Category Archive

As Kneaded Bakery is a Community Supported Bakery, founded and operated by Iliana Imberman Berkowitz. Inspired by the sourdough bread culture of California and the rich tradition of breads of her Jewish heritage, As Kneaded serves loaves that blend cultures and fill bellies. Iliana focuses her bakery on baguettes, challah, and a variety of sourdough hearth loaves, as well as a unique lineup of seasonal “noshes” (Yiddish for ‘snacks’) which we showcase at multiple weekly farmers’ markets. Iliana founded As Kneaded in July 2016, after having spent several years honing her baking skills in kitchens and bakeries on both coasts. She wanted to build her own business–one that reflected her passion, taste, and depth of expertise. After developing an initial fan base through a weekly bread subscription program, known as “Bread Club,” As Kneaded Bakery made the leap to sell to wholesale accounts and farmers’ markets, thus bringing hearty, inspired … Read More

360 Total Concept is a management consulting firm that specializes in project management for public relations, monitoring and contract compliance, logistics, and facilities management. Founded by Shonda Scott in 2006, 360 Total Concept Consulting focuses on three primary services: Logistics – coordinating conferences, facilitating meetings and workshops, and producing webinars Facilities Management – managing subcontractors and monitoring contract compliance Monitoring/Compliance – providing support on projects to ensure contract guidelines and policies are implemented on specification 360 Total Concept Consulting has grown from 1 employee to 10 over the last decade, and Shonda’s surfed that growth wave to open offices in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. (where Shonda sat on the African American Leadership Council under the Obama Administration). Some of her clients you may know include BART, the LA Metro, and Oakland Public Schools. Even though Shonda has a decade of exceptional growth behind her, her bank still declined to help … Read More

The Good Earth School is a preschool in Kensington, California, that offers early childhood education for children 18 months to 6 years old. The Good Earth School is inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach to education, which means a Child-Centered, on-going Emergent curriculum. Emergent curriculum is a way of planning lessons that are based on the children’s interests and passion at a specific point in time. Founded by Gail and Alan Pavlosky, it’s the only preschool that serves the communities of El Cerrito, Kensington, Albany, Richmond and Berkeley with nature-based instruction. Gail has over 25 years of experience in early childhood education, and operated a family daycare center – Galoshes — for ten years before opening The Good Earth School. Her husband Alan has 30 years of entrepreneurial experience in business and nonprofit operations. Even though they had a decade of experience running successful businesses, their bank still declined to … Read More

In 2012, Michael Paratore was traveling through India when he bought a pair of shoes from a street vendor in Mumbai. Once he was back in the Bay Area, he started wearing the shoes every day, and to all types of events. With all of the compliments he received on them, Michael realized the demand for a versatile, comfortable, and unique pair of shoes. He quit his job as a corporate lawyer, booked a trip back to India to find the craftswomen and craftsmen who made the shoes, and started Mohinders Shoes. Mohinders Shoes sells handwoven footwear made by artisans in Athani Village, India. Small batches of shoes are passed between home workshops since artisans specialize in different steps of the process, like cutting the leather, measuring stitches, and hand-weaving. As an environmentally conscious company, Mohinders Shoes has taken the time to find reliable sources of leather. The artisans who … Read More

Susan Melton is the owner of Ondonte, is a dental staffing company that refers temporary and permanent employment candidates to dental offices around the Bay Area. Ondonte helps create good-paying jobs at dental offices by maintaining a database of qualified dental staff who are looking to fill vacancies. There are between 80 and 120 people in the database at any given time. Ondonte uses internet recruitment sites, its own website, and word of mouth referrals to source qualified staff. The company then conducts in-person interviews and runs a background check on each person to assure the candidate is licensed and qualified. The company has grown substantially with Susan Melton’s leadership over the last five years, with five full-time employees and plans to hire more as it expands. Before they could keep that growth going, they needed additional funding for technology upgrades and onboarding. When the banks turned them down, Ondonte … Read More

