Q & A with Jennifer & Carl:

1. City of residence:
Jennifer: Portland, OR, USA
Carl: Portland, OR, USA

2. Place of birth:
J: Houston, TX
C: Corvallis, OR

3. In under five sentences, define your business:
Trestle is a Portland-based technology company aiming to make conscious consumerism convenient. We aggregate data on how companies operate and create technologies to provide transparent information to consumers as they shop online and to writers as they research business and industry.

4. What social or environmental impact is your business making?
We are completely inspired by the brands that have decided to operate differently – that are choosing more sustainable manufacturing practices, that are implementing fair and safe or better labor conditions, that are using their business as a vehicle for addressing some of society’s most pressing social issues.

Trestle is creating the system that allows brands like this to thrive by creating the direct
pathway between consumers who care about these values and the brands who operate this way.

5. What is the best part about the work you’re doing? Why?
If executed well, we see Trestle growing into a platform that greatly impacts how everyone, not just the highly conscious shopper, interacts with brands. We are becoming data-nerds and are very focused on how we can create a system that quickly and accurately tells the full story of how a brand operates. We are excited to have a
hand in building the system that can tell the full story, instill trust, and promote radical transparency.

6. List three of your favorite sustainable/ethical brands?
J: Veja (Big crush on this brand!), Tonlé, Rarity Natural Beauty. (But I’m also a huge Cotopaxi fan)
However, during my research, I was most surprised by Levis, Columbia, and
REI.
C: Cotopaxi, Patagonia, Allbirds

7. What book(s) are you currently reading?
J: Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
C: “Storytelling with Data”, “Never split the difference”

8. Quote you (try to) live by?
J: Just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean you don’t do it.
C: “Hold on tightly, Let loose lightly”

9. Using one word, how would you describe yourself?
J: Effervescent
C: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

10. What is one random fact that most people don’t know about you?
J: In high school, I quit cheerleading to join robotics club – I was even quoted in the
local paper as having proudly stated this when our robotics team won regionals.
C: I went to acting school where I had a class on Clowning – red nose and everything