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Month: April 2020

Working to make your startup or small business more resilient? OEN and Pregame are partnering to help

This situation has tested even the most resilient companies. And given what folks are saying, this won’t be the last time. There will no doubt be future challenges like this. Economic downturns are as cyclical as upticks. Which has any number of founders asking “How I can build and grow a resilient business from the start?” Oregon Entrepreneurs Network and Pregame have partnered to deliver the answers as part of a new program offering.

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The right questions get you to the right answers. Learn how to ask the right startup questions.

As a startup founder, you’re seemingly on the constant unending for answers. How do I do this? Where do I go for this? How does I… whatever? But getting to the right answers often takes asking the right questions. And that can be the most difficult thing to figure out. Which is why it’s nice to have a professional question asker like Leah Noble Davidson to help.

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Join PIE for a conversation with Shelly Bell of Black Girl Ventures

Community thrives on connections. Creating those connections can always be challenging. But they’re definitely something that can be even harder to come by these days. That’s why PIE has started a series of livestream conversations to keep the community connecting and conversing. Up next? PIE will be chatting with Shelly Bell of Black Girl Ventures.

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Insights from startup ecosystem builders around the world

Near the beginning of the shelter in place order — what seems like years ago at this point — one of the first virtual events in which I had the honor of participating was the Skoll World Forum, an annual global gathering that had pivoted into a virtual event. During our panel, I had the opportunity to learn from startup ecosystem builders around the world. Here are some of the insights on how startup communities were dealing with COVID-19 at the time.

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Insights from a founder who weathered the dotcom boom and bust and the mortgage crisis

Sometimes, the best way to navigate the future is to learn from the past. Because we’ve been through downturns before. Maybe not to this extent. But at least in some semblance. So learnings from a startup in the dotcom days — both boom and bust — and the mortgage crisis could provide some interesting insights for startups to survive the current pandemic — and what to expect when the market starts to correct.

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Working from home not working? Get guidance from these remote work veterans

It may have seemed exciting at first. Perhaps even fun. But with every mounting day, it’s becoming less and less so. And more and more stressful. You thought you’d be more productive. You didn’t realize you’d have so much to juggle. And you didn’t foresee the feelings of isolation and disconnectedness. Working from home is hard.

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Chatting with Willamette Week about the current state of the Portland startup community

Strange times. I don’t have any better insights than you do. But I’m trying to make sense of it. Of this weirdness. Of this new abnormal. And trying to find threads or themes or paths that will help us move forward. That will give startups opportunities. And that will give all of us some strange semblance of a light at the end of the tunnel.

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Portland grassroots manufacturing heroes equip frontline healthcare heroes with PPE

If there’s a single bright point to what we’re experiencing, it is as simple as this. It’s humanity. At no single time has the entire globe been impacted by — and aligned against — something that so desperately reminded us all of our humanity, our commonality, and our need for one another. And that’s why stories like the Portland Maker Force story are both expected — and exceptional.

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Not your average startup founder Q&A — and yet somehow it seems like exactly what’s needed in these strange times

What if you had the opportunity to talk to an extroverted former professional musician, former startup founder, former startup accelerator manager, budding chef who happens to work in the world of VR? Pretty compelling right? That’s right. So don’t miss out on this opportunity to participate in a Q&A session with Nick Lambert.

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