Entrepreneurs Foundation opens Oregon chapter

The Entrepreneurs Foundation, started in 1998 by a group of Silicon Valley
venture capitalists who wanted to encourage startups to give back to their
communities, has opened an Oregon chapter.

The Portland Business Journal

The group, which also has
offices in Atlanta, Austin,
Boston, Dallas, Houston
and Israel, encourages
entrepreneurs to ensure
that as their organizations
grow, their communities
reap rewards along with
their investors.

"The goal of the
Entrepreneurs Foundation
is to increase the pool of
financial and volunteer
resources available to build
a better community," said
CEO John McLaughlin,
former chief financial officer of The North Face and Smith & Hawken.

"The focus is on helping emerging companies make a promise that if they are
successful they will give back to the community. At a point when these
companies have limited resources, EFO makes it easy for them to get started."

EFO has two strategies: the first is to ask companies to make a small equity
contribution to the foundation. Upon liquidity, at least 75 percent is transferred
into a company-directed fund.

The second is to assist companies with the
implementation of a community involvement
program, matching their corporate culture and
philanthropic interests with the needs in the
community.

Three Oregon companies have already
donated stock options to the EFO:

StoriedLearning Inc., a privately owned
e-learning company headquartered in
Portland.

Natural Messaging, a Portland-based company that has developed an
instant messaging product "My life experience is the more I give the more
I get, and I’d like for us as a corporation to adopt a similar philosophy,"
said Charles Higgins, Natural Messaging’s CEO.

Eid Access of Beaverton, which combines technologies and services to
solve specific, previously unsolved problems of security.

Upon liquidity these company options will be exercised and the resulting cash
will be put to work in the community, EFO said.

EFO’s board of directors includes John Calhoun, AVenture Partners; Bill
Campbell, AterWynne LLP; Les Fahey, Fahey Ventures; Richard Hawkins,
Geffen Mescher P.C.; Donald Krahmer, Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt; Hugh
Mackworth, SmartForest Ventures; John McLaughlin, Entrepreneurs Foundation
of Oregon; Kandis Brewer Nunn, The Jordan & Mina Schnitzer Foundation; and
Derek Ridgely, Silicon Valley Bank.

EFO’s advisory board includes Brent Bullock, Nathaniel Clevenger, Scott
Davidson, Gun Denhart, Norm Duffett, Dori Gilbert, Fred Granum, Jeff Grubb,
Daniel Hempy, Gordon Hoffman, Tom Holce, Gary Holmsley, Jim Johnson, Jim
Kelly, Gerald Langeler, Brendan McDonnell, Berkeley Merchant, Erich Merrill,
Fred Miller, Blair Minniti, Marie Morgan, Will Neuhauser, Bill Newman, Mike
Parrott, James Rudd and Sharon VanSickle.

For more information, visit EFO on the web at http://www.eforegon.org.

http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2002/07/01/daily24.html