Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
[Editor: Portland startup founder Rachel Bell submitted this guest post as a way to share her experience in PIE, an early-stage startup accelerator. And to encourage other founders to apply to the program. The following post has not been edited. Full disclosure: I am the cofounder and general manager of PIE.]
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If you’ve followed PIE at all, you probably realize that they take the “E” in their name — which stands for “experiment” — fairly seriously. As a way of exploring new opportunities. And to ensure that they continue trying new things. Even if those things have a likelihood of failing.
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I always believe that the best way to understand a startup’s product is to actually use the startup’s product. I know. Call me crazy. So ever since I became aware of Portland’s Subfund, I’ve been scratching my head for ways to put it into practice. And apparently all of that head scratching shook something loose. Because I just came up with a new experiment.
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It’s that time of year. You know, the time of the year when we look back. When we assess. And where we try to use that assessment to plot our paths forward. And to plan for a new year. Obviously this last year — perhaps more than any other of my professional career which, mind you, includes both the dotcom crash and the mortgage crisis — is one where I was desperately searching for a bright spot or two amongst all of the heartache and weirdness. And I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to find at least a couple of positives. I mean like they say, after all, hindsight is…
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Every finish line is actually just a starting line for the next phase of the journey. Sure, Mark Grimes took on the experiment of launching one startup a day for the 31 days. And that was crazy enough. But we’re far from through. That’s because he also took on the challenge of trying to get each of those startups to cash flow positive in 90 days. You know, like a real business. And that 90 day countdown starts on September 1, 2020.
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Yeah. Some people shudder at the concept of launching a single startup. Some folks, like me, launch a few companies and are like yeah no. It’s hard to build a single company. Even when that’s your singular focus. But this whole crazy pandemic deal is causing folks to try some random stuff. So what would happen when a serial entrepreneur decided to launch a new company? Oh wait. I mean, every single day. For a whole month. Well that’s the concept that Portland’s Mark Grimes is chasing with 31 startups, this month.
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Clearly, there’s a palpable amount of negativity floating around, these days. And with good reason. But the continued onslaught can get grating, if not completely debilitating. So if you’re looking for something more positive — and you’ve already binge watched all the Arthur and Zoboomafoo episodes you can stomach — maybe consider meeting some new Portland startups.
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A year ago—a decade into writing Silicon Florist—it seemed like an interesting experiment (you know me, I like the experiments) to test drive Patreon, a platform that allows the community to provide financial support for folks who are making things.
If you haven’t watched The Fab Lab with Crazy Aunt Lindsey, you’re missing out. Not only is it produced in Portland and an amazing effort to stimulate kids’ curiosity about science, technology, engineering, and math. But it’s also helmed by an amazing woman who is a person of color, providing an incredible role model for a demographic that’s all too often ignored by those industries.
[Editor: This is a guest post from Jared Wiener, the software industry liaison for Prosper Portland (the organization formerly known as the Portland Development Commission (PDC)). As part of his role, he has helped manage the TechTown Portland program which includes the Diversity Pledge. Here, he provides an update on the progress with that program.]