Oak Ridge Capital… what is Oak Ridge Capital? It heads the website, it is in the URL, it is legally registered in the state of Massachusetts, but what is it? Even I sometimes wonder what it is. I think it is easier to figure out what Oak Ridge Capital is by thinking about where the name came from.
I grew up in rural North Dakota. My home town had fewer than 1,800 people. As small as it was, I somehow found myself living out of town. I lived in what could be considered a “village” about 2 miles out of town. I was isolated in an already isolated town. Where I lived was a group of about a dozen or so residences that didn’t really interact with each other in the overtly friendly kumbaya way. Despite spending 14 years of my life living there, I had only been inside a handful of my neighbors houses. Even so, we were a community. When something needed to be done, someone stepped up to do it. When the kids went around selling Christmas wreaths or magazines, the community bought to help. When tragedy struck, the community was there to take care of each other. That community was called Oak Ridge.
Wherever I am located, I aim to create such a community. Not one based on talk and promises, but one based on actions and kindness. I have always felt like a bit of an outsider. I am an unconventional person coming from an unconventional place through an unconventional path. Oak Ridge Capital hopes to be that outsider creating unconventional value through unconventional companies. Not aiming to disrupt for disruptions sake, but to form a community for change through capital deployment.
Practically, Oak Ridge Capital is a holder of funds (LLC) that will specialize in long-term, risk hedged investments that value intrinsic value over market value. The company and funds will focus on 3 capital markets: venture and angel investment, equity markets, and real estate.
In function, Oak Ridge Capital and its associated website functions as three things:
In the end, Oak Ridge Capital represents me.