Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
Happy All Saints Day! Or post Halloween candy hangover day. Or whatever. That month flew by, didn’t it? I can barely remember what happened. It’s all a blur.
Luckily, we’ve got this here blog thing with posts on it. And we can use that to refresh our collective memories. So let’s do that shall we? By taking a look at the most popular Silicon Florist stories from October 2010 as ranked by Web and RSS traffic. Read More
But the guidance on how to build a startup in 21 days has been all laid out for you in a new book from the founders of Bac’n: From Idea to Web Startup in 21 Days: Creating bacn.com.
[HTML4]Remember that whole Bac’n thing? That Portland startup that sold bacon on the Internet? Did you know that the entire project—concept to launch—only took 21 days? What the…? How the heck do you build a successful startup in three weeks? Furthermore, is this entire post going to be written in the form of questions?
Well, I can’t answer that last question. But the guidance on how to build a startup in 21 days has been all laid out for you in a new book from the founders of Bac’n: From Idea to Web Startup in 21 Days: Creating bacn.com. Read More
Did you know that it’s the Community Leadership Summit here in town this weekend? What’s that, you ask? It’s a gathering of community managers discussing how best to use the Web to interact with and manage their groups.
And as such, there will be a lot of community management dignitaries in town. Some are even arriving early. And one of those digerati, Jono Bacon the Ubuntu community manager, will be here early enough to attend Beer and Blog Portland, this week. Read More
They did it so well, in fact, that Bac’n became almost an immediate target for acquisition. And now, after weighing their offers, they’ve found a company appropriate to gobble up Bac’n, Bacon Freak.
[HTML2]One of the most surprising and successful startups of 2008 2009 (apparently I’m still struggling with that whole “new year” thing) had to be Bac’n. I can’t tell you how many times I heard founders Scott Kveton, Jason Glaspey, and Michael Richardson utter the phrase, “Yeah. We sell bacon. On the Internet.” And every time, they got a kind of weird scrunched-up face look from the audience.
But they did sell bacon on the Internet. And they did it really well. With an incredibly beautiful and technically functional site. They did it so well, in fact, that Bac’n became almost an immediate target for acquisition. And now, after weighing their offers, they’ve found a company appropriate to gobble up Bac’n, Bacon Freak. Read More
[Editor: Let me preface this by saying that I know, full well, that Kveton hates it when I do this. But I think it’s newsworthy. And I thought I should let you know. For that, I’m willing to incur his wrath.]
Many of you know Portland’s Scott Kveton as one of the new board members for Software Association of Oregon (SAO), founder of the OSU Open Source Lab, the former chair of the OpenID Foundation, a Portvangelist, someone who spends more than his fair share of time at PDX, and the guy who helped bring Vidoop to Portland.
But it’s likely that far more of you know Kveton for one thing: bacon. Or perhaps more appropriately Bac’n.
And now, what began as side project—albeit a passionate one—has drawn Kveton into the world of consulting as a full-time gig.
But it’s more than just his passion for that wonderful magical meat animal. It’s truly a desire to help organizations understand how to better use technology and community to achieve business worthy ends—regardless of their particular focus.
It’s really hard to explain but selling bacon is honestly one of the most interesting/fun things I’ve ever done. Its not just technology-for-the-sake-of-technology. Jason, Michael and I created something out of nothing using off-the-shelf tools to make a solution that delivers real things to real people. And we did it all in less than a month.
Long story short, Kveton is taking the opportunity to do something he loves—and to make it a viable business. And given that that is something with which many of us struggle, I personally couldn’t be happier seeing him take this chance.
I know Portland will gain from this move. And I’m already seeing some local startups beginning to take advantage of his talent and guidance.
For more, see Kveton’s post on his new pursuit or follow Kveton on Twitter.
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Reid Beels has transformed Twitter searching into an art form—matching Twitter search results with thoughtful Web design that allows users to easily keep track of certain topics or hashtags in an aesthetically pleasing setting.
What started with #afterhours soon became an addiction, spawning bacon, electric blankets, CyborgCamp, and of course my personal favorite #getoffmylawn.
