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All posts by Rick Turoczy

More than mildly obsessed with the Portland startup community. Founder and editor at Silicon Florist. Cofounder and general manager at PIE. Follow me on Twitter: @turoczy

REMINDER: The last PIE Demo Day ever happens tomorrow

That’s right. The very last PIE Demo Day will be taking place tomorrow, Thursday, August 10, 2023. Why is this the last one, you ask? Reasons. Lots of reasons. But before PIE turns out the lights on its SaaS accelerator program, they wanted to throw one last get-together to celebrate the current PIE startups, PIE mentors, PIE alums, and the broader Portland startup community. You should come.

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Old enough to drive: Silicon Florist is 16 years old

It’s become a tradition for me. Each year, I mark another passing year of Silicon Florist with a post about, well, Silicon Florist. How meta. Conceptually, I mean. Not the company. (If you’re curious about those previous birthday missives, feel free to jump to the bottom of this post to revel in the nostalgia of years gone by.) So, here on the sweet 16 of Silicon Florist, I’m just going to do what I’ve done the in the past. And vomit thoughts and words onto the Internet in a rambling and loosely intelligible way. Let’s get into it.

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PIE failed. But it’s a failure worth celebrating and learning from.

After posting an official company perspective about the end of the original PIE early-stage startup accelerator concept — the one focused on SaaS, mobile, and other software-specific products — and revealing that PIE Demo Day 2023 will be our last demo day ever, I got a ton of feedback from folks. The majority of that feedback was, in a word, humbling. I took it all to heart. And I believe the kind things that folks have said about that program and its impact on our community to be largely true. 

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Interim no more: Stephen Green accepts Executive Director role at Business for a Better Portland

I’ve been following Business for a Better Portland since the inception of its predecessor, the Portland Independent Chamber of Commerce. So I’m not going to stop now. Especially when one of the community leaders in our midst has stepped into a full-time role with the organization. That’s right, Stephen Green is no longer the interim executive director for the organization, he’s now the Executive Director of Business for a Better Portland.

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Bootstrapping a SaaS product? Get ready to connect with your peers at MicroConf Local: Portland

So much of the tech startup news is awash with stories of venture capital funding — and all of the drama that comes with it. But what if you’re building a solid SaaS business by bootstrapping it…? You know, like investing your own blood, sweat, and tears and then (gasp) generating revenue and stuff. Where do you go then? One answer is MicroConf. And if you’re interested in experiencing it, you don’t have to go far. It’s coming to Portland in September.

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