PREVIOUSLY

• StartUp Humboldt Launches Investment Competition with $200,000 Prize
• StartUp Humboldt Founders Give Presentation to the Board of Supervisors
• Here Are Your STARTUP HUMBOLDT Finalists! Watch Them Battle It Out for $200,000, Shark Tank-Style, at the Eureka Theater Next Week, If You Like

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Last night, in front of a sizable crowd at the Eureka Theater, a group of existing and aspiring local entrepreneurs participated in the “Final Pitch” round of the StartUp Humboldt Competition, presenting their business plans to a panel of judges, “Shark Tank”-style, in hopes of earning access to more than $200,000 in milestone-based funding.

Ten finalists had been selected from more than 100 applicants, and at the end of the night, the biggest prize was awarded to Jersey Scoops, the artisanal ice cream brand created by Thomas and Cody Nicholson Stratton, the two “fabulously gay” Ferndale farmers better known as the Foggy Bottoms Boys.

Their winning business pitch, which boils down to making, marketing and distributing a new line of ice cream pints in six new lactose-free flavors, earned the company $125,000 in milestone-based funding. (Thomas explains that concept below.)

StartUp Humboldt, based in Arcata, is an entrepreneurship center and support system for local small businesses. Launched by venture capitalists Dan Phillips and John Ballard, the nonprofit incubator is a collaboration between Cal Poly Humboldt, College of the Redwoods, Lost Coast Ventures, Norcal SBDC, North Coast SBDC, the Institute for Entrepreneurship Education and Cal Poly Humboldt’s Sponsored Programs Foundation.

You can read more about the competition and find a list of all the winners in the press release below, but the Outpost wanted to speak directly with the Foggy Bottoms Boys — or at least one of them. Thomas Nicholson Stratton was kind enough to swing by the Lost Coast Communications offices earlier today for an interview. 

Below are some lightly edited highlights of that conversation:

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Lost Coast Outpost: I don’t even really know what milestone-based funding means.

Thomas Nicholson Stratton: It’s very typical in venture capital or equity-based funding. You have to achieve certain things before they’ll award the funding.

So that big check [presented at the end of the night] was just a symbol?

Oh, it was just show. [Laughs.] It’s not like, “You did the work; you’re done!” Now the actual work is coming, so that’s why I feel … I don’t even know what to feel yet. They’re going to tailor [the milestone goals] for us. Every group that got anything is gonna be tailored to, as far as how they’re going to receive their funding and the milestones that they need to achieve.

I saw in your social media post that Jersey Scoops will be expanding distribution to the San Francisco Bay Area, but I also want to hear more about this specific pitch and the lactose-free products. Looks like the collaborations are with local farms?

Yeah, local collaborators are key to what we do, specifically [with regard to] sourcing local and resiliency in the food system. We all know the reasons why, not only from us locally seeing it, but also the USDA in 2008 sending out a memo saying that our food system is broken, that centralization is not going to work forever and it’s slowly collapsing.

[These collaborations] are actually working together to solve the needs that we have for flavors and “inclusions,” is what you call them in ice cream or “variegates” — that’s more like the ribbons of caramels and the whatnots. Being able to source those locally and grow other businesses alongside us … it’s an important aspect for for everyone to be able to participate in that.

This lactose-free product is really specialized, not only to our local consumers, who have been asking for it and needing it, and for us also as the lactose-free dairy farmers.

Is that a niche you and Cody already have?

Thomas in the LoCO office. | Photo by Ryan Burns.

We are the lactose-free dairy farmers. Like, we can’t have lactose. … Some people can’t consume these protein chains that have mutated over time as cows were bred for specific characteristics. 

Nonetheless, when we’re going to things like these pitch competitions or doing something fun like this, as far as collaborations, we’re taking these things out of the area, to San Francisco, as an extension of our brand, because we’ve had people who are fans or who’ve come and seen the ice cream shop [in Loleta] and want the product in their homes but don’t have access to it. So this is our inaugural march down to the Bay to provide them with that product.

What was the actual process that led to winning this award?

Initially [in January], it was just onboarding with the concept of StartUp Humboldt as a physical entity in our community supporting entrepreneurs and businesses … . And those early touch points were some deep classes to understanding what it takes to run a business, so everything from bookkeeping to marketing to supply chain management to social media to financing. So all of these different courses help educate our local businesses.

