The Grimsmo family originated in Norway around 1650. The most prominent Grimsmo entrepreneur in his days was I.A. Grimsmo. Started as a merchandiser and ended up being an industrial powerhouse in the late 1800s. He travelled a lot to get ideas and buy merchandise that he thought the home town wanted. And they did. His first venture was selling home-grown potatoes to the town’s population. There was no Safeway then!
He started and operated two major industrial plants. One was a major processor of wool products, the second was a timber processing plant. Where incidentally I was born. Both are gone today, WW2 happened and Norway changed.
Since then many Grimsmo’s have been entrepreneurs, and to this day there are multiple Grimsmo owning businesses and work by themselves. My brother Bjørn in Langley, BC runs a VIP Landscaping. His son and daughter are both entrepreneurs. And there is of course my own sons John and Erik right here in Grimsby, ON. Grimsmo Knives
My story is an long one. After high school in Kristiansund, Norway I moved to Montreal, Canada. I wanted to go to school, but soon found out that was not what I wanted to do. So I left school and got a job in a printing plant. Then at 3M I landed a job as a service technician, and travelled all over greater Montreal and beyond repairing microfilm equipment. They then transferred me to Halifax where I became a service/sales representative. I was a true road warrior, travelling all over the Maritimes every week on customer calls.
The West Coast called, I always wanted to live on the West Cost which, of course is like my home in Norway. So I left 3M and we moved to Vancouver. There I had several jobs, first one selling condos, then micrographic services and then got recruited by NCR Canada as a sales rep for the micrographic division. Another transfer to Calgary as the District Manager for the same division. After 8 years with NCR the company got sold to AT&T and things got weird. The well established NCR career paths were gone. So I left to be on my own as an IT consultant. This was in the very early time of PCs. I got one of the first one.
My journey continued back to Vancouver via 3 months in San Diego. Then a transfer to Markham, Ontario as a national marketing manager for V-Tech. The PC market profits were high, but dumped so my job was terminated. I did, however get compensated and that is when I decided no more “jobs”. That was May 22, 1988. I consulted for Warner Lambert for about a year in their regulatory affairs department setting up an imaging system.
Then we got our Green Cards to the US. That is a long story. We ended up in Turin, NY and I quickly discovered that the county was lacking in computer skills. Before I knew it I was developing custom software for industry and law enforcement. The first web browser came in 1993 and I was all over that. I claim I had the first website developed in that county (a gun cleaning supplies company). After a few years we wanted to move back to the West Coast and ended up in Lynden, WA. There I continued my IT/programming work and had several clients that kept me busy.
Then Vancouver and finally to Grimsby, Ontario where I am now settled. Still doing what I did 36 years ago. Creating software and websites.
Check out how to create your own Amazon storefront on the web