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Category: Startups

Oregon Entrepreneur Network Tom Holce Awards finalists feature a couple of Silicon Florist regulars

And I’m happy to report that, with the announcement of the finalists for the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network Tom Holce Awards, there are a couple of Silicon Florist regulars—out of the 14 nominees—getting the recognition they so richly deserve.

[HTML3]Now, I know many of you continue to work and slave on your entrepreneurial pursuits because you’re driven to do so. Quite frankly, you can’t help it. You just have to do it. So, whether you’re recognized or not, you’re going to keep doing what you’re doing.

But still, isn’t it always nice to be recognized? Sure it is. And I’m happy to report that, with the announcement of the finalists for the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network Tom Holce Awards, there are a couple of Silicon Florist regulars—out of the 14 nominees—getting the recognition they so richly deserve. Read More

They’re in Oregon? 17+ projects that don’t get the Silicon Forest cred they deserve

There are still any number of wildly successful startups, blogs, and companies here in town that rarely get the Silicon Forest and Oregon cred they so richly deserve.

While a number of the folks in the Portland tech community spend time getting together on a regular basis at things like Beer and Blog and Ignite Portland, there are still any number of wildly successful startups, blogs, and companies here in town that rarely get the Oregon cred they so richly deserve.

They’re doing good work. They’re garnering national—and sometimes international—recognition. And they deserve all the Silicon Forest love we can dish out.

So who are they? Let’s take a look. (Listed by the number of times people looked at me with incredulity when I told them they were headquartered in Oregon.) Read More

Demolicious: Experiencing Portland’s technology of tomorrow, today (or more appropriately, Wednesday)

Interested in the freshest new products from the Portland technology types? Who isn’t? We all love the cutting-edge tech stuff around these parts.

Well, you’re in luck. Because there’s no better place to catch a glimpse of these new products in the wild than Portland Web Innovators’ quarterly Demolicious—an evening of folks demoing products you’ve probably never seen.

Even better news? It’s this week. That’s right! This Wednesday. I know. I can’t wait either. Read More

Oregon Small Business Boost: July 1 means free business plan software for Oregon startups

Eugene-based Palo Alto Software’s Business Plan Pro can help by providing startups with guidance and instruction on building their business plans. And now, for one day only—July 1, 2009—Palo Alto software will be giving you opportunity to get that assistance for free.

[HTML4]For some, the hardest part of building a business plan is simply getting started. For others, it’s like doing taxes. It seems like it should be simple, but they want to make sure they don’t miss any steps. Others don’t even know where to begin.

That’s where products like Eugene-based Palo Alto Software’s Business Plan Pro can help by providing startups with guidance and instruction on building their business plans. And now, for one day only—July 1, 2009—Palo Alto software will be giving you the opportunity to get that assistance for free. Read More

REMINDER: Find the cofounder of your dreams with OTBC startup speed dating

This Saturday the folks at the OTBC will be hosting another round of cofounder speed dating. Starting at 1:00 PM, the session is designed to help like minded startup types find one another in hopes of making their startup dreams a reality.

Are you looking for that special someone? Someone to help fill those lonely hours? Someone who complements your personality and skills? Someone who can help you get that startup from vision to reality?

Well, get ready to meet Mr. and/or Mrs. Right Entrepreneur, my friend. OTBC startup speed dating is back. Read More

Whiffies plays host to gluttony for the good of geeks

The sweet or savory deep fried darling of the Portland, Oregon, startup scene these days isn’t one of our traditional startups. Meet Whiffies.

The sweet or savory deep fried darling of the Portland, Oregon, startup scene these days isn’t one of our traditional startups. Sure, it’s got a Twitter account. Yes, it’s a popular hangout for many of the usual gang in the Portland tech scene. And, of course, it gets most of its work done during #afterhours. But this startup? It makes pies.

Meet Whiffies, the food cart playing host to a very special pie eating contest tonight—Pie Champ 2.0—raising money for Free Geek, our awesome local geeky recycling center. Read More

Portland Ten II: Your bootstrapping bootcamp awaits

The days of spring are quickly transitioning into the days of summer. And that means there’s no better time than now for dragging a new crop of startups—kicking and screaming—through the intensive bootcamp mud in hopes of creating viable, sustainable, and profitable companies for Portland’s future.

The days of spring are quickly transitioning into the days of summer. And that means there’s no better time than now for dragging a new crop of startups—kicking and screaming—through the intensive bootcamp mud in hopes of creating viable, sustainable, and profitable companies for Portland’s future.

Enter Portland Ten, round two. Read More

Portland Mayor Sam Adams talks open source, mobile, coworking, and the startup environment

Last Sunday, a group of folks representing the Portland open source, mobile, and coworking community got the chance to sit down and chat with Portland Mayor Sam Adams. Among those in attendance were Rubyist and Calagator lead Audrey Eschright, CubeSpace’s David Komisky, Software Association of Oregon Interim President Scott Kveton, the Mayor’s Economic Development Policy Advisor Skip Newberry, CubeSpace’s Eva Schweber, General Counsel at Extreme Arts & Sciences J-P Voilleque, and Small Society’s Raven Zachary.

Eva has a great recap of how the meeting played out, including insight on the topics we covered from telecommuting to open source to mobile. [UPDATE] And Skip Newberry from the Mayor’s Office has posted his recap, as well. So I wanted to take a different tact. I wanted to find out how the attendees perceived the meeting and the Mayor’s willingness to engage this group in conversation.

Here’s what they had to say. Read More

BrowserMob’s cloud-based load testing hammers your site without hammering your wallet

When it comes to building Web apps and sites, making sure that those sites respond to a wide variety of browsers and can effectively support a heavy loads of concurrent users can be the difference between succeed and sucking.

But finding the resources to perform—or purchase—that load testing and performance testing has, to date, been an expensive and time-consuming endeavor. And that has left many startups in a Catch-22 situation.

Until now. Read More

REMINDER: Rumblefish at Portland Web Innovators tonight

Sorry for the tardy reminder, but I’m hoping it still motivates some folks to attend tonight’s Portland Web Innovators featuring Paul Anthony of Rumblefish.

Portland Web Innovators was founded because we don’t just like the technology or the design. Yes, those are a big part of our craft. We also want to work on fulfilling projects, for companies that do good stuff. For many of us, we want to start our own companies. In fact, many Web Innovators already have.

Read More