Cameron Madill is founder of a social impact marketing agency that is proud to be a worker-owned cooperative and certified B Corp supporting credit unions with award-winning websites and digital tools to improve their positive impact in communities. He is the co-founder of B Local PDX, helped to launch EO Accelerator in Portland, and served on the EO Accelerator Global Subcommittee. Cameron has won several awards for his work, including the 2017 EO Global Citizen of the Year award for his work with refugees, being named a 2018 B Economy Leader for his work building local B Corp communities, and the Portland Business Journal 40 Under 40 award.

Tell us about yourself!

When I think about who I am, the first thing that comes to mind is my family. I’m very lucky to have parents and an older sister who are just really good, admirable people. But more than just being good, the extraordinary thing is that it’s their way of being that made the biggest mark on me. Growing up, what stands out is how much care they all took to treat everyone as equals. They paid attention to power structures and intentionally made sure to give back whenever possible. This has become a throughline in my life and work.

Cameron Madill being the quintessential annoyed teenager with his loving family.

Each of my parents had highly professional, successful careers – and each courageously left those careers to pursue a new chapter in their late 40s. My father left a career in high tech management to start a company with me. My mom had a fulfilling career as a doctor, including owning her own medical practice, for over twenty years, and then decided to pursue her childhood passion for art and become a painter – even being willing to enroll in art school! She’s still a painter to this day and never looked back.

My parents set a very high bar for balancing external and internal accomplishments, modeling how entrepreneurship can open up space for a deeper purpose. There's a lot of noise out there in the world, but ultimately I learned how important it is to listen to my heart. I took their lead starting in college when, having chosen a double major in history and physics, I took two years off to play jazz!

"My parents modeled how entrepreneurship can open up space for a deeper purpose.”

Why did you start your business?

I recall talking to an older friend in college about what was next for me, and him asking me if I wanted to work for other people, or if I wanted other people to work for me?

I realized that I never liked following the directions of others. And I decided that I'd rather make a ton of mistakes and bear the consequences myself. This opened the door to starting my own company. And I think for people graduating in 2003, like me, if you had a laptop and some basic technical skills, you could build websites. So that’s what I did – I co-founded my company with my dad.

PixelSpoke is an employee owned company. We are almost 20 years old with 17 employees (10 of whom are owners). There's perhaps 500 worker cooperatives in the entire U.S., and we’re proud to be part of this transformational movement. Worker cooperatives are a lot more common in parts of Europe, but it isn’t typical in the U.S. yet and we need to get the word out about this approach. We’ve also been a certified B Corp since 2014, and I look back to this as the moment when we “found ourselves” as a company. We have really doubled down on having triple bottom lines – real positive social impact where we’re committed to all of our stakeholders, and not just shareholders. We exist to serve multiple stakeholders, and especially to elevate our workers as a stakeholder.

As a creative and analytical company, our mission is to create exceptional work and Everybody Wins relationships that empower positive change while focusing on our niche of purpose-driven credit unions. Credit unions are really wonderful not-for-profit institutions that do amazing things for their communities through their focus on finance built around people, not external shareholders. Finance is this mostly invisible thing that underlies everything that happens in our world, and it drives so many of these systems around us that we want to change.

“I realized that I never liked following the directions of others. This opened the door to starting my own company.”

Tell us about an obstacle that you overcame, that helped you get where you are today.

Two really hard moments come to mind.

The first was a business strategy in 2012 that I was so passionate about that I pursued it for 3 years. It felt akin to how Steve Jobs talked about just doing what you’re passionate about and success will naturally follow. But after three years, it was just clear that my partner and I didn’t share the same core values and it wasn't producing business results for either of us. Letting that go was really painful, but also a powerful experience. In business, you often have to make pragmatic choices that may not align with your heart. And learning just how important core values alignment is has been something I’ve carried forth in my business and life ever since.

Another tough time was in 2018 when the company experienced a cultural rupture. I remember it taking me to my lowest point of mental health that I’ve ever experienced. We had a real sense of “us” and “them” in the company for the first time, and a sense of whispers and gossip everywhere. The lowest point came when we received a scathing online review from an employee. I had to do my best to not personalize it. I found a way to extract 30 specific opportunities for improvement from the review and we put them all on a list that worked through over the next year until we had addressed every single one. The way it was said didn't feel good or fair, but I worked hard to treat it like an objective business case study and lean into how we could improve as a company and individuals. In Buddhist terms, I focused on the middle path. I leaned in, stayed open and curious, while also not getting overwhelmed by it. That was incredibly hard. But I think it led to so much good in the culture of our company today, and taught me how to lead during difficult times.

“In Buddhist terms, I found the middle path. I leaned in, stayed open and curious, and tried not to get overwhelmed by it.”

How has being in EO helped you?

EO has been the source of so many close friendships and some of the best experiences of my life. Our shared passion to build an enterprise is a powerful source of connection. We're kind of weirdos…in a fun way!.

I very much resonate with the almost subversive effort to start a business. I've been surprised that the vast majority of entrepreneurs have really, really intense stories of origin that they've overcome to create a business. They sort of flip the bird to society and say, “the heck with you all!” It’s inspiring and impressive to be among such bold human beings. I learn so much from them.

One thing that I am absolutely fascinated by is why any individual decides to take that leap and start a business. There is a moment when it happens for a person, and no one knows when that will be. It's such a hard thing to do, and it can’t be done halfway – You have to leap off the cliff! I find this group of people fascinating and inspiring.

Though I think of myself as a lot less bold than most of my peers, that’s who I am as well to some extent – so it helps to be amongst this group who do this every day and help me do it better too.

What lies ahead for PixelSpoke?

When I think about the future of PixelSpoke, I get most excited about three things: first, the ability to keep working with impact-focused credit unions to help them improve their digital presence, better connect emotionally with their members, and support significant impact in and for their communities; second, the chance to support more companies converting to the worker cooperative model so that more and more employees have a chance to participate in the right and responsibility of owning the place where they work; and third, continuing to promote the movement of certified B Corporations so that more companies choose to rigorously measure and improve their impact across all stakeholders.

The most amazing part of this whole journey for me has been watching our team, co-owners, and leaders take charge of PixelSpoke and lead these growth and changes themselves. I have been working half-time since the birth of my son in 2020, and watching my other “child” grow beyond me as I have stepped back more and more is a source of incredible joy, pride, and fulfillment. Here’s to a better world for us all.

This is an interview series by Talie Smith, EO Board Chair for Chapter Communications, featuring Entrepreneurs' Organization – EO Portland Chapter members who lift others up through their grit, talent, and courageous entrepreneurial spirit.