Portland Oregon Startup and Tech News
This. We need more of this. In addition to continuing to hustle and grind on your startup, you need to take time to reflect. And take stock of your accomplishments. And be proud of what you’ve managed to get done. And tell people about it. Because it’s important.
By now, you’ve likely encountered the lean business canvas. It’s single page worksheet that helps folks build a high level business plan for their startup. Alternatively, its’a quick and easy way figure out that your idea for a company has no chance of succeeding as a business. Either way, it’s a useful framework. So if you can use that formate to help understand your business, what if it a similar worksheet could help you understand the culture of your business? Enter The Praxis Department and the Startup Culture Canvas.
Unless you’ve been around the Portland startup community for a while, you may not remember Meridian. Even if you have been around a while, the name might not immediately ring a bell. But it should. Because from my perspective, it was one of the more successful startup exits in Portland. Not in total value, but definitely in multiples returned to investors and the speed at which that investment was returned.
In a world where marketing and advertising continues to up the level of creepiness on a regular basis (Thanks, Cambridge Analytica!), it’s refreshing to see a company that’s willing to stem the tide of distrust. And it’s even more awesome when it’s a Portland startup. That’s why it was great to see Lytics pushing for an industry standard around trust based marketing.
You don’t hear as much about it as I would like, but I love the small and scrappy fintech startup community in Portland. What started with companies like Simple has spawned any number of interesting takes on banking, financing, and investing. Even the cofounder of Acorns—which enables folks to round up purchase prices to invest small increments of money—has a Portland connection. (He graduated from Lewis & Clark.) So you can imagine my excitement when I heard that Giftango founder David Nelsen was getting back in the startup game with a fintech play. And now, it’s come out of stealth. Meet Bumped.
In the world of equity financing and startups, it’s not rare to see folks adding new board members when they announce funding rounds. Because it’s usually VCs who have invested who are getting those seats. So when Portland startup Sensu announced a new round of funding and new board members, it was a pleasant surprise to see that one of them was an independent, Luke Kanies, founder of Puppet.
I get it. No. Seriously. I do. We all understand that the “P” in “Portland” stands for “procrastination.” It’s cool. But there comes a time when procrastination turns into actually having to do something. And that time is nigh. Because Portland Startup Week starts in a matter of hours. I know right? Kinda snuck up on us.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times: Portland has an incredibly promising AR/VR/Mixed Reality community. From folks who create content to companies that are building the infrastructure and tools to deliver it, we’ve got a wealth of interesting startups and creatives in this still nascent market. And it’s always good to get all of those folks together. Which is what’s happening during Portland Startup Week with Immersive Startups.
If there’s one place that the Portland startup community shines, it’s working together to help others. We’ve seen that play out multiple times with efforts like Business for a Better Portland, as one example, and with any number of fundraisers and food drives. So with Portland Startup Week 2018 coming up, it makes perfect sense that the community would use that as an opportunity to come together again to help others. Introducing the Startupathon, a 24-hour podcast fundraiser put on by the Startup Radio Network.
