Month: December 2023

Portland AI startup Shelpful is ready to start 2024 off on the right foot. All thanks to a $3 million investment from Sam Altman’s Apollo projects. What’s the company building that attracted this investment?

I’m telling you. We’re deep into the list time of year. So don’t be surprised to see a few of them shared here. Not “listicles,” per se. But lists that provide some valuable insights that will help you in the new year — or help you look back on the year that was 2023. A good example of a list does both of those things is “13 startups to watch” from the Portland Business Journal’s Portland Inno.

Granted, we’re in the season of never ending Christmas music, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for discussions about music and technology. In fact, Music Tectonics — the Pacific Northwest Music Tech Meetup — is bringing together folks for a winter holiday edition.

Applications for PitchBlack 2024 — the largest one-day pitch event for Black founders on the West Coast — closed this morning at midnight. And after some quick spreadsheeting, there are some interesting numbers to share. Perhaps the most interesting…? More than 200 applications were submitted with hopes of being chosen to pitch on February 7, 2024.

Radious — the Portland startup that lets folks offer up temporary workspace for rent — has seen their Bay Area offerings increase by 33% in the last month, “nearly doubling the number of available spaces it has in cities like San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland…”

In a world ravaged by a mortgage crisis and a lack of local capital, Eric Rosenfeld and Bob Ward recognized an opportunity…. And thus began the origin story of the Oregon Venture Fund.

One of the early players in the legalized cannabis community in Portland wasn’t a retail location or an edible, it was a device for toasting cannabis to release more of each strain’s unique features. And it did it with rocket science. Literally. But unfortunately, the company wasn’t able to achieve the traction it needed to stay alive. So Prrl Labs is shutting down.

Nearing the end of his last term, US Representative Earl Blumenauer chats with City Cast Portland about the future of Portland, working with Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, the Downtown Task Force, making Portland one of the most livable cities, being clear about our challenges as a city, behavioral health, cannabis, and — of course — bow ties.

I got the opportunity to be a guest on the Dare podcast from Darwoft, hosted by Portland-based Ned Hayes. In a quick but far ranging conversation, we got the opportunity to touch on PIE, Built Oregon, the Portland startup community — from SaaS to consumer products, the Portland investment community, and thoughts about the future of Portland.