Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
With headlines dominated by the global pandemic and people experiencing a strange new normal, a respite from all of that can be welcome. Which is why I’ve been actively tracking and retweeting the women leading consumer products companies in Oregon that Built Oregon has been sharing as part of Women’s History Month.
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I know the headline seems like a rhetorical question. And I apologize. Clearly, we all have. But like so many things in Portland and Oregon, that impact is largely anecdotal at the moment. And nonprofit Built Oregon would like to help quantify it. So that officials at local and state government have a better understanding of the actual numbers of companies impacted.
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Being a founder is hard. Really hard. And lonely. And nowhere have I seen that more evident than consumer product startups. With tech startups, at least we’re online most of the day. On email. Or Slack. Or Twitter. It doesn’t make being a founder any less difficult. But at least you feel connected.
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I’ve really grown quite fond of this tradition that Stephen Green started. Where once a day, throughout the month of February, Stephen has taken the opportunity to highlight one black Portland business for Black History Month. And this year, it got even better. Because Built Oregon joined in. And because we got an extra day.
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You know how we love our weeks here in Portland. Sneaker Week. Design Week. Burger Week. Startup Week. Week week weekity week. Sometimes, these weeks try to pretend they’re not actually weeks by not putting “week” in their name. But don’t be fooled. They’re weeks. And if you’re into consumer products — like food, beverage, apparel, and beauty — well then have I got the week for you. Built Festival is back and bigger than ever.
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Here in Oregon, we’ve got more than our fair share of amazing consumer product companies. I mean there’s Benchmade, Columbia, Deschutes, Keen, LaCrosse, Nike, Resers, and Tillamook, just to name a few. And there have been exits from companies like 10 Barrel, Brazi Bites, Dakine, Hydroflask, Pacific Foods, Schmidt Naturals, and Stumptown that rival any tech exit. So why in the world don’t isn’t there an accelerator program to connect all of this knowledge and experience with the next generation of consumer products companies?
Being in the startup acceleration and mentoring business, I do love me some status reports and updates. Even if that startup happens to be an accelerator itself. And that’s why I was happy to see this latest update from Mitch Daugherty on the Built Oregon consumer product accelerator project.
While startup accelerators have become part of the parlance of early stage technology companies, the format may not be as familiar to other industries. That’s why Built Oregon is holding a question and answer session about their new startup accelerator for interested applicants and potential future applicants who are building consumer products in Oregon.
I love when folks take the time to highlight awesome Oregon companies. But sometimes, it’s hard to keep up. That’s why I’m taking the opportunity to capture Built Oregon’s Women History Month tweets so that you don’t miss out on these amazing entrepreneurs.
Accelerators are nothing new. They’ve become a quintessential part of many startup ecosystems. But more often than not, they’re rather one note. Because the vast majority of those accelerators are only accelerating one thing: tech. But there’s more to startups than just tech. Especially around here. That’s why Built Oregon is rethinking the accelerator model to support consumer products companies.