Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
Part of building a self sustaining ecosystem is reinvesting capital and wealth from one generation of companies to the next. But that’s also true for talent. That’s an important resource as well. Especially founders who can help the next generation of founders build their businesses. That’s why I was really happy to see Eric Winquist, founder of Jama, was joining Bigleaf’s board.
When I caught the news about Orchestra Software’s equity round, I was immediately reminded of Jama Software. Both companies were bootstrapped early on. They both took on investment after a number of years in business. And the amount of the funding was roughly the same amount.
Yes. $200 million. For a Portland startup. It’s really really easy to blanche at that number. I get it. It’s a big number. Especially for a homegrown Portland company in the software world. And were this earlier in the life of Silicon Florist, I could have easily focused on the number, cheered for a company raising that much, and moved along my merry little way.
One of Portland’s quietly successful startups, Cedexis, has been acquired by Citrix. I say “quiet” because, like many startups in town, the company kept a fairly low profile, all while providing behind the scenes business-to-business services for a wide variety of brand name customers around the world. And while they were relatively quiet locally, Citrix—who also invested in Cedexis—was well aware of them, as was the entire cloud industry.
While it’s still a rarity, it’s always interesting to see Portland companies acquiring other companies. Especially when they’re other companies in town. We’ve seen it before with Cloudability acquiring RipFog. And now, we’re seeing Jama make a similar move in acquiring Notion.
When folks are rattling off the names of Portland startups, Jama Software was a name that was often left off the list. While successful, foregoing institutional funding tended to leave them out of the spotlight they so richly deserved. Well, that changed today. As Jama announced $13 million in funding from Trinity Ventures and Madrona. Read More
In the past, one of the knocks against Portland’s startup scene has been a lack of seasoned executive talent. But that’s starting to change. Especially with Portland’s startup scene gaining more acclaim and making it easier for startups to find—or import—the talent they need. Read More
For a town as small as Portland, we’ve got an awful lot of dark horse companies. No, not that Dark Horse, although they’re here too. No, I mean companies that are quietly working on creating really compelling businesses with name brand customers—but they don’t often get the attention they deserve. Read More
Okay. I know I usually save these job posts until the end of the week. But man oh man, Jama Software? You know, that Portland startup that builds collaboration tools to help companies build great products?
Well, if you don’t know about Jama, you should. They’re a local success story. And Jama just so happens to have seven open positions right now. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look. Read More
Usually when it comes to entrepreneurial awards in the Silicon Forest, I do my best to cheer for the Web, open source, and mobile startups who receive nominations. And then I usually wind up crying in my beer when the awards are handed to apparel and biotech startups.
But not this year, my friend. Oh no. This time around the OEN Tom Holce Entrepreneurship Awards recognized three Web types with awards: Ray King of AboutUs, Jama Software, and Monsoon. All Portland-based, respectively. Read More