But Reid couldn’t keep all this to himself, so now he’s open sourced those files as TweetScope, allowing anyone with a few Ruby chops to pick up the code and begin creating dynamic pages of Twitter search results themselves:
I’ve recently cleaned up and improved the code that powers these sites and am releasing it as an open-source project: TweetScope. It’s all written in Ruby using the Sinatra web framework, both of which make me happy.
Setting up your own site with TweetScope is pretty simple.
The files and documentation are available on Github.
I’m looking forward to seeing what kinds of pages you create.
(Hat tip Steven Walling)
Building a successful startup takes years, right? Well, months? Weeks and weeks? How about 21 days?
That’s about how long it took Scott Kveton and team to build and launch Bac’n, a site that sells high-end bacon and bacon-oriented paraphernalia.
How did they do it in such a short time period? Well, you can find out. On Monday March 2, Kveton will speak at the newly opened Nedspace—a startup coworking space in downtown Portland—about his experience creating Bacn.com:
Come hear Scott Kveton (Bac’n co-founder) talk about how he and his team launched this successful tasty bacon monster in under just three short weeks. You will oink yourself to happiness as Scott weaves true tales of bare-hooved bootstrapping and entrepreneurial maneuvers in the dark.
Tail curling stories designed to share with you what works, what does not, and having the bacon to move ahead like a greased, well you know. This little piggy went to market, and it owns the bacon market online.
And of course, true to form, bacon will be provided.
Pricing is listed as free to entrepreneurs, “$15 to numbskulls, $25 to vegetarians.”
For more information, visit Bac’n Meat Up on Upcoming or Calagator.
Sure. Sure. You’ve heard the bacon meme. You’ve seen the bacon shirts. You’ve even been known to giggle at a “#bacon” on Twitter, once or twice.
But where, in your world of daily Web life, are you to go for the slivers of salty goodness from the magical meat animal?
Portland-based Bacn—a side project launched today by Scott Kveton, Jason Glaspey, and Michael Richardson at Masterbacon—aims to answer that very question.
Bacn.com is your new source for high-quality bacon products, wrapped in butcher paper and delivered to your door all with the click of a mouse. We’ll have customer reviews and of course a few howtos to help you in your quest to fulfill that “bacon passion.”
Given that few things go as well together as the Web and bacon, it’s surprising that it has taken someone this long to stumble upon this brilliant idea. But when Kveton’s Bacon Geek site took off in popularity and he began working to find the world’s best bacon, he saw an opportunity—albeit a strangely Web 1.0 opportunity for someone so awash in the world of the Open Web.
And that’s likely why this will work.
Bacn is about as straightforward as you can get, offering up the best bacon products you can find. Initial suppliers include Beeler’s, Broadbent Hams, Burgers’ Smokehouse, and Fletcher’s. And with Bacn’s straightforward ordering system, those products will be on the way to your doorstep with a few clicks.
For those with discerning bacon palates, the site provides insightful details about each offering, including videos on the products.
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Not enough bacon for you? Bacn also offers bacon-oriented paraphernalia for those who are forthright with their passion about the salty little pieces of pork.
To check out the selection, visit the Bacn products page. Or simply hit the home page and spend some time checking out all Bacn has to offer.
I told you that this idea had potential.
There are some things that just go well together. Chocolate & peanut butter. Beer & Blog. And, of course, technology & bacon.
What’s that? You’re not aware of the kismet-like connection of cured meats and coding?
Well, then Masterbacon is for you, my friend.
It’s all about techies doing what they do best: geeking. Only this time, rather than geeking about some obscure algorithm or arcane coding language, they’re geeking about bacon.
Have you ever wanted to get together with a bunch of other bacon geeks and just geek out about bacon? What if there was an event specifically catered to bacon geeks to be able to share their favorite bacon treats with the world? Wouldn’t it make sense to make it a competition complete with trophy and prizes? Of course it would.
Masterbacon is just such an event.
So much bacon love, even the most vegan of geeks is sure to appreciate it. Maybe.
Masterbacon will be held on Saturday, January 17, at the newly opened Davis Street Tavern in Old Town. Participation is mandatory. That means you’re cooking, judging… something.
For more information, see Masterbacon on Bacon Geek. To RSVP, visit Upcoming.
I can’t wait to see how you get your bacon on. That is, just so long as this isn’t how you get your bacon on.
Photo courtesy the bacon geek, himself, Scott Kveton. Used under Creative Commons.