Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
Looks like we have another acquisition to talk about today. Portland startup Provata Health has been acquired by StayWell, a division of healthcare giant Merck.
One of Portland’s quietly successful startups, Cedexis, has been acquired by Citrix. I say “quiet” because, like many startups in town, the company kept a fairly low profile, all while providing behind the scenes business-to-business services for a wide variety of brand name customers around the world. And while they were relatively quiet locally, Citrix—who also invested in Cedexis—was well aware of them, as was the entire cloud industry.
There was a time, not so long ago, when Portland had an embarrassment of riches on the startup incubator and accelerator front. But as the pendulum swung from early stage to growth stage—and as regional offices and bigger players promised increasingly attractive wages and benefits—the once crowded incubator and accelerator community thinned. But all of that may be changing in 2018.
There are any number of things I love about Portland and its collaborative culture. But the one thing that impresses me, time and time again, is the prevalent willingness to mentor one another. To take a few minutes out of your day to help someone else reason through a problem. To share what you believe to be common sense (even though it’s not). And to help others grow into roles—and give back, in turn.
I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t missed Marshall Kirkpatrick. And I bet I’m not alone. When I first met him, he was writing for Techcrunch and then Read Write Web. But more importantly, he was part of the fabric that helped gather, inform, and celebrate a relatively nascent Portland startup community. But as that community grew, the opportunity to found his own startup had him focusing his energy in other ways. Now, he’s back with a glimmer of the Marshall of old, hosting a conversation with Andrew Keen at Powell’s.
[Editor: The following is a guest post by Josh Carter, interim CEO of Patriot Boot Camp.]
In Portland, and in Oregon as a whole, we have a wonderful veteran community. It is filled with many people who have served our country proudly and have come back to figure out how to make a bigger impact through entrepreneurship. All of this is made even more special when you add how collaborative the area tech community is for founders. It is the thing that separates Portland from other markets along the west coast.
