S4 Bonus: Erik Chelstad, Observa

Erik Chelstad is a child of both coasts. In his life, he spent a lot of time skiing, and carried that activity into his adult life. Funny enough though, he is actually a better boarder than skier. He volunteers with the local avalanche centers, and climbs mountains where he lives - which is the Pacific Northwest, near Mt. Ranier. In his words, climbing gives him ample time to think. He's married, and just moved into a house outside of the city. He has found a new hobby in being a home owner, which he says as a new platform to play with - cameras, sensors, sprinkler systems - etch. They have a dog, and if they are lucky enough to have kids one day, Erik hopes it will be easier than having a dog... and, that the kids won't bite him. In a prior venture, Erik was the owner of bakeries. In developing certain channels for distribution, he ran into a problem where he didn't have visibility to his product at places he didn't control. He figured out the answer was cell phones, and a centralized location for entities to consume this information. This is the creation story of Observa. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy