Page 8A
BUSINESS
East Oregonian
Silicon Valley high school
makes $24M from Snap IPO
By PAUL ELIAS
Associated Press
MOUNTAIN
VIEW,
Calif. — Bake sales and car
washes?
Not for one Silicon Valley
parochial high school that
hit it big this week and, by
doing so, highlighted anew
gaping economic disparities
in the region.
St. Francis High School
in Mountain View parlayed
a $15,000 investment into
a windfall of at least $24
million, capitalizing on a
unique venture capital fund
set up by the school’s invest-
ment-savvy parents.
The fund paid off
when the company began
selling shares to the public
Thursday and the school sold
about 1.4 million of the 2.1
million shares at $17 each.
It’s holding the remaining
700,000 shares, which were
valued at about $19 million
Friday.
“Silicon Valley is a pretty
amazing place to live,”
school President Simon
Chiu said. “This obviously
couldn’t have happened
anywhere else.”
St. Francis High School
launched the fund in 1990
at the urging of two of the
many venture capitalists
with children attending the
school. The fund’s aim is to
tag along with deep-pock-
eted investors when they
make big bets on startup
companies. The school takes
a small sliver of a venture
capitalist’s bigger invest-
ment in a startup company.
Chiu and other educators
say they know of no other
school with a similar fund-
raising scheme.
“We don’t have the band-
width to follow the stock
market,” said Amika Guil-
laume, principal of the East
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
A banner for Snap Inc. hangs from the front of the
New York Stock Exchange, Thursday in New York.
The company behind the popular messaging app
Snapchat is expected to start trading Thursday after a
better-than-expected stock offering.
Palo Alto Academy, which
is in one of the poorest cities
in Northern California. “It’s
tough enough to keep kids
on track to graduate.”
Few, if any other schools,
have that sort of advantage,
said Stephen Andriole,
a professor of business,
accountancy and informa-
tion systems at the Villanova
School of Business in Penn-
sylvania.
“The only way to do
this is through a personal
relationship,” he said. “The
probability of success is
quite low.”
Chiu declined to disclose
the size of the school’s
venture fund, but he said it
currently holds investments
in about a dozen other
companies. He said the
money will be added to
the school’s endowments,
which will double it, while
administrators decide how
to spend it.
Generally, the windfall
will enable the school to
offer scholarships, retain
faculty and improve facil-
ities, Chiu said. “I think
everyone understands it’s a
pretty transformational event
for our school,” he said.
Before the Snap invest-
ment, the school’s biggest
profit from a single invest-
ment was $2 million. Chiu
also said the school has lost
money on several invest-
ments.
The Snap Inc. investment
began at the kitchen table
of venture capitalist Barry
Eggers.
Eggers said he came
home from work one day in
2015 and found his children
and their St. Francis school-
mates sitting at the kitchen
table, giggling over the new
Snapchat app, which allows
users to easily exchange
messages with videos and
photographs. Best of all,
the images automatically
destruct after a few minutes.
Eggers researched the
company and negotiated a
$500,000 investment with
the company founders,
including a $15,000 contri-
bution from the school.
“It all started at my
kitchen table with my kids,”
Eggers said. “Only in Silicon
Valley.”
Gresham Christian cake makers appeal
fine on religious freedom grounds
By CHRIS LEHMAN
Oregon Public Broadcasting
The case of the Christian
bakers from Gresham who
refused to make a wedding
cake for two women
reached the Oregon Court
of Appeals on Thursday.
Aaron and Melissa
Klein, owners of Sweet
Cakes by Melissa, said
making the cake for Rachel
and Laurel Bowman-Cryer
would violate their religious
beliefs.
The Oregon Bureau
of Labor and Industries
ordered the Kleins to pay
$135,000
in
damages
after the women filed a
complaint. The Kleins
appealed the ruling.
Their attorneys told a
three-judge panel of the
Oregon Court of Appeals on
Thursday that the penalty is
unfair because the Kleins
were
exercising
their
freedom of religion.
Attorney
Adam
Gustafson also compared
the Kleins’ cakes to works
of art, saying courts have
traditionally given artists a
long leash when it comes to
freedom of expression.
That prompted presiding
Judge Rebecca Duncan to
ask: “So, if I go through
a cafeteria sandwich line
and the person making the
sandwich is believing that
they are creating a piece of
art, then that itself makes it
art regardless of whether I
can perceive that or anyone
would perceive that as art?”
“I’m not aware of any
real-life sandwich shop like
that,” Gustafson responded.
“But if a sandwich shop put
into constructing a hoagie
the same effort that Melissa
Klein put into designing
and executing one of these
wedding cakes, that would
be art.”
Arguing on behalf of the
Bureau of Labor and Indus-
tries, Oregon Department
of Justice Attorney Carson
Whitehead said what the
Kleins did was wrong.
