Tugboat Institute® is dedicated to supporting Evergreen™ leaders, their teams, and their companies through recognition, a range of experiences, several publications and programs to bring forth inspiration, new ideas, proven best practices about business, family and life. To be clear, we do not profess to be experts, but instead we view our role as conveners and curators. We believe everything that needs to be known is within our Evergreen community and from Evergreen thought leaders. Our current offerings include:
Please explore our website to learn more about Tugboat Institute!
In 2005, Dave Whorton had a transformative conversation with an entrepreneur and friend that would deeply challenge his beliefs about business and launch a movement.
Having founded four companies in Silicon Valley and spending his early career as an investor at two of the top venture capital and private equity firms in the world, Dave’s conversation with Stella & Dot founder Jessica Herrin awakened him to an alternative path to business success. Jessica’s approach to building a business was novel in the Silicon Valley landscape: She dreamt of building a private company to last her lifetime and beyond, growing at a paced rate over time, and fueled by a deep purpose and a commitment to her employees.
The conversation became an idea that took over seven years to germinate. In 2013, Dave had dozens of conversations with leaders around the country who were ambitious to build a meaningful company but eschewed the VC and PE path to exit by sale or IPO. Combining sound business principles, extraordinary purpose and a desire to bring their employees along in their success, and without an expectation of an exit, these leaders were building growing, private, profitable companies for a lifetime, or longer.
In 2013, Dave coined the term “Evergreen” leaders and “Evergreen” companies to describe the people and businesses leading this movement. After a small gathering in Sun Valley, Idaho in October of that year, with the help of Chris Alden, he created Tugboat Institute to convene Evergreen CEOs to help one another through inspiration, new ideas, best practices, support, and encouragement.
(Read the full launch post here.)
We believe in the vital importance of humans coming together to create and grow enduring, private businesses that make a dent in the universe.
Our vision is two-fold. First, that Evergreen companies will go from being underappreciated to being broadly recognized for what they are—attractive employers, partners, suppliers, customers, and community members that aren’t going away because they are adaptable, well-run, share in their success, and are not for sale.
Second, that Tugboat Institute will be the unrivaled resource for Evergreen CEOs and their businesses, providing a value-aligned support network unlike any other and additional services that are highly valued by our members and the broader Evergreen community.
We have dedicated our careers to supporting great entrepreneurs, and we believe that supporting Evergreen leaders is our calling.
Dan is a finance professional with a focus on driving profitable growth in operating companies. More
Michelle Bitler joins The Tugboat Group with over 20 years of accounting and financial experience. More
Laura joined Tugboat after several years in the event planning industry in San Francisco, which instilled a deep commitment to professionalism, efficiency, and attention to detail. More
Maria is a second generation Californian, thanks to her German grandfather who bootstrapped a manufacturing company in the Bay Area. More
Diana Price joined The Tugboat Group as content manager with over 20 years' experience creating and editing consumer health and wellness, education, and lifestyle content across print and digital media. More
In 2013, Dave founded Tugboat Institute to connect, support and inspire purpose-driven leaders of Evergreen businesses. Pri More
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Dan is a finance professional with a focus on driving profitable growth in operating companies. Dan has been involved in growth and transition phases at Intel Corporation and other companies. Partnering with the business, he provided strong analytics, leveraged systems and drove operational efficiencies. Dan’s experience and leadership include international finance and partnership within the corporate venture arm. Tugboat provides an opportunity to have impact in partnership with a group of innovative leaders who have a passion to build meaningful, long-lasting and profitable businesses. He has a BS in Math-Applied Science from UCLA. Dan is based in Silicon Valley.
Michelle Bitler joins The Tugboat Group with over 20 years of accounting and financial experience. She is an east coast transplant where she gained corporate accounting experience in various industries from insurance companies to senior living services. Her areas of expertise are financial reporting, payroll and cash management. Michelle earned a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from York College of PA.
Laura joined Tugboat after several years in the event planning industry in San Francisco, which instilled a deep commitment to professionalism, efficiency, and attention to detail. An Idaho native and avid hiker, camper, and snowboarder, Laura loves the mountain lifestyle and doesn’t see herself leaving anytime soon. She holds a BA in Communications with a Public Relations Emphasis from Boise State University.
Maria is a second generation Californian, thanks to her German grandfather who bootstrapped a manufacturing company in the Bay Area. She loves building awareness for the Evergreen movement through growing the Tugboat membership. Maria spent ten years working with The Advisory Board Company doing marketing, business development, and sales management before making the shift to public education. She recently served her community for eight years as a Governing Board Member for the Menlo Park City School District.
Annie joins The Tugboat Group after four years of full time ski racing. Born and raised in the Mountain West, Annie returned to Idaho in 2016 to compete, and stayed for the community she found there. She graduated from Middlebury College with a degree in Philosophy before completing the summer Bridge program at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business.
Diana Price joined The Tugboat Group as content manager with over 20 years' experience creating and editing consumer health and wellness, education, and lifestyle content across print and digital media. Diana is inspired by the stories of Evergreen companies and leaders that she is able to share through Evergreen Journal and additional content platforms. A native of Sun Valley, Idaho, Diana earned a degree in English from University of Montana.
In 2013, Dave founded Tugboat Institute to connect, support and inspire purpose-driven leaders of Evergreen businesses. Prior, Dave co-founded four companies including drugstore.com and Good Technology. He also invested at TPG Ventures and KPCB—working closely with Amazon, Google, Successfactors, and others in their earliest days. His career began with HP and Bain. He loves to read, cycle, golf and hike with Lisa, Briggs (19) and Rylee (17).