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Month: February 2021

Missouri legislation calls for Office of Entrepreneurship and startup tax breaks

Given that the Oregon 10 year Innovation Plan is top of my mind, I’ve been poking around to see what other states are doing in support of innovation and entrepreneurship. And this proposed legislation for Missouri was interesting for a number of reasons.

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Looking to speed up your app development? Portland startup Knapsack wants to help

The promise of object oriented programming was always rooted in the idea of being able to reuse chunks of code, thereby speeding up programming and reducing errors. But as applications get more and more complex, companies are creating their own libraries of objects. And Portland startup Knapsack is interested in helping.

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VamosVentures selects Portland’s Juan Barraza as a part of its inaugural scout program

More and more venture capital funds are embracing the concept of “scouts” to help them with deal flow — and its a win win for folks who are in close contact with startups but aren’t necessarily investing. The funds get access to a wider spectrum of companies. And the scouts get compensated for finding startups that are on thesis for the funds.

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Looking for a new take on virtual events? It might be Skittish

If I accomplished one thing during 2020, it was successfully test driving innumerable online meeting and collaboration platforms. I mean, what else was there to do, really? And throughout that time I kept thinking, “Trying to recreate the real world meeting or event dynamic online is only going to result in an uncomfortable and awkward Uncanny Valley situation.” The true winner of the new generation of virtual events, in my opinion, was going to have to come at the problem of gathering virtually in a new and creative way. And with that in mind, Skittish just might be on to something.

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