As Randy Fernando of Vault closed, “Let’s start a conversation.” No doubt, this is going to be a topic of conversation for weeks to come. From my vantage, it’s not an isolated story. And Randy’s post serves as an eloquent recounting of a personal experience—one that reflects numerous other fundraising stories circulating around Portland for early stage startups—and a plea for all of us to work to change it.
There are some great companies that have failed due to the toxic culture that cloaks the Rose City. And there are also some companies that I know of right now in Portland that would be doing so much better if they relocated, which is extremely sad.
Portland founders — if you have experienced things similar to what I have mentioned above, you are not alone. The silver lining is that through this tedious process I have actually come across people who are genuinely looking to help driven folks like us. If you have a great idea and a great team, you may just have to push yourself out of your comfort zone in order to find them. This post was written to simply shine light on a problem that I know can be fixed. Let’s start a conversation.
For more, read “Oh Portland…” on Medium. For more on Randy’s company, visit Vault.
