Our Story
We’re grateful to share our journey with you. Steve and I have worked together for over a decade, driven by a shared commitment to humanity, the Earth, and creating meaningful change. Our values focus on building relationships and positive impact in our communities.
Our professional collaboration began with founding Pure Cultures, an animal health biotech company. Over seven years, we built a state-of-the-art fermentation facility, established a strong brand, secured investment, and sold the company to a Canadian firm.
Our journey has since expanded to driving cross-country in a camper van, working as digital nomads in Baja, learning Spanish, raising our four adult children, and running a profitable Airbnb. We embrace our creative, scrappy spirit, finding innovative solutions along the way. While we often work separately, our partnership thrives, offering you access to our combined experience, networks, and passion for making a difference.
Meet Colleen
Hi, I’m Colleen Kazemi. I started my career as a nontraditional shapeshifter—earning a degree in psychology and working in direct service with youth and families. I’ve always been curious about how people and systems work—and how both can be transformed with the right support.
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That curiosity led me into the Bay Area tech and agency world, where I spent 15 years helping Fortune 500 brands grow. I led cross-functional teams, built data-driven programs, and managed global product and engineering efforts—translating strategy into scalable solutions across sectors. During that time, I also supported several mergers and acquisitions, learning how to identify strategic fit, consolidate teams and offerings, and create alignment across complex organizations.
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But I believe our world is a special place—and that people and the environment deserve to be at the center of how we solve problems. I felt a strong pull back toward mission-driven work and co-founded Pure Cultures, a biotech company focused on sustainable agriculture and reducing antibiotic use in food production. I raised angel and venture capital, built a fermentation facility, led brand and product strategy, secured partnerships with Purina and DuPont, and co-negotiated the company’s acquisition. That experience deepened my commitment to solving complex problems at the intersection of health, sustainability, and equity.
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Over the past decade, I’ve focused on the social impact space—running and supporting impact angel groups, coaching and consulting with nonprofit and social enterprise leaders, and designing programs that strengthen strategy, operations, and leadership capacity. Most recently, I served as CEO of Social Venture Partners Denver, where I worked at the intersection of philanthropy and leadership development—mobilizing funding, building partnerships, and supporting underrepresented leaders to grow their impact.
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Today, I support leaders navigating growth, transition, and complex decisions—especially those looking to lead with more clarity, build stronger partnerships, or drive systemic change. At the core of my work is a belief in people—and in the systems and relationships that shape their success.
Meet Steve
With 25+ years in food, pharmaceutical, and dietary supplement research and manufacturing, I recently founded and sold a fermentation biotech business specializing in probiotics and animal health. I authored a U.S. patent for antibiotic-alternative fermentation products for poultry and swine.
I provide bench-to-scale consulting for fermentation businesses, leveraging my extensive CMO network and background in food and beverage, supplements, CBD, and manufacturing to help test and scale revenue-generating products.
My expertise spans product development, process sustainability, and manufacturing across beverage, alternative protein, green chemistry, beauty, and clean textile industries, delivering innovative solutions that drive business growth.
