If you’re not familiar with the Oregon Capital Scan, it’s an effort in which a variety of folks from around the state engage, every two years. The “scan” is an effort to look back and determine the impacts and needs for capital in Oregon as it applies to business creation and growth. The Oregon Capital Scan for 2020 was just released.
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While it doesn’t happen as often as it used to, there’s always something uplifting about companies “coming out of stealth” around here. The latest is StackPulse, which calls Portland home. The reveal included an announcement of a $20 million venture capital round to complement $8 million raised previously.
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Going through one pandemic is more than enough for anyone. Imagine going through two. At the same time. That’s the case with Black-owned businesses and Black community support organizations as they battle both the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing effects of 400+ years of systemic racism. Now, there’s a chance to funnel federal CARES Act dollars into supporting these organizations with The Oregon Cares Fund.
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So during this whole pandemic thing, people are starting new things. And I’ve talked to quite a few folks who have been inspired to start new startups. But given that finding cofounders, team members, funding, and practically anything that doesn’t involve just you is exceptionally difficult while we’re all in isolation, starting a startup can be even more difficult than it used to be.
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For those of you just tuning in, it’s a short session in the Oregon legislature, this year. Without getting into the particulars, suffice it to say that it’s traditionally very difficult to move legislation during these sessions because of the limited amount of time. So leave it to entrepreneurs to say “Really? We like those odds.” Which is what’s happening with Oregon House Bill 4033.
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If there’s one thing founders and startups know how to handle, it’s a fire drill. Last minute requests. Crazy deadlines. Random hail marys. It’s all in a day’s work. But stepping outside of that work to help out the community? That’s above and beyond. And yet more than 80 folks took the time do that yesterday in response to a call to action from Business for a Better Portland and PIE which was designed to address a severe case of underfunding activities directed at the Oregon startup community.
It’s always nice to see Portland companies featured in national media. Especially when it’s folks who you know have been hard at work, building amazing companies, with little to no media recognition for what they’ve been doing. Like Walker Tracker, which was just featured in Forbes as an example of the participants in the XXcelerate Fund.
As always, I’ll start this with the caveat that I promised Bill Lynch, cofounder of Jive, that I wouldn’t just write posts that celebrate funding for the sake of funding. Which is actually more work. (Thanks, Bill.) But in the long run, I’m hoping my bag-full-of-cats startup-history brain full of tangential facts and likely little known context can be helpful in providing a broader picture of why these funding events are important.
In case you haven’t noticed, Portland has more than its fair share of interesting regional offices — often established through acquisition. There are the obvious ones. Like AWS (via Elemental). And ebay (via Critical Path). And Akamai (via Janrain).
These days, it’s hard to believe there was a time when the Web wasn’t driven by community. But hasn’t always been like this. And in the early days of the Web, one site in particular—which happens to have Portland ties—stood out as a engaging, nontoxic, supportive community. A role it still plays even today. That site is MetaFilter. And they could use our help.
