Portland Oregon Startup and Tech News
PitchBlack is the premier local pitch event for black and brown founders. Built Oregon is striving to be the voice for consumer products in Oregon. So when you put the two together, you get an interesting night of pitches on consumer products from some of the most promising entrepreneurs in the state. And it’s all happening as part of the Built Up Festival.
For all of the hype around tech and tech startups, we seem to be sorely lacking in events that celebrate all of the amazing consumer products that call Oregon home. That was the motivation behind last year’s Built Up Festival. And it seems to have gone pretty well. So well, in fact, that it’s happening again, September 28-October 5, 2018.
When it comes to outdoor product startups, the nexus of that activity in Oregon is the Bend Outdoor Worx accelerator and their annual pitch competition BOW BreakOut. So if you’re building an outdoor product company, you’ll want to showcase your efforts there. And here’s your chance.
Way back when, I started Silicon Florist as an attempt to raise the visibility of a bunch of amazing activity I was seeing Portland tech startup community. Then, I helped start PIE—and continue to run it—because I felt that we needed to do more than talk about the community, we needed to help it grow through mentorship and connections. My motivations to help start Built Oregon came from similar desire to help the consumer product industries in Oregon. And now, I’m bullish on a new effort designed to enhance collaboration and innovation across all of those industries—and more—in Portland. Meet the Portland IQ.
There was a time, not so long ago, when Portland had an embarrassment of riches on the startup incubator and accelerator front. But as the pendulum swung from early stage to growth stage—and as regional offices and bigger players promised increasingly attractive wages and benefits—the once crowded incubator and accelerator community thinned. But all of that may be changing in 2018.
As we, as a community, continue to cope and process the recent senseless loss of Sam Blackman, many of our conversations have turned to remembering other amazing contributors to the Portland startup community. Contributors who inspired and impacted untold number of entrepreneurs. Contributors who, like Sam, were gone far too early. And of course, one of the names that has come up, time and time again, is Shelley Gunton.
While I like to drone on an on about tech startups, the truth is that there are any number of startups and industries that are thriving in Oregon. Perhaps none as obvious as the breadth of consumer goods — apparel, beverage, food, outdoor, tools… the list goes on an on — we have here in the state. But for all of the activity, there seems to be little opportunity to gather these amazing companies and entrepreneurs together. Until now. Meet the Built Up Festival.
I know that there are plenty of meet ups in town. Plenty. But one thing I’ve noticed is that they still tend to be fairly siloed. Either by skills. Or by industry. Or by platform. Or by something I can’t think of right now. So when Mitch Daugherty, my fellow cofounder at Built Oregon, suggested something that broke down those silos? I was super interested. Read More
It’s no secret that there’s a limited number of investors in Oregon. Which means there’s not a lot of crossover between the startup investment community—unless folks are raising. But there aren’t a lot of conversations, information sharing, or mutual understanding. It’s often just checks—or lack thereof. That’s why it’s always nice to hear from the investors, firsthand, about their world and what sort of things they’re looking for. Read More
