Why Portland is a great place for startups(centernetworks.com)
centernetworks.com
Why Portland is a great place for startups
http://www.centernetworks.com/why-youll-love-portland-oregon
37 comments
Does SF have anything like calagator? If not, someone should build it.
It probably goes without saying, but the source behind the calagator.org site is freely available: http://github.com/calagator
Portland has this almost unhealthy obsession with getting itself "On The Map".
- If we just build this convention center, that'll put us Portland The Map.
- If we can build a successful light rail system, that will put Portland On The Map.
- If we could only attract a major league baseball team, that would put Portland On The Map.
There's a Map out there somewhere, and Portland really wants to be on it. Pick any thing that any big city has, and Portland will want one too, because that will be the thing that finally pushes it over the edge to where it is respected as a "real city."
This article sounds like more of the same. There are Startup Hubs to be had, and P-town needs one. Because that'll put it on the map.
Don't get me wrong. I lived in Portland for almost 10 years, and it's a great place. But it's got like 1/10 the population of Seattle, and I think that gives it a bit of a complex. I wish it would chill out and settle into its role of a comfortable small city where you can live and work downtown.
That's all you need to be, Portland. Stop trying to grow up too fast.
- If we just build this convention center, that'll put us Portland The Map.
- If we can build a successful light rail system, that will put Portland On The Map.
- If we could only attract a major league baseball team, that would put Portland On The Map.
There's a Map out there somewhere, and Portland really wants to be on it. Pick any thing that any big city has, and Portland will want one too, because that will be the thing that finally pushes it over the edge to where it is respected as a "real city."
This article sounds like more of the same. There are Startup Hubs to be had, and P-town needs one. Because that'll put it on the map.
Don't get me wrong. I lived in Portland for almost 10 years, and it's a great place. But it's got like 1/10 the population of Seattle, and I think that gives it a bit of a complex. I wish it would chill out and settle into its role of a comfortable small city where you can live and work downtown.
That's all you need to be, Portland. Stop trying to grow up too fast.
Portland really is a great city, and I think it's a lot calmer than Silicon Valley. Although your local pub might not be filled with a dozen angel investors, Portland has embraced the young startup culture. With groups like OMSI, DorkbotPDX, Cubespace, and recently TechShop, it's a haven for hackers of all types. Not to mention a great music scene, delicious food trucks, and the best microbreweries in the nation.
The crucial thing it's missing is a large technical school. And that's likely the reason it will never be able to touch Silicon Valley in terms of startups.
The crucial thing it's missing is a large technical school. And that's likely the reason it will never be able to touch Silicon Valley in terms of startups.
Hate to say it but Cubespace is dead. http://cubespacepdx.com/node/2015
"The crucial thing it's missing is a large technical school".
100 miles south of Portland is the OSU. I hope they do something about this.
100 miles south of Portland is the OSU. I hope they do something about this.
Not true. Portland State has a decent Engineering/CS school that's growing like a weed. It's just going to take a little while for it to build a bigger rep.
Yes and No.
I am currently in Portland and we started our company here (Mugasha) about a year ago. Cost wise, its much cheaper to live here which definitely reduces burn-rate. The community is pretty cool, lots of awesome people who are constantly throwing local tech events. Lot of designers and developers (creatives) in the area.
What is missing? For one. Statup types. Most people I have come across in Portland don't seem to be the type that would build companies. People seem to be working on mostly side-projects. The community is very "social media" driven and there is not a lot of chatter going around on about how do you build businesses?
Second, would be. Mentorship. It has been fairly difficult for us to find people who have been there and done it. People who have built companies in the past. There are no VC's here. Very few angels here, at least angels who are focused in the web/tech space.
I think Portland is a great place to start a project. Potentially meet co-founders. Although, It's hard for me to say that I would continue to build my company here.
I am currently in Portland and we started our company here (Mugasha) about a year ago. Cost wise, its much cheaper to live here which definitely reduces burn-rate. The community is pretty cool, lots of awesome people who are constantly throwing local tech events. Lot of designers and developers (creatives) in the area.
What is missing? For one. Statup types. Most people I have come across in Portland don't seem to be the type that would build companies. People seem to be working on mostly side-projects. The community is very "social media" driven and there is not a lot of chatter going around on about how do you build businesses?
Second, would be. Mentorship. It has been fairly difficult for us to find people who have been there and done it. People who have built companies in the past. There are no VC's here. Very few angels here, at least angels who are focused in the web/tech space.
I think Portland is a great place to start a project. Potentially meet co-founders. Although, It's hard for me to say that I would continue to build my company here.
I'd like to start a group for "Startup Types". Interested?
Go for it.
We're there.
Mentors are around, we have a couple of great ones, but you're definitely right that we could have a lot more startup types vs. Side project types.
The focus on partnering in this scene is fantastic though.
The focus on partnering in this scene is fantastic though.
