---
title: 'Thank you for speaking up and signing on, Portland and Oregon startup community'
date: '2019-06-07T10:16:10-07:00'
type: post
word_count: 308
char_count: 2140
tokens: 401
categories:
  - Government
  - Oregon
  - Portland
tags:
  - Funding
  - government
  - Growth
  - ogb
  - ogf
  - Oregon
  - Politics
  - Portland
  - Startup
---

# Thank you for speaking up and signing on, Portland and Oregon startup community

If there’s one thing founders and startups know how to handle, it’s a fire drill. Last minute requests. Crazy deadlines. Random hail marys. It’s all in a day’s work. But stepping outside of that work to help out the community? That’s above and beyond. And yet more than 80 folks took the time do that yesterday in response to [a call to action from Business for a Better Portland and PIE which was designed to address a severe case of underfunding activities directed at the Oregon startup community](https://siliconflorist.com/2019/06/05/fundraising-is-hard-enough-lets-encourage-the-state-of-oregon-not-to-make-it-harder-before-noon-on-june-6-2019/).

None of this would have happened without the herculean lift by Mara Zepeda, who in addition to spending countless hours of meetings with elected officials also captured the urgency of the need in a well crafted letter. And Ashley Henry, who heads up Business for a Better Portland and helps us better understand how to direct our political efforts, social capital, and groundswelling energy at critical moments.

> Back on the grid momentarily to explode with gratitude for the 80+ entrepreneurs who came out to support women, minority, rural & veteran startups & [@BusinessOregon](https://twitter.com/BusinessOregon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw). Utterly amazed & grateful for [@turoczy](https://twitter.com/turoczy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) & @biz4pdx [@piepdx](https://twitter.com/piepdx?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) families. ♥️
> 
> — Mara Zepeda (@marazepeda) [June 7, 2019](https://twitter.com/marazepeda/status/1136855123295068160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

The entirety of the letter that was submitted to the State of Oregon is available below.

[![Letter to the State of Oregon](https://i0.wp.com/siliconflorist.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Screen-Shot-on-2019-06-07-at-10_13_56.png?resize=925%2C1178&ssl=1)](https://siliconflorist.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Letter-Oregon-Growth-Fund.pdf "Letter-Oregon-Growth-Fund")

Thank you, again, startup community. For showing up, speaking up, and signing.