Month: September 2023

Are you a Latina/Latino/Latinx founder looking to share what you’re building with a live Portland audience — and the rest of the world once that Portland audience starts talking about it…? Well, you’re in luck. Because the premier pitch competition for Latinx-founded companies — Pitch Latino — is currently accepting applications until October 12, 2023.

Looking to connect with local founders…? There’s no better spot than founder.coffee, the regular gathering of Portland founders that takes place at a variety of coffee shops around the region. This time around, they’ll be at Coava Coffee in SE Portland on Tuesday, October 10, 2023.

It’s getting difficult to keep track of all of the events that are coming back. Which is a good problem to have. But still a problem. That’s why I thought you might like a little reminder that ProductTank PDX is tomorrow.

It used to be — way way back in the day — that Silicon Florist content was mostly coverage of side projects. Not necessarily businesses. Or even concepts with huge potential. But random ideas that people were inspired to create. That was, after all, the promise of technology in my opinion: the opportunity to build and maintain interesting things at a low cost. So I’m always happy to see new side projects crop up. Like Namealong.

I’ve been eagerly awaiting more AI startup pursuits in Portland. There’s been activity here and there but I haven’t found much. And then today, I happened upon Paxton AI thanks to their funding announcement, a $6 million Seed Round for their focus on AI applications for the legal industry.

While you may not have time to educate elected officials on your needs as a startup founder, there are organizations that spend significant time in Salem trying to do just that. One of them is RAIN. And its CEO is a former startup founder. But even though she gets what you’re going through, she’d love to have your direct input on what she shares with the Oregon House Revenue Committee, this month.

Successful founders finding ways to share their expertise with folks building their companies is always music to my ears. That’s why I’m super happy to see the Latino Entrepreneur Accelerator Program opening applications for another company to support.

Last call, that is, until I ask you again. I mean, we’re all in this together. So your feedback is appreciated on the Portland Startups Slack. Which you might have joined at one point. And then completely forgot about. Or where you might show up from time to time but not really frequent, per se. Whatever the case, your feedback is valuable and needed.

I’m always a fan of companies with “Oregon” in their name taking advantage of opportunities to engage with community members beyond the Portland metro area. And that’s why I’m happy to share that Built Oregon‘s annual event, Built Festival, will be leaving the metro area this year for central Oregon. Built Festival 2023 takes place in Bend on October 17, 2023.