Portland Oregon startups, tech, news, events, jobs, and community
Portland startup and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
Talk to practically any Oregon entrepreneur about angel investors and venture capital and you’ll get a luke warm reception—at best. But is that response simply perception and assumption or is it reality? I ask because the Oregon Angel Fund just gave us three million little reasons for taking another look at the Oregon angel scene.
You see, Xconomy is reporting that the Oregon Angel Fund has closed a $3 million fund. Read More
Last Friday, I was honored to be the guest on Strange Love Live—the best tech podcast in Portland, if not the world—to celebrate the second birthday of this little blog here.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Strange Love format, there’s generally a serious “tech” segment followed by a less serious “afterhours” segment. But you know me. Given the opportunity, I can’t help but continue blabbing about the Portland tech scene. Blah blah blah.
So if you’ve got a few minutes, take some time to listen in on the tech episode where we chat about Silicon Florist and whatnot. Read More
In the wee small hours of August 7 2007 I dragged my ass out of bed sat myself down in front of the computer and registered siliconflorist.com. I posted the first Silicon Florist post a few days later.
Roughly 730.5 days ago, I sat up in bed at 2 AM with an idea. Who knew it would be an idea that all but ensured I’d rarely be in bed at 2 AM ever again?
In the wee small hours of August 7, 2007, I dragged my ass out of bed, sat myself down in front of the computer, and—giving life to what seemed like a bit of a strange idea with a wacky name—registered siliconflorist.com. After some hosting setup and WordPress wrangling, I posted the first Silicon Florist post a few days later.
The concept, in my mind, was to highlight what folks in Portland were doing with tech startups. To shine a small light on developers and open source folks who were focused on building cool stuff, but who didn’t have the time to focus on promoting that stuff. Read More
Wouldn’t it be awesome if something positive did the same thing? Now it may. Introducing the Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE) from Wieden + Kennedy (W+K).
[HTML2]If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times, Portland is a town full of creatives. We’ve got creatives in technology. Creatives in startups. Creatives in graphic design. Creatives in writing. Creatives in the arts. Creatives, creatives, creatives.
But if there’s one thing I don’t like about the Portland creative scene, it’s this: how divested these creative groups seem to be from one another. It’s a crying shame.
Now granted, some recent negatives have helped bring these creative groups together. But wouldn’t it be awesome if something positive did the same thing? Now, it may. Introducing the Portland Incubator Experiment, from Wieden + Kennedy. Read More
It seems there’s a bit of contention and kerfuffle about a recent Entrepreneur piece on the most “startup friendly cities in the US.” Why? Because Portland—and a number of other “not seen as startup hub” towns—made it to the list while traditional metropolitan juggernauts—like Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle—were left by the wayside.
I didn’t think much of it when I mentioned the Entrepreneur article—Portland is one of the best entrepreneurial cities—the other day.
But a post by John Cook on the TechFlash blog got me doing some heavy thinking about the list—and Portland in general. Read More
open source folks, mobile developers, Web types, tech-heavy micro businesses, coworking spaces, and individual developers was more than a lot of political glad handing. It was all part of preparing the Portland Economic Development Strategy.
[HTML3]Remember when Portland Mayor Sam Adams met with a bunch of startup types a few months back? Remember when he claimed that he wanted Portland to be one of the most open cities in the world?
Well, all of those meetings with open source folks, mobile developers, Web types, tech-heavy micro businesses, coworking spaces, and individual developers was more than a lot of political glad handing. It was all part of preparing the Portland Economic Development Strategy—a joint effort between the City and the Portland Development Commission and the first effort of its kind since 1994.
And now, we’ve got a chance to see if that strategy will become a reality. Read More
NedSpace folks are teaming up with eROI—not only a successful Portland startup but also an Old Town landlord—to turn the former Vidoop space above Backspace into another NedSpace workspace.
It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of NedSpace, the coworking space on SW 3rd that’s full of some of the most business-minded tech entrepreneurs in town. I also like the fact that it’s run by a couple of already successful entrepreneurs as a way to give back to the community. And as if that’s not enough, NedSpace serves as the home of the Portland Ten, the startup bootcamp designed to whip would-be entrepreneurs into shape.
Apparently, I’m not the only one who’s a fan. The NedSpace concept is popular. So popular, in fact, that they’ve run out of room. Read More
There are still any number of wildly successful startups, blogs, and companies here in town that rarely get the Silicon Forest and Oregon cred they so richly deserve.
While a number of the folks in the Portland tech community spend time getting together on a regular basis at things like Beer and Blog and Ignite Portland, there are still any number of wildly successful startups, blogs, and companies here in town that rarely get the Oregon cred they so richly deserve.
They’re doing good work. They’re garnering national—and sometimes international—recognition. And they deserve all the Silicon Forest love we can dish out.
So who are they? Let’s take a look. (Listed by the number of times people looked at me with incredulity when I told them they were headquartered in Oregon.) Read More
Eugene-based Palo Alto Software’s Business Plan Pro can help by providing startups with guidance and instruction on building their business plans. And now, for one day only—July 1, 2009—Palo Alto software will be giving you opportunity to get that assistance for free.
[HTML4]For some, the hardest part of building a business plan is simply getting started. For others, it’s like doing taxes. It seems like it should be simple, but they want to make sure they don’t miss any steps. Others don’t even know where to begin.
That’s where products like Eugene-based Palo Alto Software’s Business Plan Pro can help by providing startups with guidance and instruction on building their business plans. And now, for one day only—July 1, 2009—Palo Alto software will be giving you the opportunity to get that assistance for free. Read More
I think it’s important for startup types to hear the report, but I think it’s even more important for Greenlight Greater Portland to know that we’re listening and paying attention.
For someone who covers startups, it’s incredibly interesting to keep tabs on an economic development body—especially one that’s a startup itself—like Greenlight Greater Portland.
Last year, I gathered a table of Portland startups and influencers to listen to the Greenlight Greater Portland’s first “Greater Prosperity Index” report. This year, I decided to do exactly the same thing for Greenlight’s second report. Read More
