Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. When startups are hiring marketing folks, that’s usually a good sign. Not just contracting, but actually bringing those folks on board.
And it’s starting to happen. ShopIgniter recently brought on Kevin Tate to head up its marketing group. And now, Urban Airship has announced that Brent Hieggelke has joined as chief marketing officer. Read More
With those two things in mind, it only made sense to resurrect the Silicon Florist Job & Gig board.
[HTML1]One of the signs that the economy is beginning to recover may, strangely enough, be my inbox. What started several months ago as a trickle of “Where would I find an iPhone app developer?” and “Know somebody who could help with this WordPress issue?” and “Do you know anyone who…?” has now become a regular stream of questions from companies looking to hire and contract for talent. More requests, truth be told, than I can manage.
That says two things to me. First, there are a bunch of job and contract opportunities awaiting talented individuals that aren’t being heard or are going unfulfilled. And second, those folks seeking employees or contractors see Silicon Florist as a spot that those candidates are likely to frequent. With those two things in mind, it only made sense to resurrect the Silicon Florist Job & Gig board. Read More
In a day and age where you’re hearing more and more about venture capital firms rethinking the way they invest in companies, it’s always encouraging to see those same firms taking a greater interest in the Portland startup tech scene.
Actually, you’re right. No matter what, it’s always encouraging to see more interest from the Angel and VC folks.
Well get ready to be encouraged. Voyager Capital—who already has a Portland office—has announced that they have brought on Bruce Chizen, the former CEO of a little software company called Adobe, to help keep an eye on the Portland scene. Read More
Anyone who’s spent any time at Portland tech events has likely met Dawn Foster. She’s one of the founding members of Legion of Tech, one of the driving forces behind BarCamp Portland, an adviser to the Shizzow and the SAO, a leader of the online community manager and Portland data plumbing user groups, and a regular attendee at Beer and Blog—among thousands of other things.
One thing you may not realize is that, in addition to juggling all of those side projects, she manages to do a day job, too. And today she announced that that “day job” part of her life was changing. Dawn has joined the Olliance Group to lead a new online community practice. Read More
JanRain and I have been flirting for a while, said Peat Bakke in an email. They have a great team here in Portland, and their products lend themselves to the kind of integration and custom development work that I enjoy.
While there was big national news for Portland-based JanRain and OpenID that broke yesterday—with Sears stepping up to adopt OpenID by using JanRain’s RPX—today marks some big JanRain news for us here locally.
You see, Peat Bakke has joined the JanRain team.
“JanRain and I have been flirting for a while,” said Peat in an email. “They have a great team here in Portland, and their products lend themselves to the kind of integration and custom development work that I enjoy. We’ve worked together on some big projects, the business is growing, and the timing was right… so on July 1st we sealed the deal, and I’m heading up the professional services group.” Read More
As I mention from time to time, I’ve got this list of “I didn’t know they were in Portland” companies. Great startups and blogs that are super good, but that—for whatever reason—don’t really get the recognition they deserve as hometown efforts.
One of my favorite blogs that falls into this category is Digital Trends, an incredibly popular blog that looks at gadgets and gizmos. Super well known—but not always recognized as Silicon Forest startup. Read More
Without a doubt, my favorite “they’re a Silicon Forest company?!!?” startup is Portland-based SurveyMonkey, the nearly ubiquitous Web-based survey service. It’s one of those local success stories of which everyone seems to have heard—even though they don’t realize they’re Portland-based.
And while the company keeps a fairly low profile here around town, that may have just gotten a lot more difficult. You see, the former head of Yahoo! Music, Dave Goldberg, has just been named the CEO of SurveyMonkey.
As Kara Swisher reports on All Things D:
SurveyMonkey is the largest such survey company online, with competitors that include Zoomerang and Constant Contact.
The move is an unusual one for Goldberg, whom many expected to join or start an online entertainment or music company, given his background.
With changes like this, the first question that crops up is usually: But will they remain a Portland company?
According to paidContent, it appears so:
Goldberg will be based in Menlo Park, where SurveyMonkey is opening a new office. (Goldberg’s wife Sheryl Sandberg is COO of Facebook.) The company is also holding on to its Portland headquarters, where Ryan and Chris Finley will work.
Hopefully, with someone else on board to help guide the company, Ryan and Chris will finally find some free time to spend with their Portland fans (hint, hint 😉 ).
In related news, Dave is being brought in by Spectrum Equity, which has lead a group of investors in gaining a controlling stake in SurveyMonkey.
Todd MacLean, a Director at Bain Capital Ventures [one of the group of investors in SurveyMonkey] said, “We are extremely excited to partner with Dave Goldberg, a dynamic entrepreneur who we believe is ideally suited to lead the next phase of the company’s growth. We believe our experience with low-touch, viral software models will be an asset in supporting Dave and the team of talented professionals at SurveyMonkey as they grow the business. In addition, we have great affinity and respect for Spectrum, having co-invested with them in the past, and look forward to a great partnership on the Board of SurveyMonkey.”
