Success stories

Hip Chick Farms, Sebastopol

BACKGROUND

Hip Chick Farms makes hand-crafted, delicious frozen chicken fingers, chicken meatballs, chicken wings and chicken stock, with all-natural, sustainable ingredients and practices. Hip Chick Farms was created from Chef Jen’s Johnson’s love of food and family, and offers family friendly solutions for lunch and dinner time.

Chef Johnson has served as the Executive Private Chef for Ann & Gordon Getty in San Francisco for the last 11 years, cooking for President Obama, celebrities and Bay Area personalities. Prior to working for the family, she worked at the legendary Chez Panisse for ten years alongside amazing chefs and visionary, Alice Waters.

Humboldt Heartland, Humboldt County

BACKGROUND
Humboldt Heartland is a story of ranching on California's remote North Coast. Fifth generation resident and rancher Andy Westfall has visited ranches throughout Humboldt County since 1996, photographing and conducting interviews for this book. Each of the book's five chapters: The Lore; The Landscape; The Livelihood; The Life; and The Legacy, are filled with beautiful photographs and the voices of the people - ranchers, woodsmen, young and old, men, women, and children. The book documents the past, present, and future of this unpretentious way of life through the stories, the rugged beauty of Humboldt, the hard work and the humor, and the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead for these ranching families.

The Mike Young Team LLC, Fairfield

BACKGROUND
Mike Young is an FHA 203k Consultant, a Real Estate Consultant and a Home Design Consultant. Mike performs feasibility analysis per 203k guidelines to assist homebuyers and real estate agents in making an offer on homes needing repairs.

Mike was an FHA Real estate appraiser from 1992-2004 and home inspector for over 30 years. Now Mike teaches seminars instructing for Continuing Education (CE) credits for appraisers and home inspectors. He has developed his own software for 203k report writing, which is now purchased and used by consultants nationally. Through his seminars, his software and his books, Mike trains lenders, consultants, home inspectors, architects, engineers, and contractors in the ways of FHA 203k.

Obsessive Confection Disorder, Fairfield

BACKGROUND
Melodi Donahue began making confections professionally a few years ago, switching entirely to vegan formulas in April 2011. The name of her company is a clever play upon a very real debilitating condition that plagues her personal and professional life – obsessive compulsive disorder. Her intellectually humorous names for her products continue the theme of having fun while enjoying treats made without any animal-derived ingredients. Her presence has been noticed worldwide as a result of her involvement with various animal rights organizations.

CARE for the Bay Area, Los Gatos

BACKGROUND
CARE for the Bay Area is a new medical clinic and embryology laboratory providing personalized care for people attempting to build families. A full range of reproductive technologies is provided in a warm comfortable setting. CARE focuses specifically on treatments that are designed to reduce the cost, emotional stress, technological intervention, and ethical dilemmas often associated with infertility treatment. CARE for the Bay Area offers a full spectrum of infertility services, including medical tests to diagnose infertility, medical advice and treatments to help a woman become pregnant, and services other than routine prenatal care to help to prevent miscarriage. In only the first months of operations, CARE was able to provide successful outcomes for six families.

Beverly Leftwich, MS MFT, Cupertino

BACKGROUND
Before Beverly Leftwich, MS MFT, started her couple and individual counseling and therapy practice, she was a landscape architect and found her calling through volunteering her time in couples and individual recovery on drug & alcohol addiction. She gained a lot of satisfaction from her volunteer work and decided to switch careers and pursue the path of clinical counseling and therapy for individuals, couples and families.

Beverly is a graduate of Dominican University of California with a Master of Science degree in Counseling Psychology. She completed the required 3,000 hours of internship before passing the exam to become a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. One of her specialties is in the area of addiction recovery and couples counseling.

Next Phase Solar, Inc., Berkeley

BACKGROUND
Next Phase Solar provides Operations and Maintenance services to organizations with investment in Solar Energy. They bring 10 years of experience maintaining commercial and utility scale PV (photovoltaic) systems and focus on quality and customer service. Their dedication to driving reliability in the Renewable Energy Industry makes them a valuable partner for any organization that is interested in playing a role in the operation of PV plants.

Calling on Next Phase gives solar system owners increased return on your investment, and the peace of mind that their investment is being managed by experienced professionals.

Teen Solutions, Mill Valley

BACKGROUND
Teen Solutions is a psychotherapy practice that specializes in counseling teens and families in Marin. It was started in 2005 by Richard and Lorraine Platt who are Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists in Mill Valley. They teach families how to communicate more effectively and coach parents to provide safety and direction to their adolescent. Richard Platt mentors boys and young men while Lorraine Platt mentors girls and young women to develop into healthy adults.

Cake Coquette, San Francisco

BACKGROUND
San Francisco native Gabrielle Feuersinger started her cake-design business, Cake Coquette, in 2007. With training in baking and pastry from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, Gabrielle took a position at the W Hotel in Seattle, where high-quality desserts and extraordinary pastry decoration was of utmost importance. Gabrielle then moved to Los Angeles to hone her abilities with a prestigious cakery called Cake Divas, where she helped construct some of the most extravagant cake projects imaginable for a high-profile, celebrity clientele.

Today, Gabrielle continues to expand her skills by designing signature cakes for trend-setting Bay Area brides. Though weddings are her specialty, Cake Coquette creations are requested for every type of event – from launch parties and birthdays, to anniversaries and showers. Recognized as a leader of cake-design in the Bay Area, Cake Coquette has been featured on dozens of popular Web sites including DailyCandy.com, StyleMePretty.com and Chow.com. Gabrielle has been profiled in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine and is a recurring guest on the local television-favorite, “View from the Bay.” Professional photographs of Gabrielle’s work are consistently highlighted in such publications as San Francisco Brides, Your Wedding Day, Brides Northern California, Bride and Bloom, Gentry and Today’s Bride.

Saafara, San Francisco

BACKGROUND
Saafara is a line of premium handpicked West African herbal teas. Saafara has 5 flavors of tea available in boxes of 15 pyramid sachets. Saafara's brand provides traditional and medicinal West African Herbal Teas. $.25 cents from each box sold helps build acceptable delivery rooms with clean beds plus linens as well as potable water facilities in poor African communities.