“It’s
enormously
harmful. It goes to the very
sense of self,” Whitehead
said.
He said the Kleins
were willing to bake cakes
for opposite-sex couples
but refused to do so for a
same-sex couple, meaning
they were in violation of
Oregon laws that prohibit
discrimination on the basis
of sexual orientation.
The panel of judges will
likely issue a decision in the
case later this year.
After the hearing, Aaron
and Melissa Klein briefly
spoke with reporters outside
the courtroom.
“We just want to be able
to live in a place where
the government tolerates
and accepts differences,”
Melissa Klein said. “We
hope even if people have
different beliefs from us,
that they will show each
other tolerance and that we
can peacefully live together
and still follow our faith.
That’s all we want.”
The
Bowman-Cryers
also attended the hearing.
They issued a statement
through their attorney,
which read in part:
“We support religious
freedom as a fundamental
value in America. But
religious beliefs should not
entitle anyone to discrim-
inate, target or hurt others.
Every family deserves
respect, dignity and the
opportunity to live free
from discrimination.”
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Navigating Difficult Conversations
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Saturday, March 4, 2017
BRIEFLY
Pendleton insurance agent
receives national award
PENDLETON — Debbie Morrison,
a crop insurance agent for Wheatland
Insurance Center in Pendleton, was
recently recognized
with an outstanding
service award.
Highly regarded
in the Pacific
Northwest crop
insurance industry,
Morrison received
the award during the
2017 Crop Insurance
Industry Annual
Convention, held
Morrison
Feb. 5-8 in Bonita
Springs, Florida.
Morrison helps growers develop risk
management plans to help ensure they
are able to farm the following year, said
Laurie Langstraat, vice president of public
relations for National Crop Insurance
Services.
Anyone that farms in the Pendleton
area, Langstraat said, knows that Morrison
is a good person to ask when it comes
to crop insurance questions. In addition,
she’s said to be a go-to agent for regional
American Indian growers, with about
30 percent of the agency’s business
consisting of Bureau of Indian Affairs
policies.
Morrison started writing crop-hail
insurance in the 1970s and multiple peril
crop insurance in 1981. She works long
hours, including reviewing policies and
taking time to explain information to her
clients.
For more information, contact
Morrison at 541-276-7441, debbiem@
wici.net or visit www.wheatlandins.com.
Pendleton transport
business expands to Astoria
PENDLETON — Safe T Transport of
Pendleton is stretching its services to the
far shore of the Oregon Coast.
Scott Jacobson, general manager of
the business, is from Astoria. He said in a
written statement the company will open a
branch in his old home town on March 13.
The company provides medical
transportation for clients who can’t or
shouldn’t drive to and from medical
and dental appointments, as well as
limousine and charter bus services. Safe
T Transport operates six vehicles and has
seven Eastern Oregon volunteers with
headquarters at 1608 Southgate Place,
Pendleton.
The company hired Desiree Menninger
to manage the Astoria operation, and she
is seeking to hire two drivers, according to
the statement, with the goal of expanding
to seven by the end of the year. The
Pendleton branch also is looking for
drivers.
For more information, call Safe T
Transport at 877-564-1134 or email to
safetrans@wtechlink.us.
Longtime Hermiston
beautician goes out in style
HERMISTON — Buttercreek Salon is
planning to celebrate longtime beautician
Kathy Youngman’s
retirement.
The celebration
is Saturday, March
11 from 3-5 p.m. at
Buttercreek Salon,
315 S.W. 11th St.,
Hermiston. Everyone
is invited to drop
in and congratulate
Youngman.
After attending
Youngman
beauty school
in Pendleton,
Youngman started working as a beautician
in Hermiston in 1973. She bought
Buttercreek Salon in 1983. After owning
the salon for 14 years, Youngman sold it
to Pam Monger. Terri Hymas, the current
owner, purchased the salon in 2011.
For more information, call 541-567-
2911.
Virtual business program
seeks local entrepreneurs
PENDLETON — The Oregon
Technology Business Center announced it
is seeking area entrepreneurs to participate
in a virtual incubation program beginning
April 14.
The Beaverton-based center in
the written statement encouraged
entrepreneurs with an existing business
or business idea that could result in sales
outside the immediate area to apply at
www.otbc.org/VIP.
The Janette G. Drew Fund of the
Oregon Community Foundation supports
the program, which will consist of eight
weekly live video sessions followed by
four months of mentoring. The program
aims to help rural Oregon entrepreneurs
grow their businesses and improve the
economies of rural Oregon.
The business center will hold an online
informational session March 14 to answer
questions. Visit otbc.org to register or call
971-223-4660.
———
Business briefs are compiled from
staff and wire reports, and press releases.
Email press releases to business@
eastoregonian.com
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