For more on Dave, see the ReadWriteHire write-up. For more on the company, visit SurveyMonkey.
(Hat tip Adam DuVander)
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Yes, you read that right. Scott Kveton is taking over as the interim president of the Software Association of Oregon (SAO). And yes, Silicon Florist is your all Kveton, all the time resource.
I know, I know. I just wrote about how Kveton had left Vidoop to pursue Bac’n full-time. So this latest headline seems almost nonsensical.
But, that doesn’t prevent it from being true. I mean, you know a Kveton fanboi like me wouldn’t lie to you. Right?
What’s that? Oh. Okay, the April 1st florist post may have strained our bonds of trust. I hear you.
Well, so how about this?
“After a careful search by a special committee comprising SAO Board members, it was clear the best possible candidate to guide the organization during our formal search for a president is Scott Kveton,” said Michael Phillips, chairman of the SAO board and a partner at David Wright Tremaine LLP, in the press release. “Scott is passionate about the mission of the organization and brings valuable local software industry experience to the post.”
Does that sound more believable? Because it’s true. Kveton will be serving as the interim president of the SAO. Cross my heart.
But you have to admit, it’s not entirely out of the blue. I mean, he was recently named to the Software Association of Oregon board. And there was a vacant president seat.
So it’s not entirely crazy.
Okay, you’re right. It’s pretty crazy. But crazy good.
To make this happen, Kveton will temporarily step down from the SAO board seat while fulfilling his duties as president of the SAO. He will be reinstated as a board member once his role as president comes to an end—likely within 90 days—when the SAO names the next president of the organization.
So why is Kveton making the move?
“I’m excited about the possibilities of getting the current membership together with the independent developers and consultant crowd here in Portland and across Oregon,” said Kveton. “A lot of small software companies struggle with how to grow their business effectively and that’s a path a lot of the SAO membership has already gone down.”
On his blog, Kveton offers:
With Harvey stepping down and me spinning up my own consulting business, the timing seemed right for me to interview for the interim President role and the search committee agreed. I firmly believe there is a great opportunity to link up the experience of current SAO members with that of the entrepreneurial spirit and drive of the independent developer community here in the Northwest.
I hear you, we’ve dabbled in this area before with the Thrive PDX stuff. But this seems different. This is someone who knows—all too well—the startup environment here in the Silicon Forest. Someone who might have the chance to make some connections over the next 90 days that could result in some interesting bonds and strange bedfellows.
I, for one, can’t wait to see where this goes.
Obviously, I wish Kveton the best of luck on this short stint as the president of the SAO (see above: fanboi). I’ve known this organization for a long, long time. And it will be interesting to see what he does during his tenure.
What do you think of this move? Does it have potential? And, if so, what would you like to see happen with the SAO, if anything?
I can guarantee that now is the best time to voice those opinions.
For more information, see Kveton’s post on his new role at SAO.
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Fresh off a stellar DEMO performance, Portland-based Ontier, the company seeking to make day-to-day electronic missives more effective and interactive, is continuing to ramp up for the public availability of its product.
Their latest move? Creating a new position—Vice President of Engineering—and hiring industry veteran Dom Virgilio to fill it.
“Dom has the perfect background to help Pixetell™ become the standard for on-demand mixed-media communication,” said Ontier CEO Sebastian Rapport in the press release announcing the hire. “In addition to his proven ability to accelerate product development, Dom has deep experience with communication and collaboration software and has great insight to our customers’ requirements.”
Virgilio served most recently as the VP of Engineering at Hillsboro-based Daverci. He also co-founded and served as COO for InfoCast. In all, Dom boasts more than 20 years of experience managing development and design pursuits.
Ontier gets something—and they give something in return. The company also recently announced that they had donated 250,000 stock options to the Entrepreneurs Foundation of the Northwest.
Entrepreneurs Foundation of the Northwest (EFNW) helps small and mid-sized companies develop and implement strategies for community involvement that jointly meet the goals of the company, the passions of the employees and the needs of the community. Companies become EFNW members for a small annual fee or by contributing equity that EFNW holds until liquidity and then distributes profits for community benefit, as directed by the company.
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When you name business publications in the Portland area, the Portland Business Journal is likely right up there at the top. It tends to be the go-to resource for small businesses here in town. And, for the past 8 years, Aliza Earnshaw has been working the local beat, writing about what’s happening in Portland.
Well, you write about enough small tech businesses and startups long enough and suddenly you want to join them.
Which is exactly what happened with Aliza. She’s announced that she is joining AboutUs as the Editor-in-Chief for the burgeoning “Wikipedia of Web sites.”
I’ve had the opportunity to work with Aliza over the years in my various corporate communications roles—like MedicaLogic and ProSight. I’m looking forward to seeing how she leverages her impressive journalistic chops in this new role.
Aliza’s last day at PBJ will be tomorrow. She begins at AboutUs, next month.
Your first writing job at the new gig, Aliza? Building out your AboutUs page, of course.
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