.

Category: SiliconForest

Silicon Forest Technology and Financial Forum kicks off tomorrow

It’s rare, in these parts, to have events that combine traditional high tech, startup tech pursuits, and venture capital concerns all in one fell swoop. But that’s exactly the focus of TechAmerica’s Silicon Forest Technology & Financial Forum.

And lo and behold, the time for that event is nigh. So if that sort of line-up sounds interesting to you, you’re going to want to get registered for he Silicon Forest Forum this Tuesday and Wednesday out at the Intel Jones Farm campus in Hillsboro. Read More

Survey: Which Silicon Forest startup organizations do you find most helpful?

If you’ve got a few seconds, I’d really appreciate your providing your opinion on the Silicon Forest organizations that are doing the most to help startups.

[HTML1]With the City of Portland planning to spend more time helping startups, I got to thinking. “How are we helping startups, already?” I said to myself. “Not only that, but who’s doing a good job of it?”

Now, I easily rattled off any number of organizations who were focused on helping the Portland and Silicon Forest startup environment. But other than my own personal opinion, I couldn’t really gauge who was helping entrepreneurs succeed.

Clearly, I don’t know the answer to that question. But you know who does? You. That’s why I’m asking you to tell me. (And once you tell me, we can tell everyone else.) Read More

Following the Florist: Consuming content and interacting with Silicon Florist readers

Well, how about reminding you about all the ways you can consume Silicon Florist content and interact with the awesome startup community here in the Silicon Forest?

It may be a short week, but it’s not a slow news week. That said, it is the Friday of a short week. And posting about really cool startups or important news may get lost in the haze of moving into the weekend.

What to do? What to do?

I’ve got it! How about taking care of some housekeeping around the ol’ Silicon Florist?

What kind of housekeeping you ask? Well, how about reminding you about all the ways you can consume Silicon Florist content and interact with the awesome startup community here in the Silicon Forest? Read More

May 1st is the perfect day for a reboot. So welcome to the new Silicon Florist.

Back in the day. Or in the dotcom days, at least (I may be showing my age here), May Day was always a good time for a May 1st reboot.

And while the “official” reboot doesn’t seem to be occurring this year, I’m always happy to partake in the Spring cleaning of look and feel.

With that said, welcome to the new Silicon Florist. Read More

Silicon Forest hires: Paydici pockets Stearns, Taptu finds Harris

I heart job offersI’m a little late to the party, but a couple of really nice, talented folks scored some piping hot new jobs. So I thought I’d share the good news—even if I’m tardy in doing so.

I was going to wait for a third. But I’m antsy, so here you go.

Bryan Stearns has joined Portland-based Paydici as Software Architect. According to ReadWriteWeb’s ReadWriteHire:

Stearns is also currently a Software Architect Contractor at the Public Library of Science and a Principal at The Thomas Eliot Company (a Sole Proprietorship). Previously he was a Software Engineer at Open Source Applications Foundation and a Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft. Earlier in his career he was a Senior Engineer at Apple.

Jason Harris has signed on, part time, as a community manager for Taptu, a UK-based mobile search engine. According to the Taptu blog:

The Taptu team is growing quickly to support our growth as a business; we now officially have a new team member to our US team. You’ll be reading much more from Jason in the near future, as he covers the perspective of a mobile guy in the American market. Join me in welcoming him to the team!

Congrats to both of them on the new gigs!

What’s that? You’re interested in getting hired? Well then, PDX Critique’s resume critiques on April 27 may be just the thing you needed. For more information, see PDX Critique on Upcoming or Calagator.

(Image courtesy SocialIsBetter. Used under Creative Commons.)

Geek Bat signal: Oregon entrepreneurs need to act now! No, really. I mean right now.

Last night, an endless volley of entrepreneurs and would-be startups stepped up to a mic at Nedspace and provided a 2-3 minute pitch on what they would do with $250,000 over the next year.

And man, were there some incredible ideas—some incredibly cool, some incredibly wacky—but all incredible nonetheless.

There was only one problem: I didn’t see you up there.

I can watch the video again, just to be sure. But I’m fairly certain you won’t appear.

[HTML1]

I mean, sure. I got to see Ron Barrett, Carolynn Duncan, Dave Howell, Scott Kveton, Sasha Mace, John Metta, Chris Logan, Bob Uva, Ken Westin, and Steve Woodward. I love all of those folks. And I’ll applaud anyone who gets up in front of a crowd to speak, because I certainly don’t relish it.

Heck, somebody from the Office of the State Treasurer for Oregon even showed up.

But I didn’t see you. And that made me kind of sad.

But, then again, I’m all about second chances. So how about this? How about you take a few seconds to provide some details about one, two, or 12 of your current side projects? Take a moment to reflect on what you could do with $250,000 in the next year, to help bring your product or idea to fruition.

