I know, I know. It comes as quite a shock. After living in a region where the venture capital flowed so effortlessly for so many years… Oh wait. Sorry. I was looking at the wrong thing. VC investments are down in the Portland area. Way down. Not that they were ever up to a crazy level. But they’ve been better.
But it’s not a cash on hand situation. It may be more of a dearth of viable investments situation, as Diane Fraiman of Voyager Capital shared with the Portland Business Journal:
“There are monies available up and down the venture funnel in Portland but there is a reduction in the number of qualified deals to invest in overall — specifically in the tech industry,” Diane said. “This town is very cyclical in nature — always has been. The ‘Portland Experiment’ we talked about 10 years ago will look different in its next iteration. But one thing is true in my mind — Portland is a great place to build great companies. Portland is a great place for tech talent. And, while there is still work to be done to revitalize the ecosystem, the investment ecosystem is ready to write checks for great opportunities.”
Stephen Green echoed that perspective on LinkedIn:
While some may see these stats as a bad sign, I agree with Diane Fraiman statement that Portland remains an amazing place to start and grow a company. I see this as a sign that the “glamorization” period of raising equity is waning. Its never been cheaper or easier to start a business than today and founders have brought their focus back to the basics of being curious about their customers, growing revenue and building businesses where there’s a need or a gap instead of what’s getting funding.
So are there Scrooge McDuck pools of money flowing into the current startup community? No. But have they ever? I mean, really…? No. And yet, time and time again, Portland has managed to build interesting companies. Find the capital they need to support them. And grow them into companies that — every once in a while — generate wealth for folks in town.
So yes, VC investment in Portland is down. But Portland most definitely is not.
More news from this week
