Young Adults Unite through OVF
January 2026
Melissa Freeman
Have you spent time with young adults recently? If you haven’t had the opportunity, we highly recommend it. Our team at Oregon Venture Fund convened the daughters, sons, nieces, nephews and young adult friends of our investors and portfolio company CEOs in December. Forty people, ages 16 to 26, attended the social mixer.
The idea came from a conversation with Colin Turner, an undergraduate student at University of Oregon in Honors Finance and son of Cam Turner, Principal at United Fund Advisors. Last winter, Colin was searching for internships and work opportunities for the summer. I asked if he wanted to return to Portland to work, having been raised here. He shared that he was looking elsewhere because he didn’t have a network in Portland beyond his high school friends. It was an “aha” moment for me. If he had a professional network, he might be inspired to return. OVF could help!
Oregon Venture Fund is made possible by fabulous individuals and families who invest in our region’s top startups. The young adult kids of this great group have that connection in common. We invited them to come in during their winter break to meet other young adults and learn about early stage-investing. Those who were interested and open to meeting new people showed up and we believe they had a good time.
We separated the high school students, college students and college graduates into groups and provided a few ice breaker questions to get the conversations started. It was inspiring to see individuals in each group asking questions of others, sharing their interests and experiences, and genuinely showing an interest in getting to know people in the room. We heard people talking about job opportunities and sharing their resources—a budding network.
After a brief presentation about venture capital as an asset class and the tradeoffs associated with early-stage investing, we served samples of Salt & Straw ice cream and participants voted for their favorite flavor.
The response was positive. Perhaps it was just the hook of Salt & Straw or that our investors wanted their kids out of the house for a few hours, we’re not certain, but the participants and their investor-adults were pleased. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone, learning about their fields of study, and seeing their optimism for the future. Unfortunately, Colin wasn’t able to participate even though he was the inspiration for the event. We believe we’re on to something good and will hope to include him at the next one!
Accredited investors are invited to invest in Oregon Venture Fund. We raise annual funds and invest in the cream of the crop startups from all sectors with a presence in Oregon and Southern Washington. Because venture capital investments can take many years to produce returns, our investors appreciate the opportunity to share the startups’ progress with their kids. Please reach out to learn whether OVF is right for you. Contact Melissa Freeman, Director, Investor Relations, Melissa@OregonVentureFund.com.