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Month: October 2010

Care to venture a guess as to who got picked for OEN Venture Northwest 2010? Oh. Fine. Here’s the list then.

Vying for cash is always a competition. But sometimes it’s actually a competition. I mean, like an event. Like the Bend Venture Conference. And like the annual Oregon Entrepreneur Network (OEN) Venture Northwest event.

Today, Venture Northwest revealed the speakers for this year. And of the 10 companies chosen to present, six fall into the realm of stuff Silicon Florist would usually cover. And I want one of them to win. So I’m only telling you about those six. Read More

Yes, Portland, you can has Cheezburger… and Teh Itteh Bitteh Book of Kittehs

I Can Has Cheezburger and its wonderful world of LOLcats and the LOLrus. And this Thursday the CEO of all things Cheezburger, Ben Huh, will be making an appearance at Powell’s. Even better? You’re invited.

So here’s the startup idea. Let’s take pictures of cats… wait not only cats. Cats and every once in awhile? A walrus. Or maybe a bunny. Okay, so let’s take those pictures and then allow people to write things on them. With really really bad grammar. And then they can share them with their friends. And the world.

What do you mean you’re not going to fund that? Well, too bad. Because that? That’s the biggest WordPress implementation of them all, I Can Has Cheezburger and its wonderful world of LOLcats and the LOLrus. And this Thursday the CEO of all things Cheezburger, Ben Huh, will be making an appearance at Powell’s. Even better? You’re invited. Read More

Third time’s a charm: Open Source Bridge 3, June 21-24, 2011. This time… it’s personal.

When it comes to open source, Portland is the place to be next summer. Not only will we be hosting OSCON 2011, we’ll also see the third installment of everyone’s favorite completely volunteer run open source conference Open Source Bridge.

When you ask? Open Source Bridge 3 will be held June 21-24, 2011. Three days of open source developer goodness and—if things hold true to previous eventss—around 72 consecutive hours of hacking. Read More

This is going down on your permanent (federal) record: Iterasi partners with NTIS

For all the startups that make the headlines month after month, there are hundreds of other awesome startups in Portland quietly cranking out compelling technology—and landing big customers.

Well, one of those quiet startups made the headlines today. Iterasi, a service that helps users archive Web pages in their original state, announced a partnership with the National Technical Information Service of the US Department of Commerce (NTIS) to provide Web archiving services to federal science agencies. Read More

Portland Seed Fund: Talking with fund manager Angela Jackson of Bridge City Ventures

So instead of just sitting around and bitching about the Portland Seed Fund and talking about what its not, I took the opportunity to reach out to Angela Jackson of Bridge City Ventures

You may have read—or even participated in—the discussion that ensued after Mike Rogoway’s article on the Portland Seed Fund, a new program designed to help fund early stage startups in the Portland area.

I’m happy to see another funding resource for early stage startups around here, but there were some statements in Mike’s article which, admittedly, stuck in my craw. And I may have bitched a little about such. Read More

Work it, Portland: ActiveTrak, CardPower, Instrument, Rumblefish, and Urban Airship are all hiring

[HTML4]Why hello there you strapping young lad and/or go getting young lady. Or maybe you’re older. Whatever. I can’t really see you so well from here. But what I can see is that you look like you could use some gainful employment.

You could? Well you’re in luck, because there’s a whole bucketload of awesome startups looking to hire you. Yes, you! Step right this way. Read More

Mike Rogoway is kicking my ass… and that’s awesome.

If you’re tuned into tech scene in the Portland area, you’re no doubt a reader of the Silicon Forest blog. And if you’re not, you should be. It’s written by Mike Rogoway, the tech and business writer for The Oregonian.

[HTML1]If you’re tuned into tech scene in the Portland area, you’re no doubt a reader of the Silicon Forest blog. And if you’re not, you should be. It’s written by Mike Rogoway, the tech and business writer for The Oregonian.

And lately, to be honest, Mike and his blog—even his printed pieces for that matter—have been kicking my ass. Quite soundly, I might add. And that, gentle reader, is a very very good thing. Dare I say awesome, even? Read More

Spoiler alert: pdx.fm is very likely metamorphosing into cascadia.fm

Tomorrow morning, listen to Suck Itā„¢ at 8:30 AM PT and I will bet you money—even though I’m not a betting man—that Robert will announce that pdx.fm is transforming into something new. And that something new will be cascadia.fm.

Okay. So I’m a blogger. And one of the requirements of being a blogger is rumor mongering. Sorry. It’s true.

So even though I have absolutely no confirmation of anything of any sort. It’s almost a pre-requisite that I start making unsubstantiated assumptions. And casting some aspersions willy nilly. That’s right. I said “aspersions.”

You see, it appears to me—like some nutty game of Clue—that there’s something a brewin’ with that pdx.fm crew. Read More

Some strings attached: Puppet Labs acquires open source framework Marionette Collective

Portland’s Puppet Labs which has opted for the buy decision by acquiring the open source project, the Marionette Collective. The acquisition was announced to day at the Puppet user event, Puppet Camp.

When startups get funding, it’s common practice for them to go into a series of build versus buy decisions in regards to their technology. Sometimes, it’s simply faster and easier to incorporate an existing project—especially if that project includes some compelling resources—than it is to start from scratch.

Such is the case with Portland’s Puppet Labs which has opted for the buy decision by acquiring the open source project, the Marionette Collective. The acquisition was announced to day at the Puppet user event, Puppet Camp. Read More