Get to know about us and our mission to give shoppers an easy way to support local!

When I started a small wellness company here the PNW I felt the excitement, energy and community spirit around supporting local business. In the first couple of farmers market seasons, I learned a lot about this region and it made me fall completely in love with it. I drove through the city on weekends, past 'Support Local' yard signs all about, en route to sell my products at various local farmers markets, each of which with large groups local regular patrons. You could feel the energy of supporting small business, getting the best possible products and produce. It doesn't get better than hand-crafted or straight from the farm. Those early days were full of excitement and joy. Without fail, I would arrive to a market and I knew I would have a profitable, fun day and meet plenty of people who would become regulars and online subscribers. Things were so good that we were even able to start hiring people to go to markets to sell our products for us. After a couple of great seasons like this, I began to notice a trend. Farmers markets are going the way of shopping malls. It is increasingly challenging to get people out of their houses and at a market to meet local makers in-person. These fantastic small-business incubators, these third-spaces that served as a forum for us to be out in the neighborhood, enjoying the weekend sun and catching up with loved ones grow more and more sparsely crowded every season. And importantly, this trend is having a harmful impact on the farmers, the makers, and our communities. More times than I can count over the years, an enthusiastic customer would come to my booth and tell me how much the liked functional mushrooms and supported what I was doing. "I would love to buy some of your stuff but I just bought something similar on Amazon. I guess I will track you down when I want to re-up." Even on good sales day, the reality that even in your own community, you are competing with large-multinational corporations can be a deflating realization. The mission of Portlazon is to tackle these key issues; we provide a platform for PNW small businesses to showcase their products to customers everywhere while also offering the same convenience as these large online selling platforms. It's like a farmers market that meets you where you are. We hope you'll consider supporting this mission by simply using the platform, engaging with us and out sellers and helping us usher a new era of supporting small, local PNW businesses the modern way. Thank you, Hunter Founder of Portlazon