Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
While startups and venture are still largely homogenous, there are people doing the work and strides being made in the diversification of both sides of that table. And venture fund Rogue Women is taking the opportunity to celebrate that — and the people making that happen — with its Women in Start-ups and Venture – A Celebration and Discussion event.
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The startup world is often seen as one of constant change. And that’s because it generally is. But every once in a while, there’s an entity that manages to stay the course. Remaining consistent. And ideally, solvent. And those few and far between, steadfast entities are critical. Because it’s those elements of a startup ecosystem that provide the tentpole-esque support that ensures the ever changing elements can do what they do. And that the community will survive. From my perspective, that’s what Founders’ Co-op has done over the last 15 years for startups throughout the Pacific Northwest.
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Local venture capital firm Black Founders Matter is encouraging their entire industry to be more intentional about engaging BIPOC women through both investments and employment. And they’ve launched an effort called the 25 by 25 VC Diversity Pledge to formalize it.
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One of the most active early stage investors in Oregon has a whole new fund to continue doing that work. Cascade Seed Fund has announced the close of Fund II, a $10 million fund focused on investing in software and consumer product brands in the Pacific Northwest.
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Seattle VC firm Flying Fish has a new cache of dry powder for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning startups. And given that they’ve been active in Portland in the past, that could mean good news for AI/ML startups seeking early stage funding.
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As the Great Resignation continues to swell, seeking the next job you’ll be able to resign from can be top of mind for many people. Or maybe even the next job you’ll stick with. Which is why it’s nice to see that Oregon Venture Fund — the most dominant presence in the Oregon venture community — has launched a job board featuring openings at its portfolio companies. All thanks to OVF investor in residence Deepthi Madhava.
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One of the more recent VCs to call the Portland area home, Black Founders Matter, recently had the opportunity to take Crunchbase through some of the goals and motivations for starting the fund designed to support Black-led businesses.
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The Portland Business Journal is reporting this morning on numbers from Pitchbook that show Portland metro area startups raised more than $1 billion in venture capital in 2021. The more impressive number from my perspective? That total was the result of investments in 138 deals.
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Yesterday, I shared a recent report by Rise of the Rest which illustrated the number of VC dollars from the Bay Area and New York City that were being invested elsewhere in the country. Portland did okay in the rankings. But something was gnawing at me. Like I needed some additional context. And suddenly it dawned on me this morning that that additional context might be the populations of the metropolitan areas that were highlighted — and what the per capita venture capital investments were.
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Raising capital is hard. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. It’s just difficult. And when you have to go outside of town for that capital, that makes it exponentially more challenging — and complex. But if this recent report from Rise of the Rest tells us anything, it’s that Portland startups are doing a decent job of dealing with that additional complexity. And landing early stage capital from outside of the state.
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