Okay. There’s a lot more to dig into here… but just to get the news out. We’re going to have WeWork Labs in Portland. Great right? Even better? It’s going to be headed up by none other than startup ecosystem builder extraordinaire and the unofficial mayor of Portland Stephen Green.
There are so many things and thoughts and questions bouncing around my head:
- Are we seeing a renaissance of startup accelerators in Portland?
- Wouldn’t be nice for the founders in our community to have a broader selection of support and resources to help them build their companies?
- I can’t wait for PIE companies to have an easy next step for their growth
- I wonder how Stephen feels about all of this?
- Did I leave the oven on?
- Is this yet another opportunity to experiment with the WeWork platform for the benefit of both Portland and WeWork?
- Did I update our running list of accelerators in town?
Sadly, I’ll need to dig into that sort of stuff later. But to cut to the chase…
Portland’s tech scene has had several business accelerators come and go – and, sometimes, come again. WeWork’s global scale sets its effort apart, said Stephen Green, the new Portland director of the Portland WeWork Labs incubator, giving startups access to a broad pool of potential contacts.…
“I’ll be giving back and being founder-focused – really, really hands-on,” he said. Green said WeWork anticipates collaborating with other organizations that support startups, such as the Portland Incubator Experiment, rather than competing with them.
Man oh man. Exits are happening. Support infrastructure is getting rebuilt. I’m really really starting to look forward to 2019.
For more information, see the writeup in The Oregonian.
[Full disclosure: Stephen is a PIE mentor. I am the cofounder and general manager of PIE. Stephen is also on the board of Built Oregon. I am the cofounder and secretary of Built.]
