Portland Oregon startups, tech, news, events, jobs, and community
Portland startup and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
Used to be, Portland had a plethora of unconferences for folks to attend. On any number of topics. But as of late, those opportunities have been few and far between. Luckily there are still opportunities like the Women Led Unconference.
There are any number of reasons to love Portland. But it’s rare to see anything startups making the citywide lists. That’s why it was nice to see Willamette Week highlighting a couple of interesting reasons to love the Portland startup community.
Do you like the podcasts? A lot of people do. They’re a thing. But as much as you may enjoy the wealth of recorded content available from the Interwebs, nothing quite matches seeing your favorite podcasters live. That’s the idea behind Listen Up Portland, a series of live podcasts that you can attend as part of the live studio audience.
It’s always nice to see local entrepreneurs building a successful company — especially when they continue to remain contributors and stewards of community in Portland. Such is the case with Nat Parker, cofounder of Portland startup Globesherpa, which was acquired by Daimler in 2015.
Another day, another acquisition with potential Portland impact. Scroll, the “invite only and I don’t have an invite but appears to be working to make online content both profitable and ad free” startup that has its CTO and an office in Portland, is acquiring the news aggregation service Nuzzel.
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.
Now in its fourth year, the wildly popular local festival designed to brighten up the dreary months in Portland is lighting up even more of the town. Portland Winter Light Festival has expanded, yet again.
It’s hard to believe, but Business for a Better Portland is turning two already. And like any milestone, it calls for a bit of celebrating. That’s why the organization — now more than 300 companies strong — is gathering the community for the BBPDX 2nd Birthday.
Every year, the Portland Workforce Alliance gathers a variety of Portland companies together to provide thousands of Portland area students with exposure to the vast number of jobs and careers available in our community. As part of it, they hold a mock interview session to help kids get a better understanding of what employers are seeking. But in order to pull that off, they need volunteers to help with interviews.
I love seeing Koan starting to get more engaged in the Portland startup community. First, they’ve been out and about running workshops designed to help companies better understand management through Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) — in a really grassroots and Portlandy way. And now? They’ve signed on Portland startup juggernaut Vacasa as a client.
