Kim Pelham sells houses she can also fix. Her husband Brian is a general contractor, the two businesses run side by side, and between them they will do a little or a lot: paint the front door, remodel the whole house, or handle the downsizing, the estate sale and the move.

IN THIS EPISODE

Why a free pre-purchase walkthrough with a contractor is the business model, not a perk.
Senior Move Specialist work, where the hurdle is never the house, it is the stuff.
Which repairs a lender actually cares about, and which are money you are about to waste.
Empathy first, achiever second, and why that order matters.
Tulalip: waterfront with a view under nine hundred thousand, on land you own.
Everett, three places she takes people first.

QUOTES

“One of my clients said Brian is my secret weapon.”

“You cannot get a contractor to come out and speculate with you. He will gladly do that, at no charge, for my clients.”

“My number one strength is empathy and number two is achiever. I always lean first to understand.”

“Snohomish County is home. There is more room to breathe, more room to grow.”

WHAT KIM GIVES
Empathy first and action second. A contractor who will walk a house with you before you buy it. Honest budget guidance on which repairs matter to a lender. The whole downsizing handled. Snohomish County knowledge nobody gets from a search portal.

WHO SHE WANTS TO MEET
Subcontractors, and one urgently: a crawl space specialist who works in Granite Falls. More broadly, trades she can trust across Snohomish County, and the estate attorneys, elder-care advisers and senior living communities who meet those families before she does.

CONNECT WITH KIM
The Pelham Group NW: thepelhamgroupnw.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kimpelham
Instagram: @pelhamgroupnw

LISTEN EVERYWHERE
This episode: joinvantage.co/podcast/kim-pelham
Apple Podcasts: Vantage Voices
Spotify: Vantage Voices

ABOUT VANTAGE
Vantage Voices is the podcast of Vantage, where introductions happen on purpose. Every episode ends with the same two questions: what can you give this room, and who do you want walked up to you. joinvantage.co

Fractional CTO and strategic advisor Bob O'Brien on what actually kills companies, why distribution beats product, and the AI data center problem nobody in local government is planning for.

Bob founded ThirdWave Advisors after a career that ran from mainframes to cloud, including more than twenty years at Microsoft and time at AWS. He helps founders and CEOs get ready for a big change before they have to react to it.

IN THIS EPISODE

The four things an advisor sees that a founder cannot: the plan, the team, the data, the buyer.
Why most founders build a one year plan to survive instead of a five year plan to win, and what five of those in a row does to a company.
First time founders focus on product. Second time founders focus on distribution.
How to tell what business you are actually in. She thinks she runs a cooking app. She runs a store with an app as the front window.
The paperwork nobody reads until an investor asks: the NDA, the noncompete, the contractor who never signed over the code, the privacy promise that limits your data years later.

Empty AI data centers as the new empty steel factories, and who pays for the retrofit.

QUOTES

“First time founders focus on product. Second time founders focus on distribution.”

“It is the classic emperor’s new clothes problem. Everybody can see it, but nobody wants to say it.”

“I only introduce people I have actually worked with. And even then, only if there is a fit. It is not me being picky. It is what makes the intro worth something.”

“You bring the vision and I will bring the blueprint.”

WHAT BOB CAN GIVE
An honest outside read from someone who speaks both tech and business. How a buyer or investor will see you before you walk in. Turning a one year plan into a five year plan. What your data is actually worth.

WHO HE WANTS TO MEET
A leader who can feel a big change coming. A CEO a few years in who has realized they have run five one year plans in a row. And a city council member or planner about to approve a large AI data center.

CONNECT WITH BOB
ThirdWave Advisors: thirdwaveadvisors.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bobobrien

MENTIONED
Ted Jacob, his mentor at Nordstrom. Roei Ganzarski of magniX on building without constraints. John Maxwell: if you do what you always did, you get what you always got.

LISTEN EVERYWHERE
This episode: joinvantage.co/podcast/bob-obrien
Apple Podcasts: Vantage Voices
Spotify: Vantage Voices

ABOUT VANTAGE
Vantage Voices is the podcast of Vantage, where introductions happen on purpose. Every episode ends with the same two questions: what can you give this room, and who do you want walked up to you. The answers go into the app, and the introductions follow. The directory is free, forever. joinvantage.co

Sarah O'Sell helps entrepreneurs grow their business and reach the right people. Her day title is long: she leads partnerships at the Seattle Climate Innovation Hub and manages the CoMotion Labs Climate Tech Incubator. Her community title is shorter. Startup gardener. She trademarked it.

She started in startups and worked her way up to GE, hired to advise on sustainability solutions. Then the company announced its split and the sustainability work was put on ice. So she used the customer data she had access to, proved customers actually wanted it, and helped bring the budget back for a solution that launched and won an award. Patient is the right word for that. Not quiet. Patient.

Her career took the long way round, and she tells it straight, including the day she needed to stop. Sustainability leaders have an incredibly hard job, she says, and sometimes you are just worn out. What she does now: notice when you are mad, don't dismiss it, and turn it into a path to change. And her tip for everyone else: whatever job you have, even HR, you can move sustainability. It doesn't have to be in your title.

Then the question people fight about. AI or the planet? Sarah has a foot in both. Data centers are a built environment, made of materials, run by algorithms, tied to the grid, using water, and every one of those is a problem we can solve. It is a tool, and we get to choose how we build it. Her incubator just formed a partnership with Microsoft and E8 for a data center incubator program to do exactly that.

What she gives the room: she listens for what you value, and she builds triangles, because the triangle is the strongest shape. If someone is quiet in a corner, she goes and says hi. The introduction she wants is to VC firms, consulting firms and business turnaround firms that need excellent operators and partnership people. Plus: Ghost Alley in Pike Place Market, and a book called Bad Data.

BUILDING A CLIMATE STARTUP?
Sarah runs the CoMotion Labs Climate Tech Incubator at the Seattle Climate Innovation Hub. Its new data center cohort, backed by UW, Microsoft and E8, holds an information session on October 15, and applications close November 15. Details: CoMotion Labs Climate Tech Incubator

CHAPTERS
00:00 The open
00:27 Welcome, Sarah
01:05 Who she helps
01:43 Startup gardener: her two titles
02:28 GE, the split, and the budget she brought back
04:28 What the world gets wrong about emissions
07:31 The long way round
10:26 AI or the planet: data centers
13:29 What she gives: the triangle
14:58 The introduction she wants
16:07 Quick fires: coffee and Ghost Alley
16:41 The book: Bad Data
17:26 Washington's economy and more startup gardeners
18:36 How to connect with Sarah

CONNECT WITH SARAH
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahosell
Website: https://www.sarahosell.com
Sarah is a Vantage founding member. Ask for an introduction: joinvantage.co/podcast/sarah-o-sell

ABOUT VANTAGE VOICES
The room behind the room, on the record. Hosted by Rachael Barclay. Vantage is a members-first network in Seattle; the directory is free forever. joinvantage.co