---
title: 'Portland Seed Fund and Starve Ups alum 4-tell acquired'
date: '2020-08-05T16:50:14-07:00'
type: post
word_count: 265
char_count: 2124
tokens: 345
categories:
  - Acquisitions
  - Oregon
  - Portland
  - Startups
tags:
  - 4-tell
  - acquired
  - Portland
  - 'portland seed fund'
  - Startup
  - 'starve ups'
  - starveups
---

# Portland Seed Fund and Starve Ups alum 4-tell acquired

Over the last thirteen years, I’ve had the opportunity to write about a lot of Portland startups. A lot. And sometimes, despite my best intentions, those startups fall off of my RADAR. So it’s always nice to see them pop back up again with good news. Like Portland startup [4-tell](https://4-tell.com/). Which has been [acquired by Searchspring](https://searchspring.com/searchspring-boosts-ecommerce-personalization-engine-with-4tell-acquisition/).

> The personalization engine at the center of this acquisition was developed in 2009 and placed in the top 1.5% out of over 40,000 entries in the Netflix Prize, a competition designed to accurately predict how much a viewer would enjoy a selection based on preference. Receiving demand from visionary ecommerce operators, 4-Tell turned its sights on ecommerce recommendations and powers beloved brands like Bob’s Red Mill, Dakine, and 2Modern.

4-tell is part of the [Portland Seed Fund](http://portlandseedfund.com/) and [Starve Ups](https://www.starveups.com/) portfolios. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Here’s some previous coverage of the company:

- [Keiretsu Forum highlights investment in 4-tell and CrowdCompass](https://siliconflorist.com/2012/02/01/keiretsu-forum-investment-4tell-crowdcompass/)
- [Could have foretold this one: Portland Seed Fund alum 4-Tell snags $1 million round](https://siliconflorist.com/2012/01/11/foretold-portland-seed-fund-alum-4tell-snags-1-million/)
- [Shazam! Voila! and Alakazam! OpenSesame wins OEN Angel Oregon 2011 and 4-Tell walks away with the crowd favorite](https://siliconflorist.com/2011/03/17/shazam-voila-alakazam-opensesame-wins-oen-angel-oregon-2011-4tell-walks-crowd-favorite/)
- [Portland Seed Fund stages inaugural Demo Day and… \[insert horticultural pun here\]](https://siliconflorist.com/2011/11/02/portland-seed-fund-stages-inaugural-demo-day-insert-horticultural-pun/#more-9629)

For more information on the acquisition, visit [Searchspring](https://searchspring.com/searchspring-boosts-ecommerce-personalization-engine-with-4tell-acquisition/).