About Chalten Consulting LLC

ABOUT THE COMPANY

In August 2016 Nate was hit by a car while cycling. He has decided not to take on clients until he recovers.

Nate LaCroix is an experienced technical engineer and project manager, while in Portland he was General Manager for Pelletco, a renewable heating company. For over eight years, Nathan was at Schlumberger, which is the world's leading supplier of technology, integrated project management and information solutions to customers working in the oil and gas industry worldwide. From 2012 - 2014, Nathan was a Technical Engineer where he trained and coached engineers both in the field and office settings. He authored SOP for Schlumberger and oversaw crews to ensure SOP was upheld, he monitored and set objectives for field crews and ensured data delivery quality controls. He also held the roles of Engineer in Charge and Wireline Field Engineer. He took a leave of absence from Schlumberger to pursue his passion for sustainable living. Part of his time was spent volunteering in Cambodia, instructing hands-on science and technology workshops in a provincial school. Nathan received a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology.

"I want to provide start ups and small businesses with a solution that fits their needs and budget to help them take the next step in growing their business. "

Nate LaCroix

You don't climb mountains without a team, you don't climb mountains without being fit, you don't climb mountains without being prepared and you don't climb mountains without balancing the risks and rewards. And you never climb a mountain on accident - it has to be intentional.

~Mark Udall

El Chaltén is a town in the Patigonia region of Argentina. Chaltén is a tehuelche word meaning smoking mountain, as once believed it was a volcano since the peak is often covered by clouds. Nate chose the name as he thinks there are often a low cloud base that the owner/founder of startups and small businesses have a hard time seeing above, or sometimes down through. Chalten Consulting was started with the mission to give companies a solution to help them get a 30k foot view and execute projects from the ground level.

While exploring the backcountry on a snowboard around Fitz Roy in El Chaltén Argentina, Nate started to make a strong connection between entrepreneurs building a business and mountaineers planning for an expedition. He believes that you are able to attempt and safely return home from any expedition as long as a few key concepts are followed. You need to be prepared physically, mentally and have all the right gear/tools. You need to build the right team, create and maintain a positive working attitude, understand the strengths, weakness, and ability of each team member when working together. There needs to be a known leader, and as a group you need to be able to look at any particular situation not only for the immediate cause and effect but how that decision will effect the expedition as a whole.

As climbers learned to do, preparation and patients were both needed if Fitz Roy was going to be attmpted. No matter how fit one is, if they do not know and understand the potential for bad weather based on the clouds, or take the appropriate time to prepare, the climb may quickly become a disaster. Nate compares this thought to startups and small business. He thinks there may be times where the founder is unable to clearly see his goals due to a cloudy mind. This can be caused by many different possible factors. Chalten Consulting's goal is to step in and give the company a view from above the clouds. Which wil help them to take the next step to sustainabily scale and grow.

Nate founded the company to help startups recongize and understand these concepts. With the belief that if similar concepts are taken into consideration, a business will succeed even if not achieving what they initially set out to achieve.