Startup and tech news, jobs, and events in Portland and Oregon
If you’re working on a startup and you feel like you could use more help, connections, and mentorship, then I have a little homework assignment for you, this weekend. Because it might be time for you to apply to PIE or PIE Shop with your startup idea.
While some startup communities seem obsessed with the random application of technology, I’ve always been impressed with the Portland startup community’s continued interest in applying technology in ways that make people’s lives better. One of those areas — for decades — has been healthcare. And now, there’s a new player in that realm, specifically around urgent care for kids. Meet Brave Care.
There are any number of amazing Portland startups. (Clearly. That’s why I’ve been writing about them on this blog for nearly a dozen years.) But every once in a while, a startup comes along that becomes the center of gravity — the proverbial Cinderella story — for a generation of startups around here. Cloudability was very much one of those startups. And today, the denouement of that startup story begins, in the best of ways, with an exit. Cloudability has announced an agreement to be acquired by Apptio.
Portland is nothing if not collaborative. So it would only make sense that a bunch of the Portland startup community would band together to help welcome the newest startup support organization in to town, WeWork Labs Portland. And what better way to show that support than to gather in celebration of the launch of the project.
Okay. There’s a lot more to dig into here… but just to get the news out. We’re going to have WeWork Labs in Portland. Great right? Even better? It’s going to be headed up by none other than startup ecosystem builder extraordinaire and the unofficial mayor of Portland Stephen Green.
There was a time that there were nearly a dozen startup accelerators in Portland. All with demo days of various flavors. Some were targeted at investors. Some at corporations. Some at community. But what they all had in common was celebration. Celebrating a group of founders and the companies they were building.
We’ve all been there. An unintended awkward situation. At the most inopportune time. Maybe it’s emotionally awkward. Perhaps it’s physical. But it happens. And boy oh boy does everyone later wish we’d been able to avoid that situation altogether. Honing in on that feeling? Cool. Because that’s part of the motivation behind Portland startup AllGo.
Startups often like to test things. And then iterate. And test again. Before making a big leap. So it stands to reason that an organization that spends its time working with startups would take a similar tact. That’s why local startup accelerator PIE has been working with a handful of companies to beta test its new offering, PIE Shop.
One of my concerns about the Portland startup community is that it often takes a significant amount of time for companies to find their way to an exit. And for venture funded companies, it’s all about the exit. So it was a pleasant surprise to see two Portland companies involved in an acquisition—especially when one of those companies was still on the earlier stages of growth. Puppet has acquired Reflect.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: It’s lonely being a founder—or even the cofounder—of a startup. That’s why I’m always happy to see events and programs that bring founders together. So just imagine how psyched I am when a founder focused event collaborates with a founder focused program. Founder founder founder. Well, and coffee.