On the Rise

"Whoosh-kerthomp!" That was the sound of bags of bread being tossed to participants in a question-and-answer session with the Entrepreneurship Club's first guest speaker of the winter term. "I like to bribe people to ask questions," explained Dave Dahl, the CEO of--and creative force behind--Dave's Killer Bread, the explosively successful Portland-based bread company. While lofting organic loaves to a standing-room-only crowd of more than 240 people may be an unusual way to motivate an audience, no one ever said Dahl was a run-of-the-mill guy. After showing a video outlining his inspiring story of retooling his family's bread business after years of drugs and jail time, Dahl fielded a wide range of questions. Topics included the challenges of working in a family business, how Dahl screens potential hires--including the ex-felons who make up around 30 percent of his staff--and what measures the company has taken to cope with its astonishing expansion. Dahl's answer? "We're trying not to grow more than 40 percent this year."