Startup and tech news, jobs, and events in Portland and Oregon
It’s always nice to see local entrepreneurs building a successful company — especially when they continue to remain contributors and stewards of community in Portland. Such is the case with Nat Parker, cofounder of Portland startup Globesherpa, which was acquired by Daimler in 2015.
There have been in any number of times throughout history where humans have done things that they thought were totally fine — only to find out later how detrimental those activities were. Pick your favorite. I’m not here to judge. That said, I am here to propose that the normalization of startup founders being constantly stressed out, never sleeping, and always on may very well be one of those things.
Starting to stress about Valentine’s Day gifts? Understandable. This is your last weekend to shop before the big day. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone had some suggestions that could help make shopping easier? Wouldn’t it be even nicer if I didn’t write posts that were just a series of poorly phrased questions? Let’s take the first question and ignore the second. Portland startup Trestle is here to help.
Another day, another acquisition with potential Portland impact. Scroll, the “invite only and I don’t have an invite but appears to be working to make online content both profitable and ad free” startup that has its CTO and an office in Portland, is acquiring the news aggregation service Nuzzel.
I’m lucky that I get the opportunity to sit at the nexus of passionate founders building early stage companies and the community of mentors who wants to support and bolster those founders as they strive to build the next great Portland company. While we all recognize that building a startup is ridiculously difficult, sometimes we forget that founders are suffering from any number of stressors and pressures, despite the stiff upper lip they project.
While admittedly there are any number of resources that share the stories of entrepreneurs, the voice of those stories is decidedly homogenous. So when I get the chance to share a story that’s not part of the homogeneity — or when I get the chance to use the word “homogeneity” in a post — I’m going to do it. Like the story of Sylvia Salazar, the Latina founder of TonoLatino.
Conferences and events can be the bane of a startup’s existence — or the key to serendipity and success. But it’s always hard to tell which conferences are which. That’s why I’m really happy to see the Case Foundation’s list of inclusive entrepreneurship conferences for this year.
If you’ve spent any time mucking around in startup ecosystems, you’ve no doubt come across the concept of an “innovation district.” The idea, briefly, is to artificially create a dense core of people, institutions, and companies that fosters innovation. Sort of like Portland’s urban growth boundary. But for innovation.
Startups are grueling. Even as an employee. For founders? They’re exponentially more of a grind. With the pressure. And the people relying on you. And the investors. As such, founders go through any number of ups and downs. Which often result in burnout. And depression. And those feelings can lead to substance abuse. Or ignoring the problem. Yeah. It’s tough. Really tough.
One of the most successful early stage startups in Portland isn’t actually in Portland. It’s not even in Oregon. But it is just across the river in Vancouver, Washington. So it’s definitely part of our community. That startup is Hubb. And they just moved into a new space.