This years DjangoCon (conference from 8th - 10th September; sprints from 10th to 12th sep) is in Portland, OR. It's my first time travelling to USA and I'm really looking forward to this :-)
I grew up here and moved back after college in CA, so I'm a little biased. It's a great place to live. The tech scene is really inviting and impressively sophisticated as others have mentioned. The Ruby group where that calagator app was developed is superb, as is DorkbotPDX. I find it substantially cheaper and easier to get around here than LA/SF since it's not that big of a city (strict urban growth boundaries), it's reasonably dense and it's public transportation is well above average.
While it's easy to find people who are passionate about technology and building things, I don't feel it has the culture of ambition that's so prevalent in CA. Maybe it's because people are happy to be doing things that don't cost anything, like enjoying the outdoors or local music scene, and are less self conscious about what they drive.
While it's easy to find people who are passionate about technology and building things, I don't feel it has the culture of ambition that's so prevalent in CA. Maybe it's because people are happy to be doing things that don't cost anything, like enjoying the outdoors or local music scene, and are less self conscious about what they drive.
I've actually been considering going up for a few weeks, because California's tax structure, high cost of living, and overall lack of decent public infrastructure is seriously unfavorable to small business.
Oregon has no sales tax, and as such its income and property taxes are much higher than many states. This is especially true in Multnomah County (where Portland is located), due to county income and business taxes on top of state. See, i.e.
http://credc.sterling.net/business/infocenter/Clark-Multnoma...
I've lived in both San Francisco and Portland, and anecdotally I found Portland's infrastructure and services to be far inferior to those in San Francisco: worse roads (climate doesn't help), more homeless, more difficult city bureaucracy, etc. This is of course somewhat subjective, so YMMV.
Personally, if I were to move from the Bay Area due to cost of living and taxes, I'd be looking at Texas.
http://credc.sterling.net/business/infocenter/Clark-Multnoma...
I've lived in both San Francisco and Portland, and anecdotally I found Portland's infrastructure and services to be far inferior to those in San Francisco: worse roads (climate doesn't help), more homeless, more difficult city bureaucracy, etc. This is of course somewhat subjective, so YMMV.
Personally, if I were to move from the Bay Area due to cost of living and taxes, I'd be looking at Texas.
I haven't seen that many actual homeless in Portland. Mainly hippies, trustafarians, outdoorsmen, and people posing as homeless in order to make a quick buck.
Here in the Boston area? Oh hell yeah.
Here in the Boston area? Oh hell yeah.
Good to know; I live in the south bay, not SF, so I can't say anything for the city proper, other than BaRT seems to be a decent way to get around.
Arguably the real reason many people are keen to move to Portland, especially from California, is that it's the whitest city in North America.
I presume by "arguably" you mean "I have a bizarrely distorted worldview and therefore I'm going to assert this fact that I have just produced from the depths of my colon."
No, actually it was the articles about white flight from California I've encountered over the last few years.
And the reason those articles stated was that people were leaving for "whiter cities"? I think that's a stretch. The last I heard a lot of people were leaving California because the white collar jobs were leaving California. As I'm sure you're aware, there are more white people working white-collar jobs, so maybe that's the reason, eh?
If those articles said that people were leaving because California wasn't "white enough" or whatever, I'd love to see them.
If those articles said that people were leaving because California wasn't "white enough" or whatever, I'd love to see them.
LOL, well I wouldn't call that a "reason", but yeah, it's white as fuck here. I have no idea why, but that's the way it is.
Mob violence and various laws, actually. More than once mobs in the Northwest rounded up Asians and marched them to the docks.
"lack of decent public infrastructure" - what specifically do you think is lacking?
I think we've been through this recently:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=732923
(sent from the Sheraton Portland Airport)
(sent from the Sheraton Portland Airport)
I am in Portland now and have been for the last nine years. I would say that pdx is a great place for startups if you are a hardware company and/or a venture related to Intel. Other than you will be hard pressed to find qualified SW engineers that are actually can write something else other than drivers. Then there are the occasional VB slackers or .NET potheads that do contract work.
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I drank the kool-aid. :) Goes great with the doughnuts.
I like Portland a lot, but I'll assert that:
[X] is a great place for startups.
Where [X] = wherever you happen to be.
[X] is a great place for startups.
Where [X] = wherever you happen to be.
http://calagator.org/
And the quality of discourse at some of these local meet-ups is astonishingly progressive and technical. It feels like Portland's start-up scene isn't the best indicator of our technical culture and potential. Our traditional start-ups stand in the long shadow of Silicon Valley, and may expend too much energy wondering when someone will swoop down and invest.
Portland will make a name for itself by doing business in a much different manner than is done in the valley. The absence of venture capital will force us to invent better models.
BTW, have you guys seen Urban Edibles? It's a collaboratively developed wiki detailing where one can find food growing in Portland's urban areas. http://urbanedibles.org/
My roommate used it to make 3 jars of golden plum jam entirely from foraged fruit.