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Competing community coffee meetings: Coffee w/ Co-Founders and New to Portland Tech Meetup, tomorrow

While it may seem like a negative, I always see competing events as a positive thing for the community. In very much a “the more, the merrier” kind of way. And it’s always nice to see folks choosing different times than “after work” for getting folks together. So you can only imagine my joy at noticing that we have two competing Portland startup community coffee break meetups on Wednesday.

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Fresh off a PitchBlack win, CardCraft launches a Kickstarter campaign

I love startup founders. One day they’re winning pitch competitions. The next day, without taking a breath, they’re onto something new. Take Damola Omotosho, founder of CardCraft. Last night, he took second place at PitchBlack. Today? He’s launched a Kickstarter campaign to support the next stage of growth for the company.

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PitchBlack 2023 successfully celebrates 10 Black businesses in the Portland area — and two new podcasts

More than 500 people gathered in The Patricia Reser Center for the Performing Arts in Beaverton, Oregon, last night to participate in PitchBlack, the pitch competition conceived and organized by Stephen Green. Attendees were rewarded with a wide variety of pitches from Black founders and business leaders. And when it was all said and done, three companies walked away with capital to support their concepts — but it’s really the entire community that won, last night.

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Concerned about climate change? Have I got the hackathon for you

While it’s taken longer than any of us care to admit, climate change has finally become a topic that startups are working to address, head on. But where do you start if you’re not yet part of a startup working on the issue or if you’re concerned and want to contribute — or maybe you’re simply Climate Curious? A hackathon of course.

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Building again: Serial Portland founders reveal new startup, Digs, and $7 million in funding

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: Portland could always use more serial founders. You know, folks who have built something here, successfully exited, and then decide to build something else…? Those folks. Even better is if they’ve happened to make money for local investors. Who are then more willing to fund the new ventures. And that’s what’s happened with Ryan Fink and Ty Frackiewicz and their latest effort, Vancouver-based Digs.

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REMINDER: Westside Pitch 2023 applications are due today

If you’re a founder building a startup in Washington County and you’re interested in getting in front of local investors, there’s no better opportunity than the Westside Pitch competition. Not only is the event a competition, even getting accepted is a competition. So if you want to take part, you need to apply. And soon. Applications close today.

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Potential podcaster? Professional podcaster? Now there’s a Portland podcast event designed for you… and every type of podcaster in between

Portland has always had a certain predilection for podcasts. We have had any number of folks experimenting with the format since the turn of the century. In fact, we have had some pretty successful and notable efforts come out of the community over the last two decades. Heck, we even had that Airstream that was retrofitted into a podcast studio and an event that brought a bevy of well-known podcasters to the stage.

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