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Category: Startups

Portland startups Urban Airship, ShopIgniter, and AppFog are hiring marketing talent—and that’s a good sign

When it comes to tech startups, there are certain things that are must haves: awesome engineering, an exec who can lead and sell, and some way of getting the word out about the product.

The third one—getting the word out—remains something for which most startups contract or hire lower level generalists. So when they start hiring higher level talent to bring those skills in house? That’s a really good sign. And that’s exactly what’s starting to happen here in Portland. Read More

Meet the Startup: Meet a whole bunch of Portland Seed Fund startups

Usually, Meet the Startup introduces you to one startup. This week? You’re getting a whole bunch. Because last week, we attended the Demo Day for the Portland Seed Fund. And we’re sharing our highlight reel from the event with you.

So grap a cup of coffee and take a few moments to get a quick look at the eight new Portland startups that launched from Portland Seed Fund. Read More

Make your Cloud spending less hazy: Portland’s Cloudability opens public beta

Portland’s Cloudability took the wraps off of its public beta last week, allowing any and all users to beta test their Cloud-spending management service.

Wait, what? Cloud-spending management? I thought the Cloud was super easy and super cheap? Well, it is super easy. But it’s so easy, that it’s causing some companies to waste thousands of dollars—in a single weekend. Cloudability hopes to prevent that. Read More

First, they simplified their office structure. Now, they’ve simplified their name. BankSimple is now Simple.

Not so long ago, BankSimple announced that they had decided to consolidate their New York, San Francisco, and Portland offices, by moving their headquarters to Portland.

Today, they announced another change for the company. They’re no longer BankSimple. Now, they’re simply Simple. Read More

Portland Seed Fund stages inaugural Demo Day and… [insert horticultural pun here]

It seems like it was only three months ago that the Portland Seed Fund revealed their first class of startups. Oh wait. It was only three months ago.

And today, those startups emerged—some all growed up and some completely transformed—to take the stage at Ziba Design for the first Portland Seed Fund Demo Day. Read More

Meet the Startup: Getting the history of Paleo Plan

Sometimes, Meet the Startup has to branch out a little. Ever so slightly. And Paleo Plan provides a great opportunity to do so in two ways: 1) It’s more about the solution than the tech and 2) It’s a startup that has staff in both Portland and Boulder, Colorado.

Never heard of the Paleo diet? Well, you’ll get to learn a little bit about that too. Read More

REMINDER: Join Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson tonight and you’re guaranteed to be smarter than your lawyer and venture capitalist*

Yesterday was a big day for Urban Airship. And for Foundry Group which invested in both UA and SimpleGeo.

So it seemed like the perfect time to remind you that Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson of Foundry Group will be chatting with folks tonight about their book, Venture Deals, over at Urban Airship. Read More

Urban Airship acquires SimpleGeo combining push notifications and geolocation on a nonstop flight

It’s not often that Portland companies are part of wildly swirling rumory breaking tech news—especially in a positive way. But today, Urban Airship has done just that.

UA has acquired SimpleGeo, a company with a great deal of positive buzz and executives who are well-known in tech and startup circles. It’s a move that definitively puts Portland on the startup map. Pun intended. Read More

That’s a complete crock of… well tasty awesomeness: brandlive to power Crock Pot® Live

It’s no secret that Portland doesn’t have a ton of big consumer brands here in town. So when one of our local startups lands a deal with a household name—especially when it’s literally a household name—that’s a pretty big deal.

Like today. When brandlive from Portland’s Cascade Web Development announced they will be powering the livestream and conversation around the launch of a new Crock Pot®. Read More

Seattle’s Redfin has a growing Portland presence—and $14.8 million in additional funding to help build it

It’s always great to hear about companies headquartered in Portland getting funding. But you know what else is great? Companies with branch offices in Portland getting funding—especially when they’re growing branch offices.

Such is the case with Seattle-based Redfin, which just landed $14.8 million in funding, part of which will be used to increase the size of their Portland footprint. Read More