Category: TechVibes

Portland Start-up Index for October 2008: Must be autumn because everyone’s falling

Rick Turoczy on October 1, 2008

Techvibes has added some new features to their startup indices in time for the release of the Portland Start-up Index for October 2008.

So who are the movers and shakers this month?

Iterasi is the big climber, moving up 12 slots to crack the top 20. Earth Class Mail and Free Range were the only others to make positive progress, moving up one slot a piece.

But boy-oh-boy are there some people dropping down the list. Grabb.it, Pibb, and Rocketbook all slid 13 spots each to lead the pack. And a ton of other folks fell close to 10 spots. It was veritable race to the bottom of the list.

So, here’s how the rankings stand this month:

As always, to see the details on who moved where and what the actual metrics are, visit the Techvibes Portland Start-up Index.

Category: Index, Oregon, Portland, Startup, TechVibes
Tag: portland start-up index, Startup

Portland Start-up Index for September 2008: Did Vidoop get lost on the Oregon Trail?

Rick Turoczy on September 2, 2008

Didn’t we just have a Techvibes Portland Start-up Index a few weeks ago? Yes, we did. But Techvibes has decided to change the publication date, so we’ll be getting these at the beginning of the month.

Techvibes has changed a few other things, too.

And while the listings might be a little more cryptic now—and unfortunately lacking in indicators in regards to movement this time around—this effort continues to provide a interesting way to assess and discuss the local startup scene.

The biggest mover on this edition of the index? Pheedo rocketing up 33 slots to crack the top 20.

Strangest part of the new list? Vidoop has completely dropped off the index during the week that they’re relocating the entire company to Portland. NetworthIQ (acquired by Strands), MyOpenID (JanRain‘s OpenID relying party), and Workplace2go also disappeared from the list.

Portland Start-up Index for September 2008

As always, the official metrics can be found at Techvibes.

Interested in seeing your Portland-based company on this list? You now have an automated way to add it. And make sure to drop the Techvibes folks a note, too.

Category: Index, Oregon, Portland, Startup, TechVibes
Tag: Oregon, Portland, start up, Startup, TechVibes, Vidoop

Portland Start-up Index for August 2008: Metafilter, Digital Trends premiere in top 10

Rick Turoczy on August 18, 2008

It’s that time again. Time for the Techvibes Portland Start-up Index, the monthly round up of Portland-area startup companies and products, ranked by the average of their Alexa and Compete rankings.

Admittedly a work-in-progress, the Portland Start-up Index often premieres “new” entries that have been—in actuality—heavy hitters for far longer than some of the “old” companies and products on the list.

This month’s list is a perfect example of that dynamic in action, as MetaFilter (July 1999) and Digital Trends (2001) premiere in the top 10 at #2 and #5 respectively.

So how did the rest of the startup scene fare this month?

Portland Start-up Index for August 2008

To see the rankings, metrics, and movement within the list, visit the Portland Start-up Index on Techvibes.

Category: Index, Oregon, Portland, Startup, TechVibes
Tag: digital trends, Index, metafilter, Oregon, Portland, start up, Startup, TechVibes

Portland Start-up Index for June 2008: Some movement for the same list

Rick Turoczy on June 17, 2008

It’s that time again. Techvibes has published its latest installation of the Portland Start-up Index. And while there’s a bit of jostling among the usual gang, no new companies and/or products appear on the list this time around.

The highest climber? Jama Software, followed by Iterasi. The biggest drop was Lightfleet.

So, without further ado:

As always, this list comes with some caveats. The Techvibes index ranks Portland area tech start-up Web sites—sometimes a series of products from one company, sometimes the corporate site—based on an average of Alexa and Compete traffic rankings. And they don’t take into account widget activity.

Numbers, movement, and other details are available on the Portland Start-up Index page.

Category: Index, Oregon, Portland, Startup, TechVibes
Tag: Index, Oregon, Portland, Startup, TechVibes

Portland Start-up Index for April 2008: COLOURlovers debuts at #4

Rick Turoczy on April 16, 2008

I’m happy to report that, once again, it’s time to take a look at my favorite apples-to-oranges comparison of the Portland startup scene, the Techvibes Portland Start-up Index. For me, it’s like having birthday every single month.

The biggest surprise this month? Two-time Webby nominee COLOURlovers has debuted on the Portland Start-up Index at #4, cracking open an otherwise static Top 5. The only other new addition is the Collaborative Software Initiative at #46.

Second biggest surprise? Pheedo jumped up 25 slots. Now that’s a “mover.”

But what’s happening with the other folks? Who’s moving up? Who’s moving down? Where do we stand?

Well, let’s take a look.

For a details on the movement of each startup-list entity or to get more details on how the rankings are tabulated, visit the Techvibes Portland Start-up Index.

Category: ColourLovers, Index, Oregon, Portland, Portland_OR, Startups, TechVibes
Tag: colorlovers, Index, Oregon, Portland, Startup

Portland Start-up Index for March 2008: AboutUs retains top spot

Rick Turoczy on March 15, 2008

It’s the 15th of the month again. And that means its time to update the Techvibes Portland Start-up Index. While there was neither much movement this month—the top 4 remain in the same positions as last month, with AboutUs retaining the #1 spot—nor, apparently, any new sites added to the index, I do find it interesting that two of the most newsworthy companies in the area, Jive and SplashCast, have actually dropped down the list one and two spots, respectively.

