Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
I try to say it as often as I can, but I still don’t think that I say it often enough.
So, thank you.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for commenting. Thank you for being part of the community. Thank you for being in the Silicon Forest—or interested in the Silicon Forest.
Today is a day for many of the readers to give thanks. And I’m reminded, yet again, how thankful I am for you.
Thank you. And the happiest of holidays to you and yours.
There are a couple of things that have come up recently that I wanted to share with you. I think they’re good, but I’m always open to your opinions.
First and foremost, thank you. Truly. Thank you.
I had any number of Portland blogging and Twitter folks—Betsy Richter, Dawn Foster, Todd Kenefsky, and Paul Bingman, to name a few—questioning what was going on with the Oregon Startup Blog.
Thank you for watching out for me. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.
But it’s all good.
Many months ago, I spoke with the folks who run a bunch of regional startup blogs. And they were thinking about expanding their reach to create a national network of startup blogs.
As you well know, the whole reason I started writing Silicon Florist was to raise the visibility of all of the cool stuff you’ve been doing in Portland and the Silicon Forest. And I thought that this new offering would be a great opportunity to get more national exposure for the cool companies here in our neck of the woods.
So I threw my hat in the ring.
Recently, Oregon Startup Blog started syndicating Silicon Florist content and broadcasting it through Twitter. And while the implementation still has a few flaws, rest assured that we’re working through the kinks.
And it’s all on the up and up.
Hopefully, this will provide another venue to highlight all of the cool stuff you folks are accomplishing.
If you’re writing about startups in the Silicon Forest and would like to be added to the mix, I’d be more than happy to put you in contact with the folks running the show.
And again, thanks to all of you who pinged me with “Did you know about this?” I can’t tell you how much that meant to me.
It’s no secret that I’ve joked about ReadWriteWeb—one of the leading blogs in the world—being a “Portland blog.”
And with good reason.
I mean, while ReadWriteWeb’s founder, Richard MacManus, lives in New Zealand, there are two primary contributors—Marshall Kirkpatrick and Frederic Lardinois—here in the Rose City.
And that gave us more ReadWriteWeb contributors per capita than any city in the world.
Well—as luck would have it—they’ve just added one more writer from the Silicon Forest. So we now have a commanding lead.
This all happened fairly suddenly. And I must admit that I’m both humbled and honored to be asked to write for an accomplished publication like ReadWriteWeb.
I’ll do my best to do you proud, Portland.
And rest assured, I’ll continue doing my best to cover all of the cool stuff happening here in the Silicon Forest. And highlighting all of the amazing things that you’re doing.
Look at it this way: You haven’t lost a blogger, you’ve gained another blog.
And again, thank you ever so much, to all of the Portland folks who have already swung by RWW to comment.
I’m looking forward to see where this goes.
I keep an eye on a bunch of people who work on mobile apps. Most recently with the Obama for iPhone app. I thought it might be helpful to give you a glimpse of some of the Portland Oregon mobile app scene.
[HTML1]Yesterday, it dawned on me that I keep an eye on a bunch of people who work on mobile apps. I’ve covered them from time to time—most recently with the Obama for iPhone app—but I thought it might be helpful to give you a glimpse of some of the folks who are making things happen in the mobile app scene.
And lo and behold they just happen to be from the Silicon Forest. Go figure.
Talk about starting off on the right foot. Avatron’s first commercial application for the iPhone, Air Sharing (NOTE: iTunes app store link), is well on its way toward becoming the most popular iPhone application, ever.
“Founded in April 2008 by Dave Howell, a six-year veteran Apple engineering manager, Avatron is a leading developer of popular applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. Avatron’s Air Sharing application, downloaded by nearly one million users in its first week, has raised the bar for iPhone application design and software quality.”
For more information, visit Avatron.
