me by my parents, the support of my friends, family, partners and the hard work of so many others.
I am incredibly fortunate to have everything I need, and everything I want is within reach — But that shouldn’t be something only a few enjoy…and so, we’re packing up. We’ve bought a small home in SE Portland, a perfect fit for our family of five. We’re moving in a week, so I can help lead Omni’s expansion as the General Manager for Portland.
The generosity of others has inspired me to try and give back for what I have received. In 2005 I went to Thailand because I knew I could lend even just a small amount of help that would be meaningful to someone recovering from the Indian Ocean Tsunami. That planned 2-month trip ended up lasting 2 years and taking me around the world, running volunteer centers, and co-founding what would become All Hands & Hearts, an organization that continues to help people recovering from natural disasters around the world. In my small hometown on the Big Island, Hawaii, I created a free annual summer camp for 20 kids around the state of Hawaii, to get a crash course in entrepreneurship, innovation and storytelling. Our 3rd camp is just wrapping up this week with another cohort of amazing kids who will shape the future. And even if I’m only giving smiles to children (and some adults), driving around a life- sized Disney car to support organizations like Make-A-Wish is incredibly fun and rewarding.
As I start this next chapter of my life at Omni, I’m very excited about a company that is providing access and opportunity to so many people. I see Omni as taking the operational intelligence of a company like Amazon, where anything you want is a click away… and rooting that in the belief that we already collectively have everything. That we can buy less and do more.
As a former founder and CEO myself, I have immense respect for Tom McLeod, Founder and CEO of Omni for not just his vision, but the way in which he has gone about executing it. Omni launched in San Francisco with an on-demand storage company that simplified things by picking up and bringing items back to you from the comfort of your home. After they perfected that system, they began putting those idle items back into use by allowing them to be rented by the community. San Francisco has proven Omni works, and creates a way for communities to consume less and share more.
I’ve seen the intensely obvious example of lack of access in communities affected by natural disasters, where one family has lost everything while their neighbor was left mostly untouched. In those situations, if a platform existed at scale to facilitate the sharing of resources across a community, the collective could take care of the affected and fewer people would suffer. This is true on a smaller scale in my own home. In the back of drawers, at the top of shelves, and in the boxes in the garage are things I’m not using… things others might need, valuable items adding no value.
Portland is a big city that feels like a small town. The kind of small town where you wave to people you pass on the street, where you can hear the cheering from the stadium on a game night, or where if you need help the whole town shows up. The big city creates a place where everyone can explore the individuality that makes them who they are, where the mixing of so many ideas and experiences creates a more thoughtful understanding of each other, and where the sparks of creativity and innovation can quickly catch fire.
It makes perfect sense then that Omni, a platform to support communities sharing access to modes of comfort, entertainment, utility, exploration, creation and adventure, would choose Portland as the first new city to share their vision and service with.
My family has lived in Oregon for several generations. Nearly every summer and winter break as a kid we visited my grandma here. I went to Wilson High School in SW for a bit, attended the Art Institute of Portland, and between life changing trips to live around the world I always came back to Portland to process what I experienced. I got my first job as a web developer here and started my first successful company here. I am deeply connected to my hometown in Hawaii, but Portland has always provided me with a home that gave me a place to write the next chapter of my life from… and this time, my Portland home will be filled with an even bigger family.
I get to take all that I’ve learned from Portland about building communities, expanding on ideas, and giving back and use that to create an Omni experience here that echoes just how special this town is. Portland folks, you can get in on early access to Omni by signing up here.
To our family and friends in Hawaii, we’ll see you on the holidays.
To our Portland friends & family, it’s good to be home.
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