About

I feel like I'm supposed to title this page "About Us." Truth is though, it's just me—Jeff. For my day job, I teach graphic design and an engineering class at a public high school. I love it, and developing STØR was never about getting rich, or even changing careers. Instead, the solution came about organically as I tried to improve a task I saw as imperfect.

You've probably heard the phrase "jack of all trades" before. No one ever says the entire thing though. It's the "master of none" part that I always struggle with. For years, I've watched my friends hone a particular skill. They move from one company to another, take on increasing responsibility, parlay each job title into something greater. Meanwhile, I'm collecting disparate knowledge like it's going out of style. I have an undergraduate degree in botany. I've driven a transit bus, worked in a brewery, produced a short film that screened at Tribeca and SXSW, and taught... sports broadcasting, film production, graphic design, engineering principles and a single semester of poetry (which I loved and still think about all the time.)

Point is, I'm often jealous of my friends who have a single point of success and pride. Creating Precision Vessels and developing STØR has been a 3-year challenge. I wanted to see if I could focus on something for an extended period of time, while also using as much of my random knowledge as possible.

Almost every single aspect of this device and company is at my hand. I developed the concept. I researched and built early prototypes. I made all the CAD models and have even developed two custom pneumatic fittings. I created the illustrations for the instruction manual, the illustrations for the patent application—Hell, I even wrote the majority of copy for our provisional application. The branding. Setting up the website. As I finally approach my first retail offering, I can't help but feel like STØR is my opus—my chance to be "master of one." I am so proud of this thing.

Of course, I did eventually need some advice. If anyone helped catapult Precision Vessels from "fun idea" to "holy shit this might actually happen," it's Barb and Doug Garrott of Orphan Espresso. When I introduced myself to them in October of 2019, I was hoping to send a prototype to their home in Idaho. Two months later, we were laughing and eating and brainstorming together in Taiwan. I couldn't ask for better mentors or friends. Thank you guys so much!