The folks at Cloud Four have really come into their own in the world of consulting on mobile apps—especially when it comes to things like usability. (What? You actually want people to be able to use the app?) They’ve put in some impressive (volunteer) work on the Obama for iPhone app and equally impressive (paid) work on the interface design for the Mobile Wall Street Journal app.
“But what’s remarkable about Cloud Four is not our individual talents, as extensive as they may be. It’s where we overlap that we really shine. Instead of working separately in our spheres of aesthetics and engineering, we look at the building of Web sites and applications as a cohesive process, not just a series of database views or mockups. Cloud Four is proudly based in Portland, Ore., but we serve customers worldwide.”
For more information, visit Cloud Four.
If any company is the “founding father” of the burgeoning Portland mobile scene, FreeRange is it. With customers like the Wall Street Journal and the Portland Trail Blazers—and one of the most impressive mobile feed readers on the market—FreeRange is sure to keep Portland associated with mobile apps for a long time to come.
“FreeRange Communications was created in 2004 because using the browser to get information on a mobile phone didn’t work so well. It still doesn’t work well enough (no offense to the wizardy of Apple’s iPhone), and it’s not likely to become really great for a very long time.“
For more information, visit FreeRange.
The folks at GoLife Mobile are working to make mobile application development and adoption easier for both developers and consumers. And by building a Java-based framework that runs on practically any handset—and in so doing allowing practically any application to run on any handset—they’re moving down the right path.
“GoLife Mobile Corporation was founded by industry veterans with the desire to create a mobile lifestyle environment that enhances how people interact with technology, each other, and the physical world around them. This is the true birth of ubiquitous computing. We foresee information flowing smoothly between ubiquitous, integrated devices and networks, seamlessly converging to provide useful, personal, context sensitive services.”
For more information, visit GoLife Mobile.
The owner of the first—and only—Openmoko open-source phone I’ve ever seen, Don is always working to make things as open as possible. His latest project? Developing a mobile social location application for the soon-to-be-released open-source mobile platform, Android.
In his own words (via the Los Angeles Times):
“But Don Park, an independent developer in Portland, Ore., said he would focus on Android phones for his location-tracking software because he likes that openness.
“‘Phones weren’t interesting a few years ago,’ he said. ‘Now cellphones have become the new personal computer.'”
For more information, visit Don Park’s personal site.
Ever since the iPhone was introduced, Raven Zachary has been leading the thought on developing for the platform. As the creator of iPhoneDevCamp, chair of the upcoming iPhoneLive conference, and consultant to a number of iPhone developers in town and around the nation, Raven knows everything happening in the world of iPhone development—and he’s influencing a great deal of it, as well. Not only that, he served as the project manager on the Obama iPhone app, one of the most popular iPhone apps in history.
But don’t take my word for it. Here’s what Raven has to say.
“I love the iPhone. But that shouldn’t surprise you, because 90% of people who own iPhones love theirs too. But if you look into that 90%, I’m in the .1% of those people who don’t think of it just as a lovely phone, but as some agent of change that impacts us on a deep level – makes us more connected, more informed, more a part of the global network. And, hell, it’s wicked cool.”
For more information, visit raven.me. [UPDATE] Raven Zachary has co-founded an iPhone agency called Small Society. For more, see the Silicon Florist coverage on Small Society efforts.
If you really want to stay in tune with what’s happening in the Portland mobile development scene, there’s no better place than the Mobile Portland group. The fledgling organization also holds regular meetings to discuss topics affecting the mobile scene.
“Mobile Portland is local user group focused on mobile development. We gather on the fourth Monday of every month for presentations, discussion and networking.”
For more information, visit Mobile Portland.
As I mentioned, these are the folks I’m tracking. No doubt there are countless others I’m missing.
Has someone impressed you with their mobile development fu? Or maybe you’re a mobile developer who needs to toot his/her own horn a bit more?
Please, by all means, link it up below.
