Rising StarCasey Pearlman of PacLab Analytics Unlocks the Potential of an Industry
As a young girl, Casey Pearlman sold homemade cookies and juice to friends and learned the value of entrepreneurship from her jazz musician father. With those days behind her, Casey Pearlman has leaped into the world of entrepreneurship as a Senior Business Analysts | Executive Assistant at PacLab Analytics. She’s earned degrees in Human Resources Management and Management & Leadership and is an alumnus of the Emerging Leaders Internship program and PSU’s Students Leaders in Service program. Casey has experience ranging from biotechnology and cleantech to social justice and continues to gain professional experience—most recently in strategic development within emerging industries.
Read more from Casey below:
The problem it solves: We need access to accurate and reliable information in order to make informed decisions. By analyzing the precise properties of cannabis, we are able to empower consumers to make the right decision for themselves. Also, we help the cultivators and processors deeply understand their product. This helps them to improve their processes and further develop their businesses. PacLab Analytics is in the business of helping our customers achieve their goals.
How you are different than your competition: Our team is so dynamic and unmatched in the industry in terms of technical skills and backgrounds. We were founded by a team of former Intel engineers who are putting almost 100 years of collective engineering experience into our process development. Our Chief Compliance Officer Gary Ward is the former head of ORELAP, who implemented Oregon’s cannabis testing regulations. He is the celebrity on the team and certainly deserves all the attention. The level of knowledge on this team is setting us up to be miles ahead of the competition. Understanding the science, technology and regulations are all big challenges, and we have the right people working on these important issues.
How you make money: We sell laboratory testing services for the legal cannabis industry. We provide the required tests necessary to put product on shelves, as well as research and development services like à la carte tests and consulting services.
The best thing about being an entrepreneur: The people! The best part about being an entrepreneur is the community of driven, dedicated individuals that you meet along the way. The energy of entrepreneurs is infectious. I love the sense of empowerment and individuality in the community.
What keeps you up at night: Hitting milestones on time. Customer retention. The push/pull of scaling a business across multiple states.
The best entrepreneurial advice you have received: Save some of your ideas for later projects. Don’t try to do it all at the same time. I got this advice from a friend who counseled me when I was working with a startup that made insect protein powder and was simultaneously looking to make a fertilizer product and an exoskeleton derived plastic. If you’re not clear on your vision, you will bewilder your stakeholders. Not every idea will fit the model.
Your #1 piece of advice for a budding entrepreneur: Incorporate skills you’ve learned in your other jobs. Don’t feel like you need to reinvent the wheel to be successful. If you’re coming from the service industry like me, know you have a whole heap of skills that will serve you as you navigate the road ahead.
What wild success looks like: PacLab Analytics will be the global standard for cannabis testing. Wild success looks like unlocking the potential of the cannabis industry. To me, success would be validating the oral history of cannabis as a cure for a multitude of ailments. Our data could pave the way for future breakthroughs in product development in the bio-technical and medical fields. This would mean wild success for us as well as our community of makers and dreamers that have weathered the wild ride that is the end of prohibition.
Your favorite local business: I’m a big fan of Paletaz PDX! The owner and my friend Yesenia Gallardo is a mentor to me. She is my role model for authenticity and grit – and she makes really amazing paletas! She’s incorporated her culture and her family into her business. You can taste the nostalgia.
What you wanted to be when you grew up: I wanted to be my own boss! My father is a jazz musician and still gigs around the LA area. He taught me the value of working for myself, as well as its pitfalls. Some of my earliest memories are of my young entrepreneurial endeavors. I would sell pogs to friends in elementary school. On the weekends I would sell cookies and juice blends that I would make myself. If business was slow I would have my little sister and her friends come out and tap dance and yell out the day’s offerings. I loved forming organizations with my friends and delegating roles. Money was never the goal. The creation process is just plain fun for me.
Is Oregon a good place to start a business? Oregon is a great place to start a business. There is fertile ground here for your ideas to grow. So fertile that it has created the challenge of saturation, particularly in the cannabis industry.
Find out more: PacLab Analytics