iThinkEvents is a comprehensive events management company founded by Gareth Gallagher in 2015. With offices in London, Singapore, and San Francisco, the team at iThinkEvents works to create events that are unimaginable until they happen, and unforgettable once they have. The business has seen tremendous growth since Gareth emigrated to the United States three years ago, securing contracts with Google, Rocketspace, and Coherus. In this time, Gareth has grown to a staff of 20, with plans of hiring on 6 additional employees in the coming year. All of Gareth’s employees are offered unlimited vacation time, and some receive health benefits. Even with all of this success, because Garteth is an immigrant he was having a hard time getting a loan to expand further — so he came to PCV. The business offers a variety of services – Event and travel logistics, finding venues, data management, and audiovisual production – in … Read More

Tadu Ethiopian Kitchen is an Ethiopian restaurant located in downtown San Francisco. The owners, Selamawet (Nani) Tsegaye and Elias Shawel, are immigrants from Ethiopia and opened their first location in the Tenderloin District in 2014. Their dishes range from vegan chickpeas (kik alicha wot) to lamb and injera (firfir – lamb alicha banatu). Prices for dishes are between $9 and $15 and the restaurant is open for lunch and dinner seven days a week. A true embodiment of entrepreneurial spirit, the couple has spent the past two and a half years working feverishly to grow their 10-table restaurant, expanding into catering and bringing on four employees. In this time, they’ve seen their revenues grow dramatically, and have become something of an institution within their local community. After seeing steady profits from Tadu Ethiopian Kitchen, Nani and Elias made the decision to grow their business by opening a second location, House … Read More

Native Juice Co. is a juice and smoothie bar that specializes in fresh beverages made from local ingredients. The company also serves healthy snacks such as salads, wraps, avocado toasts, and soba noodle dishes. The owners support the broader local economy and local producers by sourcing all of their ingredients from Bay Area farmers’ markets as well as from a local farm in Petaluma that produces ingredients exclusively for them. Founded in 2013 by Caitlin Meade and Nicole Fish, Native Juice started off as a stand at two of the bay Area’s bigger farmer’s markets (Oakland’s Grand Lake and San Rafael’s Civic Center), and as a popoup on the corner of Montgomery Street and Pine Street San Francisco’s bustling financial district. After two successful years building up their name recognition and a loyal local following at this location, Caitlin and Nicole opened Native Juice’s first brick-and-mortar flagship location. And from … Read More

Maker’s Common is a combined eatery and retail market, located in Downtown Berkeley, from the team that created the popular Mission Cheese restaurant in San Francisco. The restaurant is opening in 2017, and the team’s plan for the space is to have — of course — tons of cheese, plus charcuterie, wine, bread, and beer to go. The restaurant portion will be in line with the offerings at Mission Cheese, but with an expanded in-house charcuterie program, family-style dinners, and more. At the core of their business is the community of Bay Area makers that the team seeks to support as vital to the economic, environmental, and social health of our country for a multitude of reasons. By sourcing almost exclusively from this community of small responsible producers, Maker’s Common advances healthier eating, more responsible land management, more economically resilient communities, more connected communities, and diversity in opportunities for working … Read More

Preservation & Co. offers a line of jams inspired by cocktails, and also cocktail mixes and pickled products. It was founded by Jason Poole in 2011, after he’d worked for 17 years in the service and hospitality industry. His passion for food got bigger and bigger, and he decided to start the company as a creative outlet. His grandfather was a farmer, so preservation of crops came as a natural interest. He decided to incorporate that with two sides of his life: working in a bar, and loving food. Since then, the company has really caught on and grown. In 2012 they won a national Bloody Mary competition, and were finalists for several Good Food awards. They started to be sold in major grocery stores, and over 600 bars and restaurants. With all of that growth, Jason needed to scale up and came to PCV for support. With PCV as … Read More