Given that the list changes month to month, here’s the ranking, for historical reference. To see the metrics and movement, please visit Techvibes. And, as always, I offer this with the “fruit salad” caveat: This is a very apples and oranges comparison, in terms of companies and products. The other caveat that bears mentioning is that widget- and mobile-based tools often report far lower Alexa and Compete numbers than Web-based services.

So, here’s the list:

The Portland Start-up Index is compiled by Techvibes using an average of Alexa and Compete rankings. It is updated on a monthly basis.

Category: 97204, AboutUs, Index, Oregon, Portland, Startup, TechVibes
Tag: 97204, AboutUs, Index, Oregon, Portland, Startup, TechVibes

Portland Start-up Index: February 2008

Rick Turoczy on February 15, 2008

As promised, Techvibes [Full disclosure: I contribute Portland articles to Techvibes] has released its monthly update to the Portland Start-up Index, which has now increased to 50 companies.

And that’s not all that has changed. Now, the index has some movement indicators, showing who was where and where they’ve gone—up or down.

New additions include Kongregate (didn’t realize they had a Portland office), Rocketbook, Iterasi [Full disclosure: Client of mine], Active Reload, WeoGeo (recently relocated from Florida), VocalNation.net, GoLife Mobile, and Worldwide Nest.

As far as movers go, ChoiceA, Lunarr, and MomHub saw the biggest upticks. As expected, number of folks were sent screaming down the list with the addition of the new companies.

The mixture of companies and products on the index are ranked by the average of their Alexa and Compete rankings.

Since each revision of the index replaces the previous one, I’ve captured the list, for posterity:

AboutUs
Discogs
Kongregate
MyOpenID
Splashcast
Earth Class Mail (now located in Seattle)
Jive Software
Sandy
Gone Raw
Cliq
Stikkit
NetworthIQ
Grabbit
Walker Tracker
Pibb
Attensa
UrbanDrinks
Rocketbook
Iterasi
Active Reload
ChoiceA
fmyi
Lunarr
GadgetTrak
Iovation
KnitMap
WeoGeo
FreeRange
Picktastic
Goboz
Imindi
Art Face Off
MomHub
Avnera
VocalNation.net
Box Populi
Pheedo
GoLife Mobile
Workplace2go
Techchex
Kryptiq
Jama Software
Lumeno.us
GoSeeTell
Lightfleet
Cendix
Worldwide Nest
YourList
IDP Solutions
Kumquat

For the complete listing, metrics, and movement indicators, please visit Techvibes.

Category: 97204, News, Oregon, Portland, Startups, TechVibes
Tag: 97204, Oregon, Portland, Startups

Discogs rocks the Portland Start-up Index, now at 40 sites

Rick Turoczy on January 15, 2008

A few weeks ago, I reported on the Portland Start-up Index, a ranking of Portland-area startups compiled by Techvibes, based on the average of Alexa and Compete rankings for each Web site. At that time, there were fewer than 30 sites listed on the index. And I noted it was a bit “apples and oranges,” but interesting nonetheless.

Well, apparently, things change quickly around here.

Techvibes has released their first update to the index. And some interesting things have happened.

Not only has the index grown to 40 sites, but now, the top position—formerly held by Portland-based media-widget-wonders SplashCast (#2)—has been soundly claimed by Discogs (#1), a community-built discography engine that is working to categorize artists, labels, and their recordings. Perhaps most interesting about this change is that Discogs’ combined average (4,648) is nearly 50,000 points higher than SplashCast’s (53,642).

Other new entries I noticed (when the index updated, the original list became inaccessible) include Grabb.it (#10), fmyi (#18), Goboz (#20), and Free Range (#27).

And because it has become clear that—without a snapshot of the list today—we’ll be unable to compare the next rev to the previous one, the entire list is included, below. (For actual Alexa and Compete numbers associated with the rankings, please visit Techvibes. They did the research and rightly deserve the traffic. I’m simply republishing to save the information.)

Being the astute reader you are, you’ll likely notice a few missing.

For the second time around, Portland’s wiki-based Web-site-information site, AboutUs, remains conspicuously absent from the list. As does the highly recognized, funded, and awarded Jive Software.

It will be interesting to see the shuffling that occurs once those sites are added.

And, again, the arguments will likely surface about this being a rather superficial means of assessing impact in the market. And how it is an unfair comparison among widget-based tools and Web-site-based tools.

That’s true. But it is an available—and somewhat objective—metric. And it does provide a reasonable indicator of Web traffic from the user population that has download either of the tracking toolbars.

Uh oh. You see it coming don’t you? Oh, all right. I can’t keep anything from you.

If you think that the Alexa and Compete rankings are misleading metrics, what metrics would you propose we use to rank the Portland-area startups? (And perhaps, more importantly: Do rankings even matter?)

If we can answer those questions, then maybe, just maybe, the Silicon Florist could publish an index that provides a clearer picture. Maybe. If you want.

Category: Blogs, Discogs, Index, Oregon, Portland, Startup, TechVibes