Dave Dahl
Baker · Entrepreneur
Dave Dahl is an American baker and entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and namesake of Dave’s Killer Bread. After returning to his family’s bakery, he developed breads that helped launch the brand at the Portland Farmers Market in 2005. [2]
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Career and work
After his final prison sentence, Dahl was welcomed back to his family’s bakery by his older brother, Glenn. In 2005, he returned to the bakery full time to lead product development. That year, Dahl and his nephew Shobi introduced Dave’s Killer Bread at the Portland Farmers Market. [2]
Building the company was a family effort. Dahl worked alongside Glenn and his nephew Shobi as the business expanded, and he has described working long hours developing, demonstrating and distributing the bread as it entered new markets. [3]
Dave’s Killer Bread subsequently expanded into a nationally distributed organic bread company and became known as a second-chance employer. The company has connected that practice to Dahl’s own experience of rebuilding his life after incarceration and says it hires qualified people regardless of criminal history. [2]
What has been publicly discussed
“I didn’t know I could be bipolar, and I discovered that I could be big time.”
— Dave Dahl [3]