[HTML1]With WordCamp Portland fast approaching, I’ve had any number of folks approaching me with questions like “What’s WordPress?”, “Why should I use WordPress?”, “What can I do with WordPress?”, and “When will you shut up with the questions already? I mean, really?”
So rather than try to recount all my WordPress love in one egotistical post, I thought it might better for a little more “show” than “tell.”
So here—in a rough semblance of alphabetical order—are what some other folks in Portland and the Silicon Forest are doing with that magical open-source blogging platform, WordPress:
Whew! That’s a lot of WordPress going on.
If I missed your site (or screwed up your URL), I apologize. Please link it up below so that everyone else see the cool things you’re doing with WordPress.
I was just going to link to this. And then I thought better of it.
“A link?” I thought. “This is traditional media taking notice and giving credit where credit is due. This needs more than a link.”
So, I give you this piece from my former college classmate, Mike Rogoway over at The Oregonian entitled “Oregon losing high-tech jobs—with more bad news to come.”
A steady drumbeat of cutbacks in Oregon’s high-tech sector has reduced the number of technology jobs in the state to its lowest point in nearly three years.
Wait a second. Where’s the positivity? Where’s the “credit where credit is due”?
Well, that comes at the end of the article. From which I’ll judiciously quote (passage emphasis is mine, not Mike’s):
Oregon’s tech industry has one distinct bright spot: software.
Long the weakest link in Oregon’s technology economy, software has emerged strongly over the past few years—spurred by a vibrant community of open source software developers and Web services companies that require little investment capital to get started.
Software jobs are up 12 percent during the past two years, and now number 9,500. Although still a relatively tiny part of the overall state economy—which numbers more than 1.7 million jobs altogether—software is the fastest growing part of the high-tech sector and one of a small number of industries that is defying the broader economic slowdown.
Much of the activity is concentrated in Portland’s Old Town, home to a cluster of companies that develop software for the Internet. Examples include password-protection technology from Oklahoma transplant Vidoop, and collaboration tools from Jive Software.
“We’re just this wonderful hotbed of open source, brew-your-own-softwareville,” said Harvey Mathews of the Software Association of Oregon. “It’s a tight community, so we all help each other out. Which isn’t the case in lots of other industries.”
Can I get a “w00t!!!1!”? This is exactly the kind of thing we want to see. The kind of recognition you deserve. And the reason I continue to relentlessly document all the cool things you’re doing.
You’re making it happen. And you’re blowing the curve.
And for that, you need to congratulate yourselves, Portland and Silicon Forest startups. You deserve it.
Keep up the good work. Stay focused. And keep working to on that code.
I’ll be sure to let everyone else know: they ain’t seen nothing yet.
This week on the Silicon Forest podcast, I’ve got the usual review and preview of all that’s happening in the Silicon Forest Web startup scene. With an added bonus. I took a few minutes to chat with Dave Howell, CEO of Vancouver-based Avatron, the company behind the uberpopular iPhone app Air Sharing.
Click the Play button above to start streaming or feel free to download the Silicon Florist podcast.
Links from this episode include:
Oopie: I meant 501 c 3. I’m as bad as KGW’s iPhone G3.
Just a reminder that a bunch of local venture capital types, entrepreneurs, and other tech enthusiasts will be gathering at the Intel Jones Farm campus on Friday for the Silicon Forest Forum.
As I mentioned in a previous post and the Silicon Florist podcast, the co-founder of Tesla Motors will be the keynote. I’ll do my best to see if he’s willing to give a Tesla Roadster to each of the Friends of the Florist.
But I’m not guaranteeing anything.
I’ll be in attendance as part of my effort to continue the wacky week of Silicon Florist appearances at events. I had a great time at LivePitch Portland on Tuesday and was honored to moderate a phenomenal panel—Josh Bancroft, Dawn Foster, and Marshall Kirkpatrick—at the OEN PubTalk last night.
So what I am doing at the Silicon Forest Forum? More smiling and nodding, of course.
