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Category: Beaverton

Tell OTBC where to go

Rick Turoczy on August 7, 2008

OTBCOur friends over at the Open Technology Business Center (OTBC) are getting the itch to move.

But before they go and do anything rash, they want to make sure it’s the right move. So, like any good socially minded organization, they’re asking you for your help.

Why the move? Well, OTBC wants to be even more involved in the startup community—and they want to make it easier for all of us to participate in their programs.

But they have one minor issue: they receive funding from the city of Beaverton and, as such, they must remain within the Beaverton city limits.

So what options do they have? I’m glad you asked!

  1. Stay where they are
  2. The Round in Beaverton
  3. Allen and 217

Why not take a couple of seconds and tell OTBC where to go? Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

OTBC provides coaching for and hosts events for high-tech entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs.

OTBC reboots Founders’ Friday

Rick Turoczy on July 18, 2008

OTBCAre you the founder of a startup? Beer and Blog not exactly your speed?

No worries, gentle reader. We have a Friday afternoon activity for you, too.

Steve Morris out at OTBC is bringing back Founders’ Friday, a networking event for entrepreneurs that focuses on those folks who have had the opportunity to found their own startup.

The event is held at the OTBC offices in Beaverton, located just off Sunset Highway and NW 158th. Plan to arrive around 4:30. A $3 donation is requested to cover food and drink expenses.

For more information or to RSVP, visit Founders’ Friday on Meetup.

Beaverton-based OTBC provides incubation services and entrepreneurship programs to help high-tech and biotech start-up ventures succeed. They can help you validate your market, develop your business plan, and help you understand what steps are required to get your company investor-ready.

Open Source Software meeting of the minds

Rick Turoczy on February 21, 2008

Today, I had the privilege of sitting in on an Open Source meeting of the minds at OTBC, where a sizable contingent of folks from the Open Source community in Japan—programmers, entrepreneurs, professors, reporters—shared their vision for establishing a Mecca for Ruby enthusiasts—and a hub for Open Source—in Japan.

The bulk of the Japan team heralds from Matsue, a town on the north end of the main island in Japan. They are in the midst of developing the “Ruby City MATSUE Project,” a concentrated effort to make Matsue the “Mecca of Ruby.” The OSS Society Shimane also works in conjunction with the project to promote Open Source and Ruby.

Much like the efforts around the Portland-area Open Source scene, the MATSUE project is working to foster community building around codefests and the sharing of ideas on how to apply Open Source technologies.

The community is also lucky enough to have a university that provides a full semester load of undergraduate course work on Ruby, Rails, JRuby, and applying the technologies.

Besides their dedication to and focus on this effort, the group also commands some substantial geek-cred from the participation of Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, one of the original developers of the Ruby language, who is a resident of the town.

After spending today with the OTBC and dinner with the Portland Ruby Brigade, tonight, the Matsue contingent will head down to Corvallis to visit with the Oregon State Open Source Lab.

So what’s the Silicon Forest angle here?

An hour into the meeting, the two sides of the table were already pitching ideas back and forth. Sharing concepts and benefits of pursuing Open Source development.

And that’s a thing—I’d like to think—that we’d be very happy to keep going.

This is the first—of hopefully many—meetings of the minds between the Portland Open Source community and the Matsue Open Source community that, with any luck, will develop into a “sister city” arrangement to foster both of our communities’ continued learning and development.

The next time these folks are back in town, I’d highly encourage trying to meet up with them.

Reminder: Marshall Kirkpatrick on RSS, February 19

Rick Turoczy on February 18, 2008

Just a reminder that Marshall Kirkpatrick, lead blogger for Read/Write Web and RSS guru, will be presenting a “Lunch and Learn” session on RSS at the OTBC on Tuesday, February 19.

I like to think of myself as fairly RSS savvy. And I can say, without a doubt, that no one has taught me more about how to make RSS jump through hoops than Marshall.

To RSVP, visit the OTBC Meetup page on the event. The cost is $15 at the door. But you were going to spend that money on lunch, anway. And this way, you actually get to learn something.

Silicon Forest and the Identity Management Working Group

Rick Turoczy on February 7, 2008

Sometimes, I get pretty focused on OpenID-flavored identity management. But there are other startups in town working on a different type of identity management. The kind that involves your offline existence. (If there is a such a thing.)

The Santa Fe Group, a respected consultancy focusing on fraud reduction, has just announced the formation of its “Identity Management Working Group.” Among the group’s top concerns will be the growth of business identity theft, in which bogus entities use existing business names to compromise business accounts.

And the group has two Silicon Forest ties, one direct and one tangential.

First, the direct. Rick Kam of ID Safeguards, a Beaverton-based startup focusing on the identity fraud protection and compromised identity recovery, has been named the chair of the new organization.

