Dave Orman started Raven & Associates, Inc. in April of 1997 in a small apartment in the Lincoln Park Neighborhood of Duluth, Minnesota. At the time, he was working full time as a graphic designer for a neighborhood screen print shop and studying graphic design and theater at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. A relative approached Dave and offered to loan him the money to start his own company. After a few moments of thought, Dave quickly agreed, quit school, and Raven & Associates, Inc. was born.

After conjuring up a name for the company (click to read the story...), Dave began pounding the pavement and shopping his skills and portfolio around to local advertising agencies, screen print shops, and businesses. After six months of starving, it was decided that maybe the company should shift focus, but what would that focus be?

Dave decided that he would take the knowledge that he had acquired while working for screen printers and embroiderers and combine it with one thing he was very passionate about: Scouting. He had grown up in the Boy Scouts and had even achieved two of the highest honors a youth can receive: the Eagle Scout Award and the Vigil Honor of the Order of the Arrow. So in short order Raven & Associates, Inc. became a scout supply company

This is probably the best business decision that Dave had ever made. In less than six months, the company’s customer base had tripled and there was almost more work than Dave could handle by himself. Customers seemed excited about a company run by a Scouter, and was operated by the Scout Oath & Law. It did not hurt that prices were competitive, the quality of the product was great, and that Dave went out of his way to service his customers.

The company quickly outgrew the apartment in which it was born, so Dave and his associates (at the time, these were his fiancée and a rottweiler) moved to a bigger apartment in the furthest reaches of West Duluth. Here the company continued to prosper, until July of 2001 when it moved into it’s current location at 115 North 3rd Avenue West (nestled into the heart of Downtown Duluth and with view of famous Ariel Lift Bridge).

The company continues to grow and add Associates and customers to this very day, because of it’s emphasis on taking care of the customer. Please click on the link below and get to know the face of Raven & Associates, Inc. today.