Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
As much as I love Portland, there are still any number of things — or lack thereof — that can cause a ton of frustration. Like the lack of infrastructure for getting connected to the startup community. Time and time again, I hear from folks how difficult it is to get connected. Because while Portland tends to be a very one-on-one meeting sort of town, it’s not obvious where to start.
While Mozilla has been part of the Portland tech community for more than a decade, they didn’t officially open an office here—their first US office outside of Silicon Valley—until five years ago. But with ever growing concerns about privacy and security on the Web, Mozilla has recently started making a lot more noise about their presence in the Rose City—and their Firefox Web browser.
I get it. No. Seriously. I do. We all understand that the “P” in “Portland” stands for “procrastination.” It’s cool. But there comes a time when procrastination turns into actually having to do something. And that time is nigh. Because Portland Startup Week starts in a matter of hours. I know right? Kinda snuck up on us.
Oh, Portland. For all of your well intended gathering and collaborating, it can be a bit of a challenge to figure out where to go and who to meet. That’s why I love stuff like Calagator where you can find anything and everything in a single resource. And now, if you’re pursuing a human-centered discipline, you’ve got a centralized resource of your own. Meet PDXHCD.
As the Portland startup community continues to grow, we all have the opportunity to meet more and more people. But that can also make it more and more challenging to meet folks with similar interests. And while Portland has more than its fair share of meetup and user groups, there’s always room for more events. That’s why Magnet is launching its Portland chapter and providing new way for folks to network.
As much as I love Portland and our startup community, I’ve got to admit that it has some flaws. It happens. It can’t be perfect. It’s got foibles. And things that are downright broken. We’re actively working to fix some of those flaws. But there’s one particular flaw that I often fear is beyond repair. One that rears its head more often than any other—and creates a crazy amount of stress and heartache for every single local event organizer to whom I’ve spoken.
Part of why I continue to annoy you with my awful grammar is that I always love being along for the journey with so many people, companies, and events. And Women Who Code Portland is no different. It’s hard to believe it’s already been three years. It’s also hard to imagine the Portland startup community without this amazing group.
Rebooting. It’s not just for devices and computers anymore. In fact, a couple of Portland events are in the midst or rebooting and changing their format, in the hopes of addressing some of the gaps in our community. And since they’ve both got events coming up in the near future, I thought I’d highlight them.
Startups already have a ton of things to juggle. But you have to go with what your customers want. So even though Portland startup Sensu is only a few months old, they’re already planning their first gathering of users and partners. Why? Because folks asked Sensu to do it.
With all of the tech events that tend to take place in Portland each year, it can be difficult for sponsors to find the right events for their companies or organizations to support. And even when you identify the right events, chasing down all of the respective details for actually sponsoring them can be more work than it should be.