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It’s the holiday season. And that means all the good startups are getting a little something extra in their stockings. So be good and you might be as lucky as Second Porch—the Portland-based Facebook app that helps vacation home owners market properties to friends and acquaintances—who recently [...]
Pitching makes perfect. Or practicing pitching makes perfect. Or pitching perfectly… Um. Whatever the case, if you’re a startup you can always use more practice pitching. And there’s no better place to practice that pitch than in front of a crowd—or being part of the crowd watching someone else pitch.
That’s [...]
Maybe they’ve got a broken down car in the front yard. Maybe they like to stand on their roof and water their lawn. Maybe they choose to yodel at 4 AM on a Tuesday. Whatever the case, they’re crazy neighbors. And we’ve all got them.
But so many of these priceless [...]
While I’ve been resisting the urge to blather on and on about 30 hour day, here, the time is drawing near. And things are getting into full swing. While I’ll share—perhaps overshare—way more details next week, suffice it to say that 30 hour day is a [...]
One of the most lucrative markets on the Web these days has to be dating sites. You can’t turn around without running into another site that claims to use some carefully calculated algorithm that is sure to match you with your perfect mate in less than two hours so that [...]
Last summer, many people rejoiced in the fact that the City of Portland had chosen to adopt the Portland Economic Development Strategy. Those of us around here were especially happy that a portion of that Strategy contained the recognition of [...]
Now, I know if may be difficult to pry yourself away from your space heaters and heat registers, this evening. But despite the drop in temperatures, Portland’s event schedule remains chock full. Tonight, there are a couple of really cool events that make it worth bearing the chilly weather.
If you’re [...]
It’s always a good day when a Portland-area startup gets funding. And by that reasoning, today was a very good day. Portland-based JanRain—a company that started as an OpenID play and has since morphed into the way to simplify distributed Web logins across the board—announced that [...]
It’s been a while. A while since we’ve had a Startup Weekend in our neck of the woods or Silicon Forest or whatever. The last time we had the chance to participate in this kind of “build a startup in a weekend” experience was [...]
It’s post Thanksgiving. And you’re likely still suffering from some form of the “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” post traumatic stress disorder. It’s only natural, given our annual homage to unbridled gluttony. No doubt, in this sadly altered state, you’re likely thinking, “I should really try to [...]
Now if I had to pick my favorite tech blog, it would have to be ReadWriteWeb. Not just because I used to work there. And not only because they’ve got some amazing talent on board. But because [...]
Now that we’re past Turkey Day, how about just one more helping of November for you? Don’t worry. It’s very lo-cal. It’s the fluffy content from Silicon Florist, silly.
What did you and your peers find interesting this month? A lot of stuff. But I’ll only give you [...]
You’ve all seen them. Sitting on trees. Decorating houses. And filling shelves throughout the retail environment. Sad representational effigies of that secular symbol of the holiday season, good ol’ Santa Claus.
They’re not pretty. They can easily change your happy holiday spirit into one of gloom and disgust. And something tells [...]
For those of you around the Portland area and around the US, I hope you’re enjoying your Thanksgiving break. If you’re shopping today, good luck. Here’s hoping you’re doing that from in front of your computer.
As you might imagine, startup tech news in the Silicon Forest has been a little [...]
Stop what you’re doing and take a little gander around your office. Nobody is really doing any work. They’re either sitting their biding their time until they have to go hang out with their crazy uncles or trying to avoid the never-ending series of last minute runs to the grocery [...]
We’re easing into what will easily be one of the most watched “Friday after Thanksgiving”s—Black Friday—in ages. Will the economy rebound? Will people stay home? Will it be a whimper or a roar?
At this point, it’s hard to say. But one thing is for sure: if you’ve [...]
Now, I know, I know. I’ve doted on Portland-based COLOURlovers time and time again. If I’m waxing philosophic about the amazing community they’ve built around sharing color palettes then I’m highlighting another award or recognition they’ve received. It really and truly is one of the most beautiful sites [...]
Well, well, well. It’s another Thursday. Kinda. And that means it’s time for another episode of memePDX. Lucky number 13, in fact.
