Silicon Florist

Bigger isn’t always better. Especially when it comes to community. And creating strong connections between individuals. So when I noticed that the Portland Startups Slack — a public Slack instances designed to facilitate connections among folks in the Portland, Oregon, startup community — currently had more than 6500 users on the platform, I had mixed emotions. Especially with the recent uptick in new folks joining the Slack.

If you’ve been looking to get back to traditional events with speakers and crowds, the upcoming TEDxLacamas Lake Countdown, November 15, 2023, in Vancouver, Washington, might be right up your alley. Especially if you’re interested in folks doing work in the climate space.

With the activity starting to pick up in the Portland startup community, it can be difficult to keep track of what’s happening around here. And no one has time to read everything I post. Except me. I read them all. Sometimes twice.

Interested in hot takes on a hot mess? It’s getting to be that time of year. Where we look back on the year and try to assess the current — and future — state of any number of industries. And if you’re a founder or investor interested in that sort of review of the current state of early stage venture capital, Sam Lessin of Slow Ventures is happy to oblige. And it’s a great read.

For those folks newer to the Portland startup community, Cloud Four might not be a familiar name. But back in the day, they were excellent stewards of the community and a critical asset in the mobile development movement around here.

From the Portland Startups Slack:

With so many distributed teams, it’s really difficult to define a “Portland startup” these days. But if a cofounder lives here, then I’m going to call it “local.” Such is the case with Streamdal, a startup whose cofounder and CTO calls Portland home. And somewhere else they’re calling home today is Product Hunt. Where they’ve been in the top 10 trending startups all day.