“Collaboration is a critical component of curbing identity theft ,” said Kam. “This group will work together and with the industry at large to share knowledge that will find new and effective ways to protect us all.”

Second, the tangential. CheckFree, parent company of recently acquired Hillsboro-based startup Corillian, is also part of the working group.

Interesting news for the Silicon Forest, and perhaps the early rumblings of an opportunity.

What if all of the “identity” focused folks here in town got together and started working on this whole problem? I’m thinking these fraud protection folks, the Portland-based OpenID folks like JanRain, and the soon-to-have-a-Portland-office, rethinking-online-credentials Vidoop folks could have a pretty interesting conversation.

Digital Watermarks: Has Digimarc’s time finally come?

Rick Turoczy on January 12, 2008

Beaverton-based Digimarc, while far from being a startup, is—like many startups in the Silicon Forest—very much in the position of being way ahead of its time in terms of digital watermarking. (Full disclosure: I used to work there.)

But the impending demise of music DRM may be just the opening Digimarc needs to shine. At least, Wired’s David Kravets thinks so.

In an article entitled “DRM is Dead, But Watermarks Rise From Its Ashes,” he asserts:

Watermarking offers copyright protection by letting a company track music that finds its way to illegal peer-to-peer networks. At its most precise, a watermark could encode a unique serial number that a music company could match to the original purchaser. So far, though, labels say they won’t do that: Warner and EMI have not embraced watermarking at all, while Sony’s and Universal’s DRM-free lineups contain “anonymous” watermarks that won’t trace to an individual.

The article also goes on to mention:

Microsoft is betting on watermarking’s future, winning a patent for a “stealthy audio watermarking” scheme called El Dorado in September.

I’m betting that Digimarc’s digital-watermarking-patent portfolio would likely be an area of interest, as well.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this flag raised. It will be interesting to see if it elicits a rallying cry, this time around.

For more information, visit Digimarc. For more on the benefits of digital watermarking, visit the Digital Watermarking Alliance.

OTBC looking to refill empty nest

Rick Turoczy on November 12, 2007

The Beaverton-based Open Technology Business Center (OTBC) has recently seen two of its fledging startups—Remote Technologies and Earth Class Mail—leave the nest.

And because of those successful departures, the OTBC has found a bit of room on the ol’ floorplan.

What’s this mean for you? It means that if you’re an early stage high-tech or biotech startup looking for some digs, this could be a perfect match.

So let’s start this little dance, shall we?

To show off the facilities to prospective roomies and to provide some networking opportunities for everyone, the OTBC will be holding a catered open house on November 28:

At the open house, you’ll hear a brief overview of how OTBC helps startups, and you’ll have plenty of time to talk with some of our Entrepreneurs and Ventures in Residence to get the inside scoop on OTBC. We’ll provide munchies and beverages.

For more information on the open house or to RSVP, visit the OTBC Meetup page.

OTBC is a non-profit corporation that helps startup companies succeed with office infrastructure and coaching, advising, networking, entrepreneurship education, and consulting services. As a technology-focused business incubator, OTBC’s goal is to provide participating entrepreneurs and small start-up companies with access to industry leaders and coaches, extensive education programs, and office facilities designed to nurture the next wave of technology-driven companies in the region.

Northwest Innovation interviews YourList CEO

Rick Turoczy on August 27, 2007

YourList, a recently launched classified service headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, is the latest offering to take on mainstream media classified ads. Oh, and a little Web site called craigslist.

Charlie Parks, CEO of YourList, recently sat down with Northwest Innovation for an interview, discussing YourList and its place in the crowded classified ad market:

[Charlie Parks:] No question that the online classifieds space is crowded right now. A lot of companies are trying to offer a different take on the established Web sites. There is a lot attention on the industry and new sites keep coming out with different business models as they compete for market share. We’ve spent the last couple of years studying the sector and believe there is a lot more room for growth –if you pay attention to the needs of the online consumer.

To read the full interview, visit Northwest Innovation.

YourList takes on Craigslist

Rick Turoczy on August 14, 2007

Beaverton-based YourList recently announced it was open for business and ready to take your classified ad.

Classifieds can be a challenging space, primarily because most folks tend to think online classifieds are synonymous with a guy named Craig. Still, YourList boasts several features which way help it gain traction:

Users are able to search by city or choose a mileage distance from their zip code. They can set up alerts to notify them when a particular item or job posts in their vicinity, thus saving them valuable time searching listings. Users can also sign up for a free account to manage their posts in one interface without having to confirm their classified ads through numerous emails.

The classified listing service is free. Job postings will run $15.

Next, YourList has to see if they can overcome the traffic conundrum. Given that they just launched as a tabula rasa, postings are slim, at best. Classic chicken or the egg. You need traffic to get listings, and you need listings to drive traffic.

In attempt to short-circuit this problem, YourList is giving away iPhones. One a month, for a year.

For more information, visit YourList.

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