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Month: March 2016

Experimenting with open source, community, Kickstarter… and a glut of cooking metaphors

Rick Turoczy on March 31, 2016

I really enjoy highlighting projects other folks are creating. Really really. Conversely, I always hate highlighting my own projects. That’s not why I started this blog. This is always weird. Still, I wanted to let folks know that PIE—the ongoing experiment between the Portland startup community and Wieden+Kennedy that I helped cofound and continue to run—is changing what it’s doing. And that may impact you. Read More

It's time to light the lights: GeekWire seeks nominees for their annual GeekWire Awards

Rick Turoczy on March 29, 2016

Building a company is hard. And—for the vast majority of folks—relatively thankless. So when there’s an opportunity for Portland startups to get some recognition for their hard work? I think they should take it. And there’s no better opportunity to be recognized on the big stage than the annual GeekWire Awards. Read More

Teaming up on cleantech: Oregon and Washington organizations partner on Cascadia CleanTech Accelerator

Rick Turoczy on March 29, 2016

As the world of accelerators continues to mature, we’ll see consolidation and partnering around shared areas of interest—to the benefit of the startups they support. Here in the Northwest, Oregon and Washington are combining forces to help cleantech startups with the Cascadia CleanTech Accelerator, a collaboration between Oregon BEST and the CleanTech Alliance of Washington. Read More

Add it up: MathLeap offers a forehead slappingly awesome algebra tool for students and educators

Rick Turoczy on March 29, 2016

Some of my favorite products are the ones that seem so utterly obvious in retrospect. Because they’re such a moment of insightful brilliance codified into a product. And you’re just like “Yes. That makes TOTAL sense. Why hasn’t anyone done this before?” Take computers. What are they good at doing? That’s right. Computing. So why hasn’t anyone put that to work in an elegant way to support mathematics in schools? Someone has. Meet Portland startup MathLeap. Read More

What's better than building games? Playing games at the Cartoon Network Game Jam Showcase

Rick Turoczy on March 25, 2016

Remember a while back, when Rose City Game Consulting gathered a bunch of awesome game developers to hack on stuff for Cartoon Network? Well, that was awesome. But what came out of that weekend? Even more awesome, of course. And now, you get to experience that awesome, firsthand. It’s the Cartoon Network Game Jam Showcase. Read More

Confused about encryption? Ken Westin can help

Rick Turoczy on March 24, 2016

One of the things I most love about Portland is that we’ve got more unassuming expertise per capita than any town on earth. Tons of super talented people. But you’d never know it. Because they keep a low profile. So whenever one of them raises that profile a bit? I’m going to celebrate that. Like when Ken Westin decides to start a podcast on encryption. Read More

It's like a startup education for those interested in startups for education

Rick Turoczy on March 23, 2016

While there is no single noisy startup industry in Portland, there are any number of quietly growing areas of focus in town. One of the ones that shows a great deal of promise—thanks to a combination of experienced and established companies and new upstarts—is educational technology or edtech. And now, folks who are curious about that sector have the chance to experience it firsthand with Portland Startup Weekend EDU. Read More

Questions about Story Board? They've got office hours for that

Rick Turoczy on March 16, 2016

For as much as we all love the Twitters and the Facebooks and the Slacks, sometimes it’s good to have a good old fashioned face-to-face conversation. Story Board gets that. They’re storytellers after all. So they’d like to sit down with you and swap stories about what you’re doing. And what they’re doing. With Story Board office hours. Read More

Worst tech town for women? OPB talks with PDX Women In Tech

Rick Turoczy on March 15, 2016

It’s no secret that Portland has challenges with regards to diversity. But a recent article about Portland being the worst metropolitan area for women in technology fields brought many of those concerns to the forefront. Unequal pay, poor hiring ratios, discrimination… it was all there. This led OPB’s April Baer to sit down with women from PDX Women In Tech to discuss their experiences. Read More

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