So what did we cover? Well, a whole bunch of stuff. But we’ve got one favor to ask. Just pretend it’s Thursday, pre-Ignite Portland [...]
Sometimes this content is so easy, it practically writes itself. Especially when I’m just repeating stuff I’ve written before. Again and again. But it bears repeating.
So you’ve reached that special time in your life. And you’re headed to Ignite Portland 7, tonight. Exciting isn’t it? You may be experiencing [...]
[Full disclosure: I have consulted with ccSync in the past before they reconfigured their product offering. I was pre-briefed on the launch of this product, but I have not been involved in the launch planning.]
For all the cool Web apps, iPhone apps, and mobile technologies, few things beat SMS for [...]
I’ve said it once or twice, I’ll probably say it again a few more times: Portland is a pretty darn bloggy town. In fact, blogging is probably right up there with brewpubs and restaurants in the “per capita” standings.
But what happens when those blogs stop being personal pontifications and navel [...]
Most of the social media types I know are a cultured bunch. They know more about movies and music and writing and whatnot than any ten people I know offline. But for all of that brainpower, there’s still a lack of experts with deep knowledge in some areas of the [...]
It’s really interesting to watch the continued progression of Portland-based JanRain’s efforts with RPX, its drop-in, single sign-on solution designed to help sites and developers quickly and easily solve the “login credential” problem. And just to think, it all began with JanRain trying to simplify [...]
I’m convinced that we wouldn’t be here blogging and tweeting and whatnot without the magic of one site. That site is MetaFilter.
MetaFilter introduced me to the concept of blogging. Ten years ago. And continues to be a source of inspiration for what can be [...]
You’re the cultured type aren’t you? I know you are. You like to take in a concert or a show every once in awhile. Maybe swing by a museum or two.
But in so doing, you often have to go through a technological time warp. Donning a Walkman from 1983 that [...]
Yes, yes. I realize some of you never had to go through the pain and heartache of putting your quarter up to reserve a video game. Only to have some pushy guy cut in front of you. You’ve been spoiled by having video games at your disposal ever since you [...]
We’re a fairly tight-knit community here in the Portland startup scene. Even if those startups have nothing to do with tech.
One of the best examples? The Portland food cart scene. We know it’s awesome. And it’s also a primary source of sustenance that fuels any number of late night hacking [...]
It’s unfortunate to see Portland and Silicon Forest startups suffer shutdowns, be it at the hands of the economy or otherwise. But on the upside, it’s alway good to see the execs taking lessons away from their efforts. And even better when they share them with the rest of us.
Here in the Portland blogging, startup, and open source community, we get into a bunch of conversations. Conversations about the future. Conversations about how to make a living doing what we love. Conversations about what we could do to make things better.
But so many of these conversations are lost in [...]
tweetmeme_url = 'http://siliconflorist.com/2009/11/06/portland-wiki-project-city-oregon/'; tweetmeme_source = 'siliconflorist'; For all the wiki activity in Portland—I mean, c’mon, the inventor of the wiki lives here—Portland has been virtually bereft of a wiki of its own.
Until now. There’s a new project underway called Portland Wiki. It’s goal? To document everything there is to [...]
Sometimes, it pays to look outside Portland and the Silicon Forest. To poke up our collective heads, take a gander, and assess what’s going on elsewhere. Even if that brief assessment only returns us to the position of navel gazing about what Portland could and should be doing.
Such is the [...]
tweetmeme_url = 'http://siliconflorist.com/2009/11/05/microsoft-layoffs-affect-portland-startup-open-source-communities/'; tweetmeme_source = 'siliconflorist'; When news that Don Dodge had been laid off from Microsoft started percolating yesterday, my mind immediately jumped to a rather sad conclusion. If they let Don go, I thought, then what did that mean for [...]
Everyone knows that Portland loves the camps. BarCamps, WhereCamps, WordCamps. No matter the camp, we’ll have one here. It’s just a good cultural fit. And word around the campfire is that we might like the open source stuff a bit, as well.
But what you may not know is that we’ve [...]
