---
title: 'Nothing ventured, nothing gained: 5 Portland tech startups to pitch Venture Northwest crowd'
date: '2009-10-07T18:17:04-07:00'
type: post
word_count: 490
char_count: 3606
tokens: 637
categories:
  - Events
  - Northwest
  - Oregon
  - Portland
  - Venture
  - VentureNW
tags:
  - Northwest
  - Portland
  - Startups
  - 'venture northwest'
---

# Nothing ventured, nothing gained: 5 Portland tech startups to pitch Venture Northwest crowd

Ah, fall in Portland. Time for the leaves to change, the nights to get a little more chilly, and the startups to pitch potential investors for the capital that will help those entrepreneurs make it through the dark and rainy months.

And there’s no better place to pitch a room full of potential shareholders than [Venture Northwest](http://www.venturenw.org/ "Venture Northwest"), the annual gathering of institutional investors, investment bankers, and some of the most promising startups in the Pacific Northwest.

Not familiar? Here’s how [Gerry Langeler of OVP](http://www.ovp.com/the-team/managing-directors/gerry-langeler.html "Gerry Langeler of OVP") describes the event.

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This year there are five Portland-area tech startups taking the stage.

### [ShopIgniter](http://www.shopigniter.com/ "ShopIgniter")

[ShopIgniter](http://www.shopigniter.com/ "ShopIgniter") is a real-time, social eCommerce platform with an intent-based search engine for Twitter, FaceBook and other popular social networks. It can manage multiple sales channels for products, including their marketing and promotion. Built for boutiques, small businesses and the enterprise, and delivered as a Software as a Service or download, ShopIgniter is a complete end-to-end solution for online sales.

### [Elemental Technologies](http://www.elementaltechnologies.com/ "Elemental Technologies")

[Elemental Technologies](http://www.elementaltechnologies.com/ "Elemental Technologies") is the leading provider of massively parallel processing solutions for video applications. Using off-the-shelf, programmable graphics processing units (GPUs) for compute-intensive video processing and conversion tasks, Elemental’s products are ideally suited for a variety of video applications including consumer media processing, professional video editing and Internet video processing.

### [Giftango](http://www.giftango.com/ "Giftango")

[Giftango](http://www.giftango.com/ "Giftango") is focused on the NEXT stage of gift, loyalty and member cards with virtual cards delivered through computer and mobile phones. This means new promotions, incentives and rewards capabilities for merchants through an all-digital, carbon friendly fulfillment channel that is already proving more popular than plastic.

### [Prolifiq](http://www.prolifiq.net/ "Prolifiq")

[Prolifiq](http://www.prolifiq.net/ "Prolifiq") provides on-demand software that accelerates sales and helps companies meet regulatory requirements by organizing, sending and tracking approved digital content throughout their sales processes. Prolifiq has transformed the sales operations of leading companies in the life sciences, technology and digital media industries.

### [Second Porch](http://www.secondporch.com/ "Second Porch")

[Second Porch](http://www.secondporch.com/ "Second Porch") facilitates renting and trading vacation homes through owner’s trusted network, avoiding pitfalls of dealing with strangers. The application spreads awareness of vacation properties across social platforms like Facebook. Owners list and renters search properties free. Revenue comes from premium features via subscription, referral and transaction fees.

Best of luck to all of the presenters. But especially to the tech startups.

For more information on the event, visit [Venture Northwest](http://www.venturenw.org/ "Venture Northwest").

*(Hat tip [Mike Rogoway](http://blog.oregonlive.com/siliconforest/2009/10/venture_nw_sets_lineup.html "Venture NW sets lineup"))*

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