Olomomo Blog

In honor of the birth of our new daughter - Maren Helena Perkins - Olomomo will be running a cause campaign from now until the end of the year to raise $1,000 for helping 200 kids in tough environments learn skills to stay "off the streets" and earn jobs or become entrepreneurs though an innovative sports program called "A Ganar" which means "To Win."

Olomomo has been a metaphor and a platform for me to share my values, experiences, aspirations, and sense of adventure with the world in an artistic, fun and delicious way.  

One of those values and aspirations has always been to use Olomomo as a force for helping people - at home in the US through providing employment, and also in developing areas like Africa or Mexico or Brazil through sourcing fair trade supplies or leveraging Olomomo's reach and global outlook to generate social impact.  

I've spent a good deal of time in Latin America, Africa and Asia, and have seen both heart-wrenching poverty and also amazing people who have overcome challenging living conditions to become teachers, coaches and social workers helping hundreds of other people in their communities.

In 1998, I had the privilege to study abroad in Brazil.  The experience was incredible and rocked my perfect little Boulder bubble world, leaving a lasting impact that has peppered everything I've done ever since.  Living with subsistence farmers and fisherman, studying poverty-alleviation programs in urban areas, and spending hours observing street children in cities like Salvador, Bahia blew my mind.

One of the things that impressed me most were the youth programs using sports as a catalyst to keep kids out of the cycles of poverty.  I met some amazing young men and women who had overcome major challenges - poverty, lack of education, alcoholic fathers, gangs, etc - and dedicated their lives to helping hundreds of kids through sports like soccer and capoeira - a Brazilian martial art.  

I was excited when I came across the "A Ganar" project because it's a perfect fit for what the Olomomo brand is all about - innovation and creating opportunity through enterprise.  This holiday, 5% of Olomomo's sales will go towards our campaign to raise $1,000 to help 200 kids learn life skills and gain employment and business training.  

You can also contribute by clicking the "Like" button on our Facebook page or donating directly to the project.  For each donation over $100, Olomomo will send you a 4-pack of nuts!  For a donation over $200, we'll send you a 4-pack of nuts and a stylish Olomomo Monkey tshirt. 

Thanks for helping Olomomo teach 200 kids to be self-sufficient.  I'm a fan of innovative programs like A Ganar that promise highly-leveraged impact !

I kinda hate powerpoint presentations.

After creating thousands of slides and surviving hours of endless powerpoint presentations in the last 10 years, I have a hard time paying attention when someone is talking at me with bullet points.

But this format was pretty great.  Ignite Boulder.  20 creative slides, 15 seconds per slide, and 1300 energetic geeks, entrepreneurs, artists and nerds piled into Chataqua auditorium in Boulder despite the cold to celebrate life and the fabric of ideas in this great town.

The best part, in my opinion, were the breakthrough stories.

When you lose everything, you either can stay as a victim (mentally), or I guess you can look at disaster as an opportunity - as a clean slate.  I'm always impressed with people who have the courage and discipline to do the latter.  

I missed the name of the guy who lost everything in Katrina and humbly went from being a self-admitted, unfocused mess, to using that massive catastrophe as a wake-up call and an opportunity to change direction in his life.  You could tell he had a really clear sense of who he is, now, and what he wants to do with that vs. getting stuck in circumstances.  

I also dig the courageous leap into a crazy business idea stories.  

Banjo Billy's tours - a favorite local Colorado company - started by a frustrated data analyst who came home one night and in an act of defiance (aided by a bit of intoxication, admittedly) decided to buy a school bus on eBay.  

The company now gives about 1,000 tours of local historic sites a year in Boulder and Denver and touches probably about 50,000 people a year who come to visit Boulder and Denver or who rent the bus for private events.  

That spontaneous decision probably had years of build-up behind it that culminated in one logic-defying act (and what's even better was this guy was totally a logic-driven data analyst).  The owner - John Georgis -seems pretty darn happy with life and gets extra bonus points for quoting and exemplifying the words of the mighty Yoda - "do or do not, there is no try."   Commitment.

Three years ago I bought a nut machine on a credit card.  I didn't know it at the time, but it was an act of commitment that I needed to take to prove to myself I could follow through on my idea (vs. a job or opportunity that was in reaction to circumstances or convenience).  

I'm also 5 years into a day job (personal record), and eight years into a marriage (8X my longest relationship), and I'm finally starting to know what commitment feels like in a deeper way.   

Thanks to Katrina guy and Banjo Billy for putting it out there tonight.  Good stuff, fellas.

Olomomo Fans at the Boulder Farmers Market in 2009 caught on video trying their luck at pronouncing the name of our new brand - Olomomo!

Great to reconnect with a high school friend - Patrick Walsh - at his new coffee shop in Louisville, CO:  Bittersweet!  Who knew that we'd go from playing soccer together to having food companies 15 years later.

 Very happy to announce that Olomomo has been selling well at the Niwot Market for the past couple of weeks!  We did a demo there two weeks ago and one customer, fresh off of a morning of gardening, asked us to toss a sample in her mouth since her hands were too dirty.  

This last few weeks has really picked up!  We were just accepted into a long-time favorite local market in North Boulder called Lucky's!

Thanks to Dave Marks for taking these wonderful Olomomo Nuts glam shots during his trek in Nepal last month.  Apparently even the Sherpas loved ‘em! 

If you promise to take some pics of Olomomo Nuts on your next adventure, I’ll hook you up with a case of nuts for your trip!  Call me.

 

Things are going swimmingly, and as farmers markets wind down, you may notice Olomomo Nuts showing up in a few coffee shops around town.  Where can you find Olomomo Nuts if you’re jonesin’ in between Wednesdays and Saturdays?  For starters, you can snag some nuts with your cup of joe at OZO Coffee on Arapahoe between Foothills and 55th.  They roast their own coffee now, too – it’s delish.

 

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Last week ABC News in Denver featured Olomomo Nut Company in a story about startups in the struggling economy. The opportunity to be on TV came about through winning the Bard Center Business Plan contest. You may also recognize Beckie and Toby from The Organic Dish in the spot - there is also a writeup on the Channel 7 news website, here: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/money/20230500/detail.html