Most of the folks in the Portland Web scene have become all too familiar with a little Friday ritual called Beer and Blog. The event—which began with Justin Kistner helping a few other bloggers over beers—rapidly grew into the de facto happy hour [...]
So you like the Portland tech scene, but you don’t obsess over it. You want to stay up-to-date with what’s happening, but your Google Reader count hasn’t dropped below 1000+ in ages. And no matter how hard you try, you just can’t seem to remember which big event is which [...]
Well, that was fast. Seems like October just flew by, doesn’t it? No? Well, whatever your interpretation of the passage of time, I thought it would be interesting to share the Silicon Florist posts that attracted the most attention in October.
So let’s do that shall we? Here are the top [...]
tweetmeme_url = 'http://siliconflorist.com/2009/11/02/foodgeeks-social-geeking-recipes/'; tweetmeme_source = 'siliconflorist'; Many of you know Ryan Snyder as one of the folks behind Shizzow, the Portland-based location-sharing app. But what you may not know is that before Shizzow—way, way before, in fact—he was the guy behind Foodgeeks, a popular site [...]
I had the opportunity to attend Venture Northwest, Oregon Entrepreneurs Network’s annual pitch day for early stage startups. You know, kind of like a DEMO or a TechCrunch 50. No cash prizes. But a great deal of opportunity [...]
So, how you doing? Feeling a little bored? Maybe looking for something to do on the last Thursday of the month?
Well look no further. It seems tonight in Portland is going to be jampacked full of events to keep you busy. No matter what you’re techie desires, I’m sure you’ll [...]
Sometimes, you get to open gifts before the big day. Such is the case with Portland-based Giftango who—as they prepare to take the stage at Venture Northwest on Thursday—had Northwest Innovation and Paid Content unwrapping gifts a little early by reporting that the [...]
Portland-based Jive Software is currently in the midst of their first ever user group, Jive World. And as such, it seems that there is no better time to launch new products—especially when you’ve got all of your [...]
Venture Northwest is one of the premier opportunities for Silicon Forest startups to pitch their ideas in front of a room of would-be investors. Arguably, there’s no better regional event around here for gaining access to that type of crowd. It’s like DEMO or the [...]
When it comes to definitive resources to house information on startups around here, the options are fairly slim. You can track it yourself, you can read the fluff I write here, you can pay for a subscription to a research service, or you can work to embed the information you’re [...]
To be blunt, this sucks. I can’t tell you how much I didn’t want to write this. But it’s news that affects the Portland tech community, and as such, I felt an obligation to cover it. Long story short, you deserve to know.
Deep breath. Here it is:
Portland-based [...]
Sometimes, the biggest barrier to getting your startup off the ground isn’t the things you know—it’s the things you don’t know. Worse yet, finding a mentor or a trusted voice to help you figure things out can be more difficult than it should be.
One of the primary culprits? The basics [...]
tweetmeme_url = 'http://siliconflorist.com/2009/10/23/oscon-2010-portland-oregon-july-1923/'; tweetmeme_source = 'siliconflorist'; Loose lips sink ships—or let you know that big O’Reilly open source conferences like OSCON are returning to Portland.
Now while we’ve heard rumors swirling about this for quite a while—including talk that Portland Mayor Sam Adams [...]
When I first posted on the “Oregonians Against Job-Killing Taxes” discussion at NedSpace Old Town—which is being held tonight starting at 4:30—it sparked an [...]
Earlier this week, Gary Vaynerchuk—of Wine Library TV fame—was in town promoting his new book, Crush It. During his visit, he wound up spending about a couple of hours taking questions and signing books for around 150 folks at [...]
tweetmeme_url = 'http://siliconflorist.com/2009/10/21/powerpoint-painful-portland-presentation-karaoke/'; tweetmeme_source = 'siliconflorist'; What could possibly make presenting a PowerPoint presentation even more painful? How about presenting off the cuff in front of a crowd without ever having seen the slides? With content that covers who knows what?
Oh my. It’s almost as bad as karaoke. Well, in fact, it [...]
I may have mentioned a time or two that Portland loves the open source stuff. No, I’m serious.
But what if you’re an entrepreneur interested in building a startup using open source software? I mean, there can’t be a group for that can there?
