Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Kim Freeze.
Hi Dr. Kim, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve been an entrepreneur most of my life. I started young, and somewhere along the way, I ended up building nearly twenty businesses, from road construction, chip sealing, crack sealing, a rock-crushing plant, a hot asphalt plant, a hundred-year-old ice plant, a restaurant, a co-packing facility, even a yoga studio. Later, I went back to school as a single mom, and finished with a doctoral degree in clinical psychology.
I say all of that not to impress anyone, but because I want people to understand something: I know what it feels like to have an idea that won’t leave you alone. I also know what it feels like to have absolutely no idea what the hell you’re doing.
That second part matters more than people admit. Somewhere in the entrepreneurship story we tell each other, we skip over the part where you’re standing alone in an empty building, or hunched over a kitchen table at midnight, wondering if the idea in your head is genius or just exhaustion talking. I lived in that space for most of my career. Often solo. Often without anyone to ask.
I was lucky, along the way, to have a handful of people believe in me before I’d proven anything, people who saw something I couldn’t yet see in myself. That kind of belief changes the entire trajectory of a life. I’ve never forgotten it, and I’ve spent the years since trying to build something that hands that same chance to someone else.
I’m also a clinical psychologist, which is a strange thing to say next to “built twenty businesses,” but the two have always fit together for me more than people expect. Both are, at their core, about understanding people, what holds them back, what moves them forward, what they need to hear at the right moment.
That combination is probably why my current role fits me so well. As Director of the Southern Oregon Innovation Hub and an ecosystem builder, I get to bring together everything I’ve lived- the entrepreneur, the psychologist, and what I learned as Dean of Career and Technical Education at Rogue Community College, into one job. It’s let me transition into working alongside other hubs across Oregon, Business Oregon, SOREDI, and the Oregon Entrepreneur Network.
We talk a lot, in this world, about “entrepreneurial ecosystems.” But I’ve come to believe an ecosystem isn’t just programs, organizations, and referrals on a page. It’s people actually being connected to one another. And I think it also needs a physical place where that happens — somewhere those connections aren’t left to chance.
That’s where Launch Pad comes in.
Launch Pad is what’s called a “third space” — not home, not work, but a place built specifically for connection and creation. It’s a physical home downtown, with a licensed commissary kitchen for food entrepreneurs to test, produce, and grow their products, alongside R&D and product development support to help take an idea from concept to shelf. There’s a makerspace for makers and creatives who need real tools and equipment, not just an idea. There are drop-in ideation sessions and tech support for whenever inspiration, or a technical problem that happens to strike. There’s technical assistance, educational programming, workshops, and workforce training in the works, built to meet entrepreneurs wherever they are in their journey. And there’s 1:1 mentorship, “wayfinding,” and coaching, because most entrepreneurs don’t fail for lack of a good idea, they get lost, unsure which door to knock on next.
Launch Pad is also home to 1 Million Cups Grants Pass, which I lead. A weekly stage where entrepreneurs stand up, tell their story, and get real feedback from a room that shows up, week after week, just to support them.
All of it exists for one reason: so that no one building something new in this town has to do it entirely alone.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Over thirty-plus years as an entrepreneur, there have been so many struggles I’ve lost count. Economic downturns that gutted a business overnight. One stretch where I came so close to filing bankruptcy that I got my CDL, climbed into a tractor trailer, and drove — sixty-three days straight — to save the company. A devastating divorce that upended everything I thought my life was going to look like, and forced me to start completely over. Rebuilding from nothing. Going back to college as a single mom. Building new businesses again, from scratch, while raising four kids.
As an entrepreneur, you learn to pivot constantly, to learn things you never trained for, to problem-solve in ways no textbook prepares you for. My life has been a constant cascade of challenges and barriers, but I’ve also learned, over and over, how to find success out of chaos. I put myself through college as a single mother of four, and I earned my doctoral degree in clinical psychology anyway.
That, to me, is what it truly means to be an entrepreneur. Not the businesses. Not the title. The refusal to stay down.
I was lucky, along the way, to have a handful of people believe in me before I’d proven anything, people who saw something I couldn’t yet see in myself. That kind of belief changes the entire trajectory of a life. I’ve never forgotten it, and I’ve spent the years since trying to build something that hands that same chance to someone else.
We’ve been impressed with Seed Collective Foundation & Launch Pad Studio, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
What I do, at its core, is build ecosystems. In practice, that’s Southern Oregon Innovation Hub, Launch Pad, and Seed Collective Foundation, all working together in downtown Grants Pass.
SOIH is the engine. It’s funded by Business Oregon as part of the state’s ten year innovation plan, and it’s where entrepreneurs get mentoring, technical assistance, and connections to resources they didn’t even know existed.
Launch Pad is the physical home. A licensed commissary kitchen, a makerspace, product development support, workshops, mentorship, educational programming and wayfinding. The Hivve is where I lead 1 Million Cups Grants Pass, with other organizers and owner of the Hivve, Trever Yarrish, for our weekly stage for entrepreneurs to share their story.
Seed Collective Foundation is my nonprofit, focused on food entrepreneurs and makers, working alongside partners like RCC, OSU Extension, and RVFSN.
What sets us apart is that this isn’t theoretical for me. I was an entrepreneur most of my life, often solo, and I know what it feels like to have an idea and nowhere to bring it. Everything we’ve built comes from that.
I’m also a clinical psychologist, and honestly, one of my bigger goals right now is finding my way back into mental health and wellness work. Entrepreneurship and mental health have always felt connected to me. I’d love for that to become a bigger part of what I’m known for going forward, not just building businesses, but helping people build resilience too.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
This is a great question… When I look back I think I was sort of an anomaly, I was very curious about everything and would try anything. I started moving or traveling a lot, my dad was in road construction. We lived off grid on a ranch and where I got my first horse and pony “Spooky.” I laugh now thinking what was a 6-year old kid doing riding a Shetland pony named Spooky… I loved to read, we didn’t have electricity and I credit this for my love of books and my high level of reading as a kid, plus it built mine and my brothers’ imaginations. I asked my mom once about my love of building and building businesses and she told me I was acting like a little entrepreneur since I was 4 years old, different from the other kids, more mature and an old soul. I have done a lot in my life, most people don’t believe me… But I adventured and built, raced in drag boats, did the rodeo thing and barrel raced and all outdoor sports. Was a body builder (long time ago), worked at the YMCA as the director, while running 4 businesses. When I was younger, around 11 I proclaimed from a milk crate to my friends that I wanted to a doctor of something, a published author, built something and to help people… I think I came pretty close.
Pricing:
- $22/hr commercial kitchen
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thelaunchpadgp.com
- Instagram: @launchpadgp or @kimafreeze
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kim.heller.142
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drkfreezeseedcollective0333k
