--- title: 'Geek Bat signal: Oregon entrepreneurs need to act now! No, really. I mean right now.' date: '2009-03-20T10:52:02-07:00' type: post word_count: 821 char_count: 4871 tokens: 1068 categories: - Funding - Oregon - Portland - SiliconForest - Startups tags: - Entrepreneurs - Funding - Oregon - Startups - treasurer --- # Geek Bat signal: Oregon entrepreneurs need to act now! No, really. I mean right now. Last night, an [endless volley of entrepreneurs and would-be startups](http://siliconflorist.com/2009/03/18/you-may-have-already-won-a-quarter-of-a-million-dollars/ "What would you do with $250k?") stepped up to a mic at [Nedspace](http://nedspace.com) and provided a 2-3 minute pitch on what they would do with $250,000 over the next year. And man, were there some incredible ideas—some incredibly cool, some incredibly wacky—but all incredible nonetheless. There was only one problem: **I didn’t see you up there.** I can watch the video again, just to be sure. But I’m fairly certain you won’t appear. \[HTML1\] I mean, sure. I got to see [Ron Barrett](http://twitter.com/Ron_Barrett "Ron Barrett"), [Carolynn Duncan](http://twitter.com/hundreddollar "Carolynn Duncan"), [Dave Howell](http://twitter.com/dshowell "Dave Howell"), [Scott Kveton](http://twitter.com/kveton "Scott Kveton"), [Sasha Mace](http://twitter.com/sashamace "Sasha Mace"), [John Metta](http://twitter.com/mettadore "John Metta"), [Chris Logan](http://twitter.com/chrislogan "Chris Logan"), [Bob Uva](http://twitter.com/bobuva "Bob Uva"), [Ken Westin](http://twitter.com/kwestin "Ken Westin"), and [Steve Woodward](http://twitter.com/oregoniansteve "Steve Woodward"). I love all of those folks. And I’ll applaud anyone who gets up in front of a crowd to speak, because I certainly don’t relish it. Heck, somebody from the [Office of the State Treasurer for Oregon](http://www.ost.state.or.us/divisions/investment/index.htm "Oregon Office of the State Treasurer") even showed up. But I didn’t see you. And that made me kind of sad. But, then again, I’m all about second chances. So how about this? How about you take a few seconds to provide some details about one, two, or 12 of your current side projects? [Take a moment to reflect on what you could do with $250,000 in the next year, to help bring your product or idea to fruition](#form). Don’t think you’re worthy? Not interested in getting funding? I’d still encourage you to [take a few moments to respond](#form). Really, what could it hurt? The point is this: **rising water floats all boats**. And our state treasurer needs convincing that we have a viable entrepreneurial environment filled with viable startups just waiting to take form. What’s more, if these folks can pull off putting together a $100 million fund for Oregon startups, it’s going to help all of us. But don’t just take my word for it. David Abramowski has some great insights about what [funding Oregon startups](http://startupgeek.org/2009/03/20/hey-state-invest-in-oregon-startups-now/ "Invest in Oregon startups now") could do for the local economy. Come to think of it, I don’t even care if you live in Oregon right now. If you’d be willing to relocate to Oregon to start your business, [you’re more than welcome to fill out the form](http://siliconflorist.com/wp-admin/post.php#form), as well. So maybe you’re trying to build a [music service](http://mugasha.com) or a [calendar aggregator](http://calagator.org) or a [niche social network](http://momhub.com) or a [new form of CRM](http://mioworks.com) or an [iPhone agency](http://raven.me) or a [mobile development shop focused on usability](http://cloudfour.com) or a [better support tool](http://tenderapp.com/) or [charting where you’ve been](http://icecondor.com) or [figuring out where your friends are](http://shizzow.com) or [providing space](http://souk.com) for your peers to [work and socialize](http://cubespace.com) or [archiving the Web](http://iterasi.com) or [finding happy hours](http://unthirsty.com) or [producing a weekly podcast](http://strangelovelive.com "Strange Love Live") or [providing information about every Web site ever](http://aboutus.com). Maybe what you’re really interested in doing isn’t even geeky. Maybe you’re more interested in building out a photography business or covering the Portland scene or building some tangible product or creating a new kind of agency. I don’t really care. [We just need smart people like you to share their ideas about what *could* be done, if the money was there](#form). And I know you’ve got some ideas. But here’s the catch: you need to respond, now. And I mean **right now**. The team pursuing the fund wants to get this information assembled by **Wednesday, March 25**. So take a deep breath and dive in. I’ll keep [this form](http://siliconflorist.com/wp-admin/post.php#form) open until Wednesday at midnight. Then, I’ll gather up all of the responses and ship them off to the folks working on this. They, in turn, will crate them up and dump them on the Oregon Treasurer’s, the Governor’s, and the various Mayors’ desks. Remember, there were some cool ideas pitched, last night. But none of them were as cool as yours. \[HTML2\]