I’ll be moderating another all star panel entitled “Bloggers, Digital Media… and the Business of Creating Content.”
The panel will feature:
See? Smiling and nodding indeed. But at least it keeps a consistent theme to the week. That theme being “Great panel, but what is Rick doing up there?”
Sound interesting? I hear that there still a couple of seats left. So if you’d like to attend, swing by the Silicon Forest Forum site to register. And if you’re going to be there, please make sure to grab me and introduce yourself.
Links from this podcast include:
And thanks very much to Matthew Atkins for the bumper riff.
Now in its seventh year, the Silicon Forest Forum has been one of the premiere local gatherings for venture capitalists and technology entrepreneurs to discuss the technologies that are driving development and businesses in the Silicon Forest.
And while the event has always had a “technology” bent, its focus on traditional high-tech pursuits left its perceived “geek cred” a bit lacking, at best.
But this year, they’re clearly working to erase that deficit.
First, they’re bringing in the CTO and Co-founder of Tesla Motors, Marc Tarpenning, to keynote the event. And I would have a hard time arguing that any other automotive company carries as much geek and green credibility as Tesla. (No word as to whether the Tesla Roadster will be making an appearance.)
Second, they’ve put social media on the docket with a panel entitled “Bloggers, Digital Media…..and the Business of Creating Content.” The panel features Harry McCracken, the former editor of PC World who now runs Technologizer, a blog that gives McCracken the freedom to exercise his journalistic muscle on technology topics of his choosing; Leander Kaheny, the news editor at Wired.com; and maybe—just maybe—some local flavor.
The Silicon Forest Forum will be held at the Intel Jones Farm Campus in Hillsboro on Friday, September 12. General registration is $125. Members of the SAO can register for $95. For more information, visit the Silicon Forest Forum or RSVP on Upcoming.
(Hat tip Sean Sullivan)
Talk to enough startups and the conversation eventually turns to that of funding. And the search for that seemingly elusive operating capital.
Ultimately, this discussion devolves into a lament about the frustrations of the VC dance, the cross-purposes, the potential loss of control of which entrepreneurs live in fear, and, ultimately, some inherent evil in the whole process.
We live with this folklore. And we continually repeat it. And reinforce it.
A series of horror stories about what could happen. Stories that we continue to spin, time and time again, until we begin to see them as universal truths.
And then we begin to believe that the concept of VC investment and the culture of the Silicon Forest are at odds with one another.
That we can’t get there from here.
And that’s why I’m glad to see posts like this one from early stage investor Jeff Pulver.
Because these types of stories counteract the folklore. Because the kinds of things he’s seeking don’t seem to be cold-blooded or mercenary. Because Pulver seems to be the type of investor who is right in line with Portland’s startup culture.
When meeting with an early-stage startup looking for funding, if I am interested in the company, I look to connect with the founders and find out the inspiration behind the company they are creating. I try to understand the problem they are solving and the opportunity they are seeing. I also look to see how as a team they get along, work off each other and I try to get a feel of their creative energies. I look for teams where each member is watching each other’s back and a core team whom I feel will be together for the long term. I look for people who are both smart and creative who can be focused when necessary and whose personality allow themselves to be open to change directions and re-map themselves when needed.
If there’s one thing of which we have loads in Portland, it’s creativity. Whether that creativity manifests itself in traditional ways like art and music, or in less traditional ways like crafts, cooking, brewing, vintner-ing, designing… or coding interesting Web apps.
We tend to wield technology like a brush or a pen. Using it as an outlet for our creativity. And then, we tend to relish partaking in others’ creativity, be it culinary or brewery.
And there are VCs out there who get that. Who aren’t big scary monsters. Who are interested in the same types of things you are interested in doing.
We need to remember that. We need to start wooing the right kind of VCs. For you. And for the Silicon Forest.
Investors who, like Jeff Pulver, “invest in people first and ideas second.”
Let’s get started with that, shall we?