Of course there can. This is Portland, silly. [...]
When I wrote about pdx.fm launching an Internet radio station, I got a lot of people who were excited about the concept. And then, a quizzical look would cross their face and [...]
While it may be hard for folks to agree on whether venture capital investing is on the rise or decline, one thing is for sure: Portland-based Jive Software certainly [...]
It’s getting to be that chilly time of year in Portland. And you know what that means? That’s right: people using coats to save seats at Ignite Portland. But it also means that the Ignite folks are looking to reward us for braving the inclement weather to [...]
Every year, the Portland Business Journal releases a list of “40 under Forty,” the most notable Portland people who have managed to accomplish a great deal of business and civic good prior to hitting the “big four oh.” And every year, I [...]
We love our events here in the Silicon Forest—especially events in the whole unconference format. And there’s no better unconference than the original unconference, BarCamp.
And while BarCamp Portland IV is still half of a year away, there’s a great opportunity to sink your teeth into [...]
In Portland, we love the open source. Love it. So much so, in fact, that we’ll do just about anything to have an open source conference around here. Even if it means building one from scratch.
Which is exactly what happened last year when a bunch of folks got together with [...]
tweetmeme_url = 'http://siliconflorist.com/2009/10/15/oregon-startups-governor-oregon/'; tweetmeme_source = 'siliconflorist'; While it’s still early in the race, I think it’s important to realize that we’ll be electing a new governor for the state of Oregon in 2010. And it’s highly likely that whomever wins that seat will be having a significant [...]
How did it get to be Thursday already? Well, I guess we should crank out another episode of the old memePDX, hunh?
Okay. For you, we’ll do it. I mean, your wish is our command.
This week we cover KATU launching hyperlocal [...]
[Dear FTC, et al., In the interest of full disclosure and whatnot, Iterasi has been a client of mine in the past. I was not involved in this product enhancement in any way, shape, or form.]
One of the many things I love [...]
Now don’t get me wrong. I love the WordPress. Nothing has ever made my blogging life easier than its open source goodness. But all that love aside, it does have a few blemishes.
Like embedding video. As anyone who has ever tried to embed a video in a WordPress blog post [...]
Now I know I go on and on and on about all of the cool iPhone app development that happens around these parts. At times, I even go so far as claiming we’re the de facto hub of that kind of [...]
While Taptu—makers of some impressive search functionality for the iPhone platform—may be headquartered across the big pond, their community manager, Jason Harris, lives right here in the Silicon Forest. So we’ve got a connection—I mean, besides that prevailing Portland love of all things iPhone.
And this [...]
If you’ve ever spent any time in the startup scene in the Silicon Forest, you’ve likely heard that there are two major hurdles for entrepreneurs around here: 1) that the State of Oregon—and sometimes the City of Portland—aren’t terribly friendly to startups and 2) that it’s really difficult to attract [...]
You may remember that, in early September, we heard rumblings of Portland-based television station KATU getting into the hyperlocal blogging game. Now, as Oregon Media Central reports, the KATU community sites are live and accessible to [...]
tweetmeme_url = 'http://siliconflorist.com/2009/10/08/memepdx-007-portland-open-wherecamp-pdx-wordpresstv-marshall-kirkpatrick-google-wave-boco/'; tweetmeme_source = 'siliconflorist'; It’s Thursday. And that means it’s time for yet another roundup of the hottest tech stories in Portland and beyond. And while this episode may be numbered 007, it’s probably not as suave or charming as Mr. Bond. Well, Cami Kaos might be. [...]
Ah, fall in Portland. Time for the leaves to change, the nights to get a little more chilly, and the startups to pitch potential investors for the capital that will help those entrepreneurs make it through the dark and rainy months.
And there’s no better place to pitch a room full [...]
Portland-based FMYI has to be one of my favorite dark horse “They’re in Portland?” companies. They work with huge brands. They’ve been around forever—at least in Internet time. (I mean, c’mon. They have a four-letter domain name.) And best of all? They’ve been incredibly successful—and growing—even in this [...]
tweetmeme_url = 'http://siliconflorist.com/2009/10/06/silicon-forest-iphone-app-air-sharing-zipcar/'; tweetmeme_source = 'siliconflorist'; I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Portland—and to some extent the entire Silicon Forest—has a predilection for building iPhone apps. No, it’s true. There are a number of amazing development shops in town—some one-person, some a few people—building iPhone apps that [...]