[StartUp Humboldt] is housed in that Cal Poly [Humboldt] building [at 876 Seventh Street] in Arcata. It’s a cool place. There are plenty of opportunities for people to engage and work in that space as a physical site, when you just need a place to land and get some good WiFi for a while — tea, coffee, little kitchenette — or to host a meeting, or to do something larger, as far as a workshop series.

Were you and Cody both taking classes?

Yeah, so we live an interesting life. We hardly see each other. I do the business side; he does the farming side. He’s up at 3 [a.m.], and I go to bed somewhere just shortly before that. We’ll balance and get a better life soon. This [award] helps. But yeah, we’re doing all the things to be able to ensure that there’s viability in the business and scale.

And so for us, we only got to do one course together. Otherwise, I was doing one course, taking notes, sharing what I learned. And then when I was out of town, he was taking the marketing course and [he] shared the slide decks and stuff afterwards. And then we worked together on the homework. … Essentially, you had to do to produce documents and pro formas and business cases and some marketing briefs and campaigns we had to share.

It seems like you’ve already established yourselves pretty well. What was the impetus to want to expand geographically and do something a little different?

Ultimately, it’s for the farm sustainability on a fiscal basis. Right now, selling as a commodity services us in our need and the style of business that we’ve operated for over 100 years. …  We grow grass, so farming is native grasses and clovers and a diversity of biological inputs. That is essentially regenerative the practices that most all farmers on the North Coast have been practicing.

Commercial scale, conventional farming [with fertilizers] is not something that we’ve done here in Humboldt. It’s pretty well always been regenerative organic, as far as grazing cows and making hay or potato farming or you name it, because we have really great soil.

Then, when it comes to actually being able to take that grass and turn it into something, we have the cows, and as ruminant animals they are interwoven into the fabric of a carbon cycle. And that carbon cycle does a great job, if managed properly, and you don’t have a lot of external ups and downs, droughts, floods or otherwise.

But as an 85-cow operation with basically a 100-cow max, the economies of scale for us as a commodity, viable organic market just isn’t there. So we have to actually create added value on a small scale. It doesn’t even have to be all of our milk, and in this case, it’s such a small amount of our milk that we’re currently using, even when we’ll export to the San Francisco Bay, that really it’s just about making sure that there’s a sustainable option for the next generation to continue, if he so chooses. 

[The Foggy Bottoms Boys have a son, who features prominently in many of their social media posts.]

When did you open the store in Loleta?

We gained access to the building April 2023, and then it took us about eight months to really get it up to running and make a scoop shop. We started making ice cream basically right away, but to get all pieces in place and making those things happen, it took a long time. We were doing a lot of the work — the painting and the getting the floors prepped and that type of stuff. 

You also sell meat out of there, right?

Yeah. So essentially, what that space did for us is it centralized operations that we had [spread across] three different places. We had meat storage in one building on the farm and stand up freezers. We had our home office in one of our houses. And we had egg storage working with North Coast Growers Association. And then we would self distribute to the grocery stores.

So this allowed for our meat that we started with in the pandemic to also be aggregated in one place. That way we could sell as a storefront, brick and mortar. And then the ice cream was really what drew people in.

Tell me a bit more about the products that you’re going to be launching with this new endeavor.

So it’s specifically pints of ice cream that’s lactose free. That was this pitch, and being able to market those different flavors that don’t typically exist outside of vanilla and chocolate as lactose free, and doing that with our collaborators.

So ultimately, the opportunity is not only just to share and showcase what Jersey Scoops is but [also] six other different businesses in Humboldt County, and sharing their flavor of ice cream.

So each farm that you’re collaborating with is contributing a different flavor?

That’s right, yeah. We’ve got makers, and we want to continue to work with more farms. Amy and Jacques [of] Neukom Family Farms, with their peaches, we did that one year and people were losing their minds because they couldn’t get it last season. But they had a bad peach season, so we weren’t able to do that. 

For us right now it’s Boldt Bourbon Maple Pecan, Patches’ Triple Chocolate Brownie, Slice of Humboldt Pie Key Lime, Spring Hill Farmstead Goat Cheese — so the majority of it is goat milk, it’s lemon lavender [flavor] — Sacred Mushrooms Cacao Sea Salt and Ginger — it is in-sane, it is so delicious —and then Ocean Side Jams Loleta Traffic Jam. 

