Philip Meech and Caffè Lusso take people on a coffee journey around the world. A coffee roaster and entrepreneur for over 25 years, he wants coffee drinkers to slow down, taste the roasted beans, and enjoy the rich variety.
Courtesy Caffé Lusso
In this episode, Philip talks with Washington State Magazine editor Larry Clark about enjoying coffee, his lifelong love of coffee, the art and science of coffee roasting, and his journey from … » More …
There are doors—and then there are really big, automated doors.
For the latter, Darren Kiesler (’05 Arch.) and Boone Helm (’03 Comm.) run the Big Door Company, which installs and automates large door systems throughout the western United States and British Columbia.
The longtime friends met at WSU and then became business partners a few years ago.
Kiesler and Helm answered questions for Washington State Magazine about their unusual company, time at WSU, incredible projects, and how automated doors could help people.
All photos courtesy the Big Door Company
How did you get the idea of a company focused … » More …
Inside an old yellow craftsman house, sewing machines whir, sketches adorn the walls, underwear and tank top prototypes hang from clothing racks, and a cat wanders through the living room.
Debbie Christel’s childhood home in north Tacoma has transformed into the headquarters of Kade and Vos, a start-up company helping women get the clothes they need.
“We ask women, what do you need to be comfortable?” says company cofounder Christel ’08. “Our design process doesn’t go through a weight-biased filter. We don’t take a small pattern and make it bigger. We know that doesn’t work.”
In the United States, 67 percent of women wear a … » More …
In the verdant woods outside Covington, Dane Scarimbolo brews local beer.
After graduating from Washington State University’s viticulture and enology program, Scarimbolo ’10 realized a wine startup would take a lot of money and time. He enjoyed making beer, so he opened Four Horsemen Brewery in 2015 with an eye toward an older, community-minded ethos that could please the beer equivalent of a locavore.
“I was adamant about sourcing everything from Washington,” he says. In that spirit, Scarimbolo sells his craft beer at farmers markets in the region, just like farmers offer lettuce, carrots, and berries grown locally. Scarimbolo knows the beekeepers who … » More …
A safe and sterile needle seems to be a basic idea when preventing infections. But how that needle is sterilized, especially in places where reuse is a common practice, spurred a good idea for a pair of Washington State University student entrepreneurs.
Emily Willard and Katherine Brandenstein came up with the idea of SafeShot, a lid that sterilizes a needle each time it enters the vial of medicine, as part of an entrepreneurship class. The two students started a company, won a health business contest last spring, and headed to Tanzania early this year to research how their product could be used in a real … » More …