Don’t think you’re worthy? Not interested in getting funding? I’d still encourage you to take a few moments to respond. Really, what could it hurt?

The point is this: rising water floats all boats. And our state treasurer needs convincing that we have a viable entrepreneurial environment filled with viable startups just waiting to take form. What’s more, if these folks can pull off putting together a $100 million fund for Oregon startups, it’s going to help all of us.

But don’t just take my word for it. David Abramowski has some great insights about what funding Oregon startups could do for the local economy.

Come to think of it, I don’t even care if you live in Oregon right now. If you’d be willing to relocate to Oregon to start your business, you’re more than welcome to fill out the form, as well.

So maybe you’re trying to build a music service or a calendar aggregator or a niche social network or a new form of CRM or an iPhone agency or a mobile development shop focused on usability or a better support tool or charting where you’ve been or figuring out where your friends are or providing space for your peers to work and socialize or archiving the Web or finding happy hours or producing a weekly podcast or providing information about every Web site ever.

Maybe what you’re really interested in doing isn’t even geeky. Maybe you’re more interested in building out a photography business or covering the Portland scene or building some tangible product or creating a new kind of agency.

I don’t really care. We just need smart people like you to share their ideas about what could be done, if the money was there.

And I know you’ve got some ideas.

But here’s the catch: you need to respond, now. And I mean right now. The team pursuing the fund wants to get this information assembled by Wednesday, March 25.

So take a deep breath and dive in. I’ll keep this form open until Wednesday at midnight. Then, I’ll gather up all of the responses and ship them off to the folks working on this. They, in turn, will crate them up and dump them on the Oregon Treasurer’s, the Governor’s, and the various Mayors’ desks.

Remember, there were some cool ideas pitched, last night. But none of them were as cool as yours.

[HTML2]

Thank you

I just wanted to take a second to say “Thank you.”

I wanted to thank you for caring about what’s happening in the Silicon Forest. To thank you for keeping your eye on the Web and mobile startup scene. To thank you for giving all of the amazing developers in the area the attention they so richly deserve. To thank you for giving the entrepreneurs of Portland, Corvallis, Eugene, Bend, Ashland, Hood River, Vancouver, and all of the Oregon and Washington towns in between the opportunity to wow you with the products they’re building and the problems they’re solving.

I’m constantly reminded of how incredibly lucky I am that I get the opportunity to write about this stuff. And even luckier that you swing by to read about it. So thanks for letting me into your browser or feed reader or mobile device every once in awhile to share what people are sharing with me.

SXSW Interactive always reaffirms my belief in how lucky we are to have the community we do.

Thank you for being part of it.

SXSW 2009: 60+ Twitter accounts for Portland and Silicon Forest Twitter types

SXSW Twitter accountsThere are a number of folks from Portland and the Silicon Forest headed down to Austin, Texas, this week for SXSW. And while I’ve heard about a number of those folks anecdotally, I thought it might be helpful for all of us if we compiled a definitive list of Twitter accounts, so you can keep tabs on who’s doing what.

(Of course, to keep tabs on who’s doing what where you’ll want to sign up for Shizzow, too.)

So here’s who I have so far. Please comment if I missed you, if I missed someone you know is going, if you just signed up for a Twitter account, or if I added you thinking you were going but you’re not. I’ll make sure to update the post as comments dictate.

The current list of Twitter accounts for Portland or Silicon Forest attendees at SXSW includes:

Tentative: Nate DiNiro, Alex H Williams (see comment below)

BONUS: SXSW, SXSW Guide, SXSW is easy, and Sched.

Again, if you need to be added or removed, please comment below.

I’m looking forward to seeing all of you down at SXSW.

[HTML1]

[HTML2]

Get all Nostradamus-esque-ish by exercising your powers of Portland prognostication

Silicon Forest 2009So, it’s getting to be about that time. You know. End of the year. Time to start thinking about next year. ‘Tis the season of recaps and predictions.

I’m working on a little “Predictions for Portland 2009″project with a couple of other folks. Of course, the entire Silicon Forest is fair game, too. I just couldn’t stand breaking up that alliteration with factual information.

Given that you’ve got some insight and ideas in this regard, I wanted to invite you to contribute your two cents. You do know what’s going to happen, don’t you?

Well okay then.

All you have to do is comment below with your predictions for the Silicon Forest tech scene next year. Are things going to be dire? Are they going to improve? Who will be the shining stars? Who will rise from the ashes? Who will be the new new media darlings in the coming year?

Easy as that. I might need to follow up with you on your contribution to the discussion.

No concept is too wacky. So have at it.

I eagerly await your powers of prognostication.