Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
Sure, sure. You’ve been busy. Don’t worry. I get it. But I thought it would be wise to give you a heads up that there’s a looming opportunity for you and your startup. Mentorship, services, and a little capital could be one simple application away. Thanks to the Beaverton Startup Challenge. Read More
Describing the Portland tech scene to anyone who hasn’t experienced it in person is difficult. We’ve got some of the same sorts of startups you might see in San Francisco, but we also have tech companies that follow their own path. Portland also has nonprofits, a strong open source community, and a meetup scene that larger cities struggle to match. (Seriously, count the number of meetups in town just related to the Python programming language.) As a result, we’re starting to see hints of diversity: entrepreneurs from marginalized backgrounds, products built for wider user bases, and conference with diverse lineups. Read More
Portland has a long history at being really really good at unconferences and all flavor of camps. But lately, it seems we’ve been working hard to develop a new acumen: curated weeks of activity. We’ve got Startup Week, Maker Week, Coworking Week… all designed to bring likeminded folks together. And now, we’ve got Resolution Fest, another awesome week focused on helping us rethink the tech community. Read More
Even though there’s less focus on it than previous years, Portland is—and remains—the de facto hub of open source activity. It’s just something in our blood. So it only stands to reason that—as more things become open—Portland would be a great spot for those open pursuits to congregate. Take for example Open Hardware Summit. Read More
I’ve had the pleasure of covering Puppet ever since they relocated to Portland. Back when they were called Reductive Labs. And throughout that time, founder Luke Kanies has been at the helm. But today, that all changed. Read More
Kicking off this week with links that include Econotechtrics on Portland, Treehouse teaches VR, Little Bird releases new features, an invitation to Consano, building stronger communities from the Latino Network, a new home for Hack Oregon, attending AutomaCon, a new take on employee stock options, and despite a stumble, Portland still gets to participate in Smart Cities. Read More
One of the things that inspired me to start writing this blog, long long ago, was each interesting little side project that folks would dream up. They weren’t businesses. They weren’t commercialized. They were little experiments. Driven by Portland’s culture of curiosity and a hobbyist like imagination. So I thought I’d share a couple of contemporary experiments that reminded me of those days. Read More
As the early stage accelerator scene in Portland has cooled a bit, many of our companies have been looking to resources outside of the Rose City to help them during their formative stages. It probably comes as no surprise that Y Combinator and Techstars are shouldering the bulk of the load. But, there’s one Techstars program, in particular, that has been incredibly supportive of Portland startups and accelerators since way back in the day: Techstars Seattle. Read More
For links today, rallying Portland founders to help one another, tracking TriMet, understanding the call of entrepreneurship, understanding that it’s not about race, and the entire history of Kickstarter city by city. Read More
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times. Portland is a great town for mission driven startups. Maybe that’s why we’re home to more nonprofits per capita that any city in the US. But we can always use more—especially when they’re focused on new industries and startups. That’s why I’m happy to share that PIGSquad, the Portland Indie Game Squad, is officially among the nonprofits around here. Read More