Today’s featured member, Jen Osborn, Owner of Paratex, says Paratex is one of the oldest continuously-operating, family-owned pest control companies in the NW.
Tell us about your business
We provide routine pest prevention for commercial, government and residential customers throughout Western and Central WA state. Additionally, we have our own fumigation vault in SODO and perform on-site fumigation of structures, containers, and commodities; we provide bird deterrent services to keep urban roosting birds from public spaces, exclusion of pest entry of structures (barriers) and specialize in keeping highly sensitive facilities compliant with auditing requirements and government regulations. We also provide licensed rodent abatement certification for any size demolition construction project. This year we are working on a project for the Dept of Agriculture to help control and eradicate a particularly invasive beetle before it becomes an issue in the NW.
Why did you join the Chamber?
I have a deep interest in both social and business networking and absorbing experience-based business knowledge (peer-advisory) – which is to say I like when other people do the hard work and make the mistakes and then I learn from them. I don’t know a lot about the nitty-gritty details of my industry – I leave that to the technicians – but I love the business building through relationships aspect of owning a business, and there’s no better way to engage with the community than being part of groups like the Chamber. I can connect with every type of business at every stage while also keeping up on what’s going on in our region. I don’t have to proactively seek out the latest local business updates when I can rely on the Chamber to bring it’s members the information as it happens. But mostly I’m in it for the happy hours.
What do you value most about being part of our local business community?
I’ve lived and worked in Seattle my whole life (decades) and seen how things have changed and evolved (some good, some not as fun) but consistently you get a big city with a small town feel when you start connecting with people. I feel like I’m no more than a couple of degrees of separation away from most people living and working in the Seattle area. I love connecting people to other people who can be a good resource for them in business or just friendship – it might be the one thing I’m truly good at, and Seattle is perfect for this. We seem to all love the outdoors and dogs at least!
What’s new or on the horizon for your company in 2026?
Aside from our big beetle project for the Dept of Ag, we’re working on further leveraging our certifications as a Woman-owned business to pick up more interesting and large-scale government contracts. We are forecasting a very busy spring and summer insect season after this particularly mild winter. We in SODO are really looking forward to the World Cup in our backyard in a few months, and we’re excited about scaling the business in a way that works for everyone – mostly our long-time crew – and its nice to know there are so many people in the Chamber that are there to help in the process!
To learn more about membership with the Seattle Metro Chamber, please visit our membership page.
Thank you to Paratex for being part of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce network. Here at the Chamber, we have 2,500 companies across the region and 13 different business sectors, from your favorite neighborhood restaurant to brands known around the world. Our member feature program is based on referrals. If you would like to learn more about how to be featured in our member features series, please contact Cori Lumens.