Porter, a Seattle design and hospitality company, is making waves with inspiring views on “radical hospitality,” paired with impeccable design, social equity, community and quality.
Kathleen Selke, Co-founder and Vice President of Sales, has worked tirelessly on this venture over the past few years while forming a partnership withYouthCareand a training program calledOn The Rise, which aims to provide the tactical skills and exposure needed for young people to secure career opportunities in commercial real estate and related industries.
“We create places and experiences that delight and inspire where people can forge lasting and magnetic communities,” Selke says.
With On the Rise, they hope that by providing opportunities for underrepresented groups to succeed, they’ll create a more level playing field — and ultimately build a more just and equitable industry.
Selke founded Porter in 2019 (with 11 people; it’s now grown to 60+) as a purpose-driven, human-centered organization that looks to be “the connective tissue of the commercial real estate industry.” She explains, “Our ethos is rooted in the notion of radical hospitality (think Maya Angelou’s quote, ‘People won’t remember what you said or did, but they will remember how you made them feel’).”
They were interested in learning how they could both be a profitable company and make an outsized impact on our industry, community, employees and customers. When they looked at how to extend radical hospitality to their communities and put a substantial dent in the problems observed, they found they could have an impact in three key areas: “Diversifying our industry;Taking care of the talent when it arrives; andCreating wealth for Black, Indigenous, People of Color-owned businesses through our Makers Program, which highlights a collection of businesses whose products we promote and specify on our corporate commercial projects.”
Selke felt tired of hearing the dire metrics about the lack of diversity in the industry. Porter set out to create a pipeline of BIPOC talent through On the Rise, which is now hosting its fourth cohort since they piloted with Microsoft and CBRE in 2022.
“We now partner with a local organization called YouthCare, who works to end youth homelessness, ensure that young people are valued for who they are and empower them to achieve their potential.” The three-month, 30-course program exposes historically excluded and underserved 18 to 24-year-olds to courses in design, project management, and technical trades. The aim is to help students gain internships, apprenticeships or full-time jobs.
The Emerging Leaders program helps to take care of the talent upon arrival. This six-month personal and professional development program has served more than 56 women in the 4.5 years that Porter has been in business.
And the Makers Program creates wealth for Black, Indigenous, People of Color-owned businesses, while highlighting a collection of businesses whose products they promote and specify on their corporate commercial projects.
Selke knows it’s easy to feel paralyzed when trying to solve such complex issues, but believes it’s a cop-out for the private sector to rely solely on non-profits, churches and government to make change. “We saw an opportunity to challenge conventional thinking by creating real opportunities for young people to provide fresh perspectives that not only enrich their own lives, but also drive innovation and growth,” Selke said. “In this instance, we only needed about 30 people to volunteer two to three hours over three months in order to make a meaningful dent in an issue that we all perpetuate.”
The program was developed in part as a response to Selke’s own background.She was the first in her family to attend college. “I couldn’t afford food, dropped out, went back to college, double majored and endured a bout of homelessness, even though I worked full time,” she said. “I learned the hard way that it is impossible to pull yourself up by your bootstraps when you aren’t wearing shoes. I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the kindness of a few people who paved the path for me and reached back to propel me forward. So, while I wish we could solve all the problems in the world, it made sense to narrow our focus toward where we could make the greatest impact.”
Selke knows that many articles have been written about how diversity of thought and opinion creates innovation. “Throughout history, marginalized communities have been incubators for innovation and devised solutions to challenges that have benefited society,” she says.
Yet, often, these solutions are systematically overlooked. Felicia Hatcher of the Black Ambition Project calls these ‘innovation deserts.’
“Why wouldn’t we recognize the tremendous innovation potential that exists, and has always existed, within marginalized communities and actively invest in and support these folks?” Selke asks. “Not from a charitable approach, where we make a one-time donation that makes us feel good about ourselves and never think about it again, but rather something we are invested in and from which we expect outsized returns.”
Selke and team have challenged themselves — and the professional community — to question the status quo, and they’ve seen colleagues rise to the opportunity to create pathways for the students.
Their biggest win involves Gensler, the world’s largest design firm, who took one of their interns and extended their contract. “Gensler takes the best of the best students from the most pedigreed institutions,” Selke says. “So for them to see the value in this means we are doing something right. These folks don’t need saving. They just need us to make room for them at the table. Believe me, they will take it from there, and we will all be better for it.”
Selke is still in the phase where she feels like nothing she does is quite enough, and she wishes more people were onboard to chip away at these issues. However, she says, “It is incredibly gratifying to watch the students take to the content that we share and choose to run down the path. Seeing how the volunteers have shown up, and watching how spending time with this population shifts their perspectives is really cool.”
So what’s next? They’re always looking for people and organizations in the commercial real estate, design, project and facilities management and tech trades who share in their desire to level the playing field.
Selke promises, “We will continue to develop this program, learn along the way and gain as many collaborators as we can in the process in order to make real change.”
Corinne Whiting is a freelance writer for Seattle Refined. Follow more of her adventures here.