Sometimes, opposites attract. This would be one of those times.
News coming out of Jive Software this morning is like some freakish beauty and the beast episode of The Dating Game. Portland-based Jive—known for its Social Business Software that opens the power of social features to business communications—has begun a [...]
While the rapidly diminishing amount of sunlight has many Silicon Forest developers returning to the seclusion of heads-down work on their own projects, it’s always nice to take a break, get out, and see what other people are creating these days. And in my mind there’s no better place to [...]
While I love the Portland startup scene, it’s always nice to venture out to some other towns every now and again. Especially towns that are similar to Portland. With interesting startups and strong communities. To see what they’re doing and—hopefully—to borrow some other ideas about what we could be doing [...]
tweetmeme_url = 'http://siliconflorist.com/2009/10/02/bloglessness-portland-bloggers-bloggers/'; tweetmeme_source = 'siliconflorist'; Lots of folks want to start a blog. And while it may be easy for you—in all of your geeky awesomeness—to set up a blog and start blogging, it’s not that easy for everyone.
That’s why the folks at Beer and Blog have [...]
As we wrap up the summer and move into fall, things are starting to pick up here again in the Silicon Forest. Lots of startups doing lots of cool things—even the City of Portland is doing cool things with open source.
But what did you—the folks reading Silicon Florist—find most interesting? [...]
It was a busy week around these parts for tech news, what with Ignite Portland shifting dates and Ignite Bend needing sponsors and Portland becoming an open [...]
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/travel_places/Portland_Oregon_joins_the_ranks_of_the_open_cities'; tweetmeme_url = 'http://siliconflorist.com/2009/09/30/portland-oregon-open-city-officially-embracing-open-data-open-source/'; tweetmeme_source = 'siliconflorist'; Portland, Oregon, is now an open city.
Following in the footsteps of open cities like San Francisco, Chicago, and Vancouver, [...]
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: Portland likes the geogeeking. And whether it’s mobile, Geode, or good-old mapping, there’s no better place for getting your fill of geolocation and geography goodness than WhereCamp PDX.
So if you’re interested in hanging [...]
A few months back during Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, the folks at Apple got up on stage to demonstrate a very cool little iPhone app for Zipcar.
The app—designed by Portland-based iPhone agency Small Society—allowed you to find [...]
Sometimes, even the most well-organized events get thrown for a little loop.
And that’s exactly what happened to our friends over at Legion of Tech when the Bagdad—which has become the de facto home of Ignite Portland—was accidentally double booked. Which [...]
tweetmeme_url = 'http://siliconflorist.com/2009/09/28/city-portland-mayor-sam-adams-resolution-open-source-open-data-transparency-communities-official/'; tweetmeme_source = 'siliconflorist'; You may remember a couple of months back—during the Open Source Bridge conference—that Portland Mayor Sam Adams made a commitment to turn Portland into a “hub for open [...]
Last week, iPhone users were all atwitter about upgrading to use MMS, the next generation of SMS messaging that allows messages to carry a bigger payload. That means the iPhone users can finally send attachments like images and audio along with the traditional text [...]
If you’re in an early stage startup, you’ve likely no problem coming up with ideas. You’re probably confident that you can bend technology to your will. And you’re still likely fueled by the passion of bringing your project to life. In fact, if there’s one area that causes problems, it’s [...]
Usually when it comes to entrepreneurial awards in the Silicon Forest, I do my best to cheer for the Web, open source, and mobile startups who receive nominations. And then I usually wind up crying in my beer when the awards are handed to apparel and biotech startups.
But not this [...]
tweetmeme_url = 'http://siliconflorist.com/2009/09/24/starbucks-iphone-mystarbucks-portland-small-society-coffee-app/'; tweetmeme_source = 'siliconflorist'; Turns out even coffee shops need iPhone apps. Well, they do if they’re Starbucks. