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Month: October 2021

Not monkeying around: Zendesk to buy SurveyMonkey in $4 billion all stock deal

Now, I realize that this isn’t exactly Portland startup news. But it is former Portland startup news. And the company in question still has a significant presence here in town. And it’s Friday. So I feel it’s warranted. SurveyMonkey — now known as Momentive — is getting acquired as part of a $4 billion deal.

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Community kudos: Skip Newberry, Technology Association of Oregon

Skip and his growing team at TAO provide PDX startups with mentors, investors, and resources that help our Silicon Forest thrive. While TAO brings education, excitement, and community to Oregon-based tech companies, Skip operates at a national level, sharing insights and ideas with tech leaders, incubators, associations, and government programs across the country. TAO executes on exciting new ideas and services for its members with amazing speed. This is leadership in action, starting from the very top with Skip. Thank you for everything you continue to do to make Portland a great place to build technology.

Follow Skip on Twitter.

Have someone you’d like to recognize? Give them the kudos they deserve.

Community kudos: Juan Barraza, Portland State University

Anyone who knows Juan has seen him in action – he’s relentless in his energy to create a more equitable and vibrant startup community. I suspect that Juan spends most of his time thinking how things could be better and connecting awesome dots.

For more, follow Juan on Twitter.

Have someone you’d like to recognize? Give them the kudos they deserve.

Portland ecommerce startup Rally secures $6 million

As the pandemic hit, suddenly every product and retail company was forced to become an ecommerce company. But choosing the right platform amidst all of the potential possibilities proved to be another challenge to overcome. Which inspired Portland startup Rally, a headless decentralized ecommerce platform that works in tandem with a variety of other providers.

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Portland calendar AI startup Reclaim launches “Smart 1:1s”

If you’ve ever managed folks, you know how powerful 1:1s (one-on-ones) can be for keeping everyone up to date and on the same page. And if you’ve ever managed anyone at a startup, you know how keeping a consistent schedule for those 1:1s can fall to pieces in a stressful environment. That’s why Portland startup Reclaim is putting their AI bot to work on your calendars, so that those 1:1s always happen, even under the most tenuous of calendar conditions.

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Gumroad founder launches The Minimalist Entrepreneur

Local founder Sahil Lavingia has been impressively open about his journey as an entrepreneur. Now, he’s collected learnings from that journey into a book and course to help more folks figure out their own path to building something amazing. It’s called The Minimalist Entrepreneur.

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Former Simple exec and Seed cofounder to head up innovation at Lincoln Savings Bank

We don’t make a big deal of it, but Oregon punches above its weight for innovative fintech expertise. From the Simple diaspora to current players like Bumped, Expensify, and Sila, there are a lot of local folks rethinking finance and the infrastructure that runs it. And it’s always nice when other regions recognize how compelling that talent is. Like Lincoln Savings Bank which has recently hired former Simple exec and Seed cofounder Ryan Hildebrand to head up innovation.

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Bend Venture Conference 2021 results in more than half of a million dollars in investments

Another Bend Venture Conference is in the books. And a collection of startups now have additional investment fueling their future growth. To the tune of $550,000 potentially being invested — post due diligence — in six Oregon startups and one Canadian one. But who and what impressed the audience enough to secure those investments? Let’s take a look at the winning companies.

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