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Month: March 2015

Design is not a department: Simple on the value of design for startups

Rick Turoczy on March 31, 2015

With a wealth of startups and a rich community of creatives and agencies—digital and otherwise—it should come as no surprise that Portland has the potential to be a hub of design driven startups. But as a startup, how do you approach the problem of embracing design and thinking about it wholistically? Simple has some thoughts on the matter. And they’ll be sharing them at a Designspeaks event on Wednesday, April 1, 2015. Read More

Mr. Recordon goes to Washington: Portland native named Director of IT for the White House

Rick Turoczy on March 26, 2015

File under “We knew him when…” It’s always nice when someone from the Portland tech scene makes a splash on a bigger stage. And this time, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Former Portlander David Recordon—known to many of us by his online moniker daveman692—has been named the Director of IT for the White House. Read More

Codifying and extending Portland startups' collaborative nature: Portland Startups Switchboard is a year old

Rick Turoczy on March 19, 2015

I didn’t really know what to expect. I mean, I knew that Portland boasted an extremely tightly knit and collaborative community. I knew that I was—more often than not—creating bottlenecks and logjams than I was solving by inefficiently connecting people. And I knew that I had an amazing local startup that had a platform for solving these very issues. What the hell, I thought. It just might work. Read More

Acquired in a jiffy: Animated gif app Nutmeg acquired by Giphy

Rick Turoczy on March 19, 2015

Well that was fast. Almost as fast as an animated gif. Regardless of how you pronounce it. Nutmeg, an alum of PIE class of 2014, has been acquired by the leading presence in animated gifs, Giphy, which had recently raised $17 million. This marks the first PIE accelerator alum to be acquired. To date, only members of the PIE coworking space had been acquired—with Geoloqi, Glider, and Paleo Plan, and Simple being the most prominent acquisitions. Read More

Eugene based Concentric Sky's creation gains noteriety through the International Year of Light

Rick Turoczy on March 17, 2015

I always love when Oregon startups and tech companies take a more global stage. You know, like that Oregon built lion thing that Katy Perry rode in the Super Bowl. Well okay. Maybe not that. But this. This is cool. Check out how Eugene’s Concentric Sky is celebrating the International Year of Light. Read More

Interested in consumer facing tech? You're going to want to put Nike Tech Talks on your calendar

Rick Turoczy on March 17, 2015

One of Portland’s biggest problems in terms of knowledge sharing is that whole “West Hills Tunnel Problem.” In a nutshell, that’s the issue where people from Portland don’t collaborate with folks in the suburbs as much as they could. And vice versa. That’s why I’m always happy to see new events that help bridge that divide. Like the new Nike Tech Talks series. Read More

TechStars curious? Get your questions answered in person by TechStars Seattle and Portland area TechStars alums

Rick Turoczy on March 17, 2015

While Portland is host to a number of awesome accelerators, our startups have also done their fair share of succeeding in accelerator programs outside of Portland. Most notably Y Combinator and TechStars. And when the timing is right, these leading accelerator programs can propel startups further faster than they ever thought possible. That’s why I’m psyched to have TechStars Seattle swinging by Portland for a little Q&A. Read More

Interested in having the City of Portland as one of your startup's customers? There's a Switchboard for that

Rick Turoczy on March 17, 2015

Early stage startups are always looking for that first customer win. Someone who is willing to take a chance on their technology and vision. To help them prove the value and worth of their offering. Governments are often encumbered with archaic systems or new problems that they know technology can solve. But they don’t know where to turn for help. Read More

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