American Pillar Growers Graduates from NAV
On a crisp evening in 2015, Clint Ober looks out over a sea of forgotten trees and sees a genius project that just needs a little love – a dream he will soon adopt as his own.
Clint Ober with American Pillar Growers is graduating from the North Atlanta Venture Mentoring Service (NAV) after three years in the program.
Ober joined NAV in 2021 with his tree production company, American Pillar Growers. Ober’s mentor team was power packed with Jim Bulger, Aaron Ingram and Jeff Rusbridge.
“I’ve had just a phenomenal time – a wonderful, wonderful experience in NAV,” said Ober. “However the matching program is setup, it made a perfect fit. All my mentors were very encouraging, and they were very challenging. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people.”
Ober’s mentor team brought a variety of experience and knowledge to American Pillar Growers that catapulted its success and growth.
“NAV helped motivate me to get focused, be strategic and be intentional in my business. I had to stop and get out of the dream factor and get into reality to do this thing,” said Ober. “I don’t know how to say the gratitude and thanks for what my mentors and NAV have given in value – they all seemed to have different things that fed into what I needed for my business.”
Ober’s journey also had an impact on his mentor team, too.
“It as a genuine joy and privilege to serve as a NAV mentor to Clint and American Pillar Growers,” said Jim Bulger, one of Ober’s mentors and President and founder of WorkThrive. “Over the past two years, we have walked beside him as his entrepreneurial dream became a fully-fledged and scalable business, applauded him as he overcame numerous unexpected obstacles, and assisted him in developing the strategies and vision that I’m confident will bring him continued growth and success in the future.”
“We are so fortunate to have entrepreneurs like Clint be part of the developing business community in Cherokee County. His drive to win, coupled with a unique value proposition for his business, has served him very well as he graduates from the NAV program. Clint embraced the challenges that the mentor team laid before him and I applaud his progress and look forward to the continued success of American Pillar Growers,” said Ober’s mentor Aaron Ingram, Senior Product Manager Global Strategic Marketing at Avanos Medical.
When American Pillar Growers began their NAV journey, they were working with one nursey – now it’s sixteen.
Clint began his journey with American Pillar growers in 2015, after becoming interested in trees at his elderly friend’s house.
“My wife started working for this lady named Mavis. Soon after she started working there Mavis wanted to meet me – and that’s where I first saw the trees,” said Ober. “She had a backyard full of these American Pillar trees. They were in rough shape.
She was 88-years-old at the time. When she told me about this tree, my first thought was ‘Why isn’t this thing everywhere?’ I fell in love with it right out of the gate,” said Ober.
Mavis’ late husband, Don, had first discovered the tree on his property in Canton. He noticed the evergreen was different and began watching the behavior of the tree – it was fast growing, narrow and dense.
Most new species of tree are created through grafting and cross breeding, but this tree was different. The American Pillar is a sport: a naturally reoccurring variant of a parent tree.
“I call it a God thing, because it’s like poof it’s there – literally,” said Ober.
With its unique behavior, and the fact that the tree did not exist anywhere else, Don got a patent on the American Pillar and thus began an entrepreneurial journey that would last long after his time.
After helping Mavis re-start her husband’s dream for three years, she sold Clint and his wife the business.
“For the first month or two we helped her clean up the plants. It wasn’t much, just a small plot of land in the back. But the more I learned about the tree, the more I learned the business was not reaching its full potential. We volunteered to help her become more profitable,” said Ober.
Ober says his entrepreneurial brain took over as he saw the future of the American Pillar Tree. “I want everybody to have this tree. I want to make it available to everybody, so that’s what we’ve been doing,” said Ober.
Even though his time in NAV has come to a close, Ober is not done expanding his business. “I want to be the primary person for the American Pillar. I want to grow them myself because when the patent ends in about four years, anybody can grow the tree. I need to get my footprint large enough where people are calling me for the American Pillar,” said Ober.
Most nurseries do not grow their own product, they purchase from a wholesaler. Ober’s next steps are to purchase land and begin growing American Pillars in his own backyard to establish himself as the number one American Pillar wholesaler before the patent ends.
Now, Ober works with a contract grower offsite. Once he gets his own land, he’ll be able to put up greenhouses to grow his own trees, cutting production cost in half.
Ober hopes to purchase land in Cherokee County, to keep the American Pillar capital right here at home.
Read more about the American Pillar and Mavis and Don’s story here. Check out our other ventures!
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