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Entrepreneurs need two things: coffee and power. And now, Portland is getting more of both… with Coffee & Power

Rick Turoczy on February 15, 2012

If there are two things that are always in short supply, it’s coffee and power. That’s why I was happy to read that—as reported by GeekWire and Willamette Week–the popular San Francisco workspace Coffee & Power is opening up a new branch. In Portland.

Coffee & Power is a hub for all kinds of mobile workers buying and selling small services.

You tell others what you are willing to do or need done, right now, for how much. The map shows your listings along with those of other people. You use SMS and your mobile phone to quickly make/receive offers and get paid. Buyers and sellers use US$ currency for payments. You can add funds to your C&P account using your credit card or PayPal, or earn them by selling services. You can also withdraw funds via PayPal.

Seems perfect for Portland. If only it were located somewhere convenient. Well, they seemed to nail that too. You see, it’s going to co-located in the Urban Grind NW coffeeshop on NW 14th.

And WWeek puts it better than I could:

So why should you care?

For a start, the man behind the company is Philip Rosedale, the founder of Second Life (which, while not wildly successful now, did have its shining moment in the sun in 2006). Secondly, its investors include Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Digg founder Kevin Rose and Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder Mitch Kapor (though for some perspective, several of these guys were Linden Labs investors, and the series A funding for C&P was a total of $1 million; Bezos alone invested $3 million in gaming site Kongregate a few years back).

For more information, visit Coffee & Power, follow @coffeeandpower or @cpworkclub3 on Twitter, or like Coffee & Power on Facebook.

Published by Rick Turoczy

More than mildly obsessed with the Portland startup community. Founder and editor at Silicon Florist. Cofounder and general manager at PIE. Follow me on Twitter: @turoczy

  1. Seth Rayson January 17, 2013 at 6:15 pm

    Your mode of explaining the whole thing in this piece of writing is truly nice, all can without difficulty understand it, Thanks a lot.|

  2. Look into the “Future of Work” with Philip Rosedale, founder of Second Life and cofounder of Coffee & Power « Silicon Florist March 13, 2012 at 3:22 pm

    […] Now, you can hear from the guy who created the concept—well and another project you might have heard of called Second Life—this Wednesday at Urban Grind NW, home of Portland’s Coffee & Power outpost. […]

  3. Coffee & Power March 9, 2012 at 11:34 am

    Howdy! We’re hosting a Future of Work Conversation with Scott Kveton and Philip Rosedale next week on Wednesday, March 14 at 6:30 at the Urban Grind Coffeehouse, Portland’s C&P Workclub. It’s free and we’re providing food and drink.

    Space is limited, please RSVP here: http://cp-urban-grind.eventbrite.com/

  5. Christian Reed February 21, 2012 at 5:01 pm

    They should hire Portland web guru Nick James as a consultant on this project. He’s a true visionary in the coffee shop as workspace space.

  6. M. Edward (Ed) Borasky February 18, 2012 at 11:08 am

    This is an interesting concept but I think there are some severe execution issues. For one thing, their web site is not very responsive and the user interface could be better designed. And the connection to LinkedIn doesn’t seem to work at all – I had to sign up with email.

  7. Dian Crawford February 15, 2012 at 6:48 pm

    Urban Grind is SO excited to have Coffee & Power coming here to Portland! It seems like a perfect fit for our city.

  8. Becky N. February 15, 2012 at 1:51 pm

    Our HQ is also open to C&P co-workers! We’re at 1825 Market @ Octavia, stop by and say hi sometime.

  9. Jmartens February 15, 2012 at 1:11 pm

    Sounds like our own I/O Ventures/Summet Cafe! Love that place in S.F.

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