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Thanks to Thomas for coming by the office. Below is the press release from StartUp Humboldt.

STARTUP HUMBOLDT AWARDS $210,000 TO FIVE VENTURES AT INAUGURAL COMPETITION

StartUp Humboldt has awarded $210,000 in milestone-based funding to five ventures following the final round of its inaugural competition, held April 23rd at the Eureka Theater. Selected from a competitive pool of 108 applicants, the winners emerged after live pitches before a distinguished panel of independent judges and a full house of more than 575 attendees.

The winning ventures reflect the diversity, ambition, and ingenuity emerging across California’s North Coast, spanning industries from lactose-free dairy products and innovative food waste solutions to advanced technology and AI consulting. 

Two ventures were selected in the Scale Venture track, receiving $125,000 and $55,000 respectively to support growth, job creation, and regional impact:

• $125,000 winner: Jersey Scoops — lactose-free, cow-to-cone ice cream distributed by zero-emissions electric vehicles.
• $55,000 winner: GridIQ — smart grid power line technology designed for wildfire prevention.

The Scale Venture awards were presented by Kacie Flynn of Cal Poly Humboldt’s Sponsored Programs Foundation and Dr. Keith Flamer, President of the College of the Redwoods. GridIQ’s award includes an additional $5,000 contribution from BlueTechValley, recognizing the venture’s alignment with their focus on energy innovation.

All three ventures were awarded in the Microventure track, receiving $15,000, $10,000, and $5,000 to support early-stage growth and community-rooted business development, with the additional $5,000 made possible through a contribution from Lost Coast Ventures:

• $15,000 winner: LAF Systems — transforming food waste into living soil, filling a critical infrastructure gap and keeping resources within the region.
• $10,000 winner: GroundedAI — helping local businesses save time and money through responsible AI adoption.
• $5,000 winner: Throat Punch Ice Cream — a high-energy brand redefining the ice cream experience with bold, unconventional flavors.

“This event was a powerful reminder of what’s possible in our region, and we’re incredibly proud of every finalist who took the stage,” said Samantha Edwardes, Program Coordinator for the StartUp Humboldt Competition. “At its core, this competition is about impact. If these ventures achieve their goals, they are projected to collectively generate $4 million in revenue in their first year and more than $150 million over five years, while creating 30 living-wage jobs in year one and over 200 in the years ahead. StartUp Humboldt will continue to support them as they grow.”

Finalists were evaluated on desirability, feasibility, and viability, along with community impact and storytelling during their final presentations. They all completed an intensive education and mentorship phase leading up to the event, receiving expert instruction in financial modeling, business model iteration, pitch development, and target market analysis. Through one-on-one advising with the North Coast SBDC, Lost Coast Ventures, BlueTechValley, and the Institute for Entrepreneurship Education, founders strengthened their readiness to grow, create jobs and attract investment.

The independent judging panel represented business expertise, entrepreneurship, and regional economic development, and included Clair Whitmer, Deputy Director of CalOSBA; Matt Welton, former Senior Director of Talent Acquisition at Adidas; Jason Ramos, Tribal Chairperson of Blue Lake Rancheria; AJ Herrera, VP of Corporate Marketing at Cloudflare; Abe Stevens, Founder of Humboldt Distillery and Fortuna City Councilmember; Meredith Maier, Executive Director of Arcata Chamber of Commerce; and Jennifer Budwig, Senior Vice President and COO of Redwood Capital Bank.

The Final Pitch Event served as both a high-stakes competition and a celebration of innovation. In addition to live pitches, attendees engaged with semifinalists and select applicants through a curated vendor fair showcasing local ventures.

Founded by the NorCal SBDC, Cal Poly Humboldt, College of the Redwoods, the Institute for Entrepreneurship Education, and Lost Coast Ventures, StartUp Humboldt is designed to support high-potential entrepreneurs across the North Coast by providing access to capital, mentorship, and a pathway to growth. Coast Central Credit Union was the Titan Sponsor of this inaugural program, with additional support from ChicoSTART, DANCO, Rainbow Self Storage, and other community organizations.