You know what I always say. No. Not that. The other thing. The thing about serial founders. You know, the thing about how the Portland startup community needs to get to a point where it’s not burning out founders so much that they never start other projects. How we need more serial entrepreneurs and folks with startup experience starting new things. Again and again. That thing.
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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.
There have been a number of Portland startups that have pulled in new funding, this year. And it’s nice to see the Portland Business Journal’s Malia Spencer reporting the efforts. OpenSesame, ShopIgniter, and VendScreen all announced funding this January, totaling more than $25 million. Read More
If you’ve been around the Portland startup scene for a while, you likely have memories—perhaps somewhat hazy memories—of Beer and Blog, a weekly gathering of startup types that started as bloggers helping bloggers over beer. It was the brainchild of Justin Kistner.
If there’s one thing Portland startups seem to have difficulty with, it’s celebrating wins. That’s starting to change. But it would be nice to see it more often. That’s why it was awesome to see a recent press release from ShopIgniter that simply bring us up-to-date on their progress. Read More
One of the most challenging things for any entrepreneur is recognizing his or her limitations. That’s one of the many reasons why entrepreneurs are so good at making mistakes. They simply can’t help it. So when a startup type does recognize those limitations? That’s often a very, very good read. Read More
When it comes to beef, the Midwest has a corner on the market. But when it comes to selling that beef on Facebook? Apparently, people come to ShopIgniter. They just landed Omaha Steaks as a customer. Read More
As the masses salivate over the potential of May 17 IPO, Facebook has beefed up its Preferred Marketing Developer Program, highlighting their anointed marketing partners. And among the 232 chosen? There are four Portland-area companies. ShopIgniter, Crowd Factory (which just yesterday announced their acquisition by Marketo), Webtrends, and Woobox. Read More
When it comes to tech startups, there are certain things that are must haves: awesome engineering, an exec who can lead and sell, and some way of getting the word out about the product.
The third one—getting the word out—remains something for which most startups contract or hire lower level generalists. So when they start hiring higher level talent to bring those skills in house? That’s a really good sign. And that’s exactly what’s starting to happen here in Portland. Read More
Knowing how much money you make on a sale is great. But what about those more granular points? How did folks get there in the first place? And what effect did social media have on their decision to enter your online store in the first place. I mean, a guy don’t walk onto the lot lest he wants to buy. But what gets him or her there? Your company? Or people who love your company? Read More
