Oregonians Meet the Moment
May 2025
Melissa Freeman
On a recent pristine sunny evening in the Chehalem Mountains outside of Newberg, Joth Ricci, an OVF investor and former CEO of Dutch Bros Coffee, shared his unique experiences as a serial CEO who has led several of Oregon’s top brands through challenging times and success over the past 30 years. Joth spoke to a crowd of over 70 Oregon business owners from Mid-Willamette Valley and Metro Portland regions that included Oregon’s family-owned business leaders Dominic Biggi, sisters Maria & Luisa Ponzi, and Scott Parrish, among others. Oregon Venture Fund co-hosted the event with JGP Wealth Management at Balsall Creek Tasting Room, recently opened by Jon and Lesli Owens.
Change is constant, but in recent years, Oregon business leaders have experienced and are currently navigating challenges the size of tsunamis, such as significantly fewer wine drinkers than in previous generations, a pandemic that caused an economic shut down, and our current environment with a swath of potential tariffs impacting international trade.
Joth inspired guests with his stories of personal moments with Oregon founders who had pivotal decisions to make for their own companies. He reflected on his moments with founders Jamie Floyd and Nikos Ridge of Ninkasi Brewing in Eugene when they needed to reignite their enthusiasm for their products after a time of significant growth (and grind!). He helped them get back to the joy of creating and completely dominating the craft beer market with their Total Domination IPA.
He shared what it was like to work with Duane Sorensen, founder of Stumptown Coffee Roasters, who was committed to making world class coffee. Stumptown was also early in the creation of a “Toddy” in their cafes and hand producing bottles of what we now know as Cold Brew. He worked with the team to take that hand crafted product and turn it into the first to market with Regular and Nitro Cold Brew that eventually created a category that is now in every retail store in the country.
Wednesday, September 15, 2021, marked a culminating experience of his career when he took Dutch Bros Coffee public with co-founder and current chairman Travis Boersma at $23/share and raised about $484M. It was the largest public offering in Oregon’s history and is trading today on NYSE (BROS) at $69.61. He was inspired by Travis and his late brother Dane’s grit to start a coffee cart in Grants Pass and infuse every customer interaction with kindness and positive vibes. After seeing the potential, he and Travis were convinced that significant growth could be possible, even in the middle of a pandemic. Joth believed it was possible to have an IPO, and they precisely followed their plan to arrive on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to ring the bell on the exact date they were to go public.
Joth challenged the audience to face current struggles head on and meet the moment as so many entrepreneurs in Oregon have always done. Rather than getting grumpy and defensive, figure out what you can control and rise to the occasion. With the weather fully cooperating, allowing Oregon’s fresh green hills and visible cascade peaks to remind the crowd why we are lucky to call the Pacific Northwest home, he inspired us to dream and embrace the possibilities that capitalism provides.