Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
The Portland startup community got the chance to hear from Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, this morning. Thanks to WeWork Labs Portland and its Manager Josh Carter — who also is the founder and lead organizer of Coffee w/ Co-Founders.
If you’ve spent any time mucking around in startup ecosystems, you’ve no doubt come across the concept of an “innovation district.” The idea, briefly, is to artificially create a dense core of people, institutions, and companies that fosters innovation. Sort of like Portland’s urban growth boundary. But for innovation.
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.
Way back when, I started Silicon Florist as an attempt to raise the visibility of a bunch of amazing activity I was seeing Portland tech startup community. Then, I helped start PIE—and continue to run it—because I felt that we needed to do more than talk about the community, we needed to help it grow through mentorship and connections. My motivations to help start Built Oregon came from similar desire to help the consumer product industries in Oregon. And now, I’m bullish on a new effort designed to enhance collaboration and innovation across all of those industries—and more—in Portland. Meet the Portland IQ.