Success Stories

Greg Long, co-founder of GAMA-GO, saw joining PCV as an opportunity to start addressing long-term profitability issues. Supplying boutiques around the world with its unique products, GAMA-GO had strong sales but the company had never made a profit and continued to grapple with cash-flow challenges.

Greg and his team moved directly to working one-on-one with a PCV advisor who provided “reliable, verifiable and high-level advice.” Within nine months, PCV’s advisor “helped us drill down on the hard numbers, review projections, pricing and product shipments.” Also, Greg heeded his advisor’s specific recommendation to seek an intern in finance from a local MBA program. A few months later, GAMA-GO now has hired that intern as a part-time employee.

In addition to one-on-one consulting, Greg has attended many PCV workshops. “I’m very inspired by the other PCV members I meet – owners of companies I admire a lot.” After working with PCV for just nine months, GAMA-GO is – for the first time in 10 years – ending the year profitably.

Sheri Tate, CEO of Silver Moon Desserts, joined PCV because of the unusually strong networking opportunities she saw available. “I started networking a bit late, and I didn’t get that really experienced advisor-counseling until I joined PCV. That’s what I really needed.” Since joining PCV, Sheri’s been working closely with an advisor, and is moving her company into a more strategic position for further funding. “We need working capital to hire more people. There is no way I could have found the investment I am putting together now without my PCV advisor’s network.”

Recently named a “Woman Entrepreneur of the Year” by the Bay Area’s Women’s Initiative organization, Sheri knew right away that PCV was going to make a huge difference to her company. “Right after our very first meeting with our advisor, she activated her immediate network on my behalf to find funding sources; then she put a number of other people ‘on alert’ to be thinking of us and helping us. If a small business owner came to me asking where to find help to grow, I’d tell them to get connected to PCV immediately.”

For many young people and low-income employees, working in a restaurant can be the first rung on the ladder of a successful career. At Pacific Catch restaurants, Tom Hanson and his team are committed to training their employees with best work practices: to be on time; to have integrity; and to work as a team. They put effort into supporting their employees by continuing to focus on creating good, sustainable jobs.

“That’s what attracted us to PCV,” Tom said. “They invest in companies that can perform well, but that will also give back to the community, through hiring, training and supporting people in good jobs. When you open a restaurant, you hire upwards of 80 people—PCV is helping us with many different aspects of our expansion. We just opened a fourth restaurant in San Jose, and now we have two advisors from PCV working with us. Both of them are experienced in our exact field—restaurants. So they bring lots of real-world value from expertise in real estate law to knowledge of how to schedule and train cooks for seafood work. PCV’s been a great partner for us.”

Fireclay Tile joined PCV after meeting other PCV portfolio companies and hearing about the Business Advising Program. The ceramic products company wanted to be a part of a local peer group that was passionate about small business, sustainability and local manufacturing. At the time, Fireclay’s management felt they lacked a solid local network of business peers, and they wanted to be able to access local thought and business leaders—PCV offered this exact support.

"PCV has inspired us,” says Eric Edelson. "We had some early advice from an advising group through a Roundtable Session that was very helpful. The networking events and specific introductions based on areas of interest such as financing or manufacturing are also valuable. 2010 has been a great year for us. Sales are up about 10%, we've hired four new factory workers and hired another for sales and marketing.”

Fireclay Tile recently added an additional product line and will soon start making 100% recycled glass tile, bringing back to life a factory that had been shut down in early 2009 due to the economic downturn. “We still have a lot of work to do but we feel good about the progress we've made.”

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