Portland Oregon Startup and Tech News
Vancouver, Washington—our neighbors directly to the north—have gone by any number of names and descriptions over the years. As has the startup community in the ‘Couv’ and its supporting organizations. But all of that may change, now that they’ve revealed an identity designed to serve as the front door for the Vancouver startup community. Meet North Bank Innovations.
It’s OSCON week in Portland. Which means our usually jam-packed meetup schedule is even more jam-packed than usual. There are any number of events happening around town to showcase Portland to the visiting open source types. And if you’re looking for something to do tonight, Portland startup Stackery has you covered. They’re hosting a fireside chat on serverless with Kelsey Hightower of Google Cloud.
It’s only fitting, as I sit here in a hotel lobby in Kansas City following a couple of days of talking about startup communities and startup ecosystems, that I’m listening to Marcelino Alvarez of Portland’s Uncorked Studios talk about community.
Every October, a bevy of investors—angels and VCs alike—descend upon Bend, Oregon. They’re there to participate in what has become the biggest pitch competition in the Pacific Northwest. And a nice side effect is that they get to network with one another. But, you see, it’s only a pitch competition if there are pitches. And that’s where you come in. Because it’s time to apply for this year’s Bend Venture Conference.
Whenever folks ask me about getting a company started, I always recommend Startup Weekend as an option. In my experience, there’s no better venue for getting a crash course in startup stuff over an accelerated timeframe. Plus you meet potential cofounders and team members. It’s just a great set up. And now, leave it to Oregon to make it even better.
In today’s world of rapid consumption, we often fail to take the time to learn the super interesting backstories of people in our community. And what motivates people to do what they do. This is especially difficult when those folks make their living telling other people’s stories. That’s why I was happy to hear that the And Uhhh… crew was grabbing some time with Malia Spencer of the Portland Business Journal.
There have been any number of fundraising announcements in the past two weeks. And as compelling as that news is, it’s even more exciting to see the companies putting that money to work. Like Rigado, for instance. Which recently raised $15 million. And that led to a bunch of open jobs. Like nine of them.
Yes. $200 million. For a Portland startup. It’s really really easy to blanche at that number. I get it. It’s a big number. Especially for a homegrown Portland company in the software world. And were this earlier in the life of Silicon Florist, I could have easily focused on the number, cheered for a company raising that much, and moved along my merry little way.
There was a time when Portland was at the forefront of access to civic data. Then we lost some ground. Maybe a great deal of ground. But we’re having a renaissance of sorts. With the Smart City PDX effort. And with Hack Oregon’s announcement of the new Civic platform.
Every once in a while, you get to be present to witness the establishment of a widespread platform. A platform that provides the means of making a market. Sometimes, it’s the first to market—like the iPhone or Roku. Sometimes, it’s a fast follower—like Microsoft Explorer or Google. We’ve seen it happen time and time again. With the Web and Mobile and Streaming Media. But it’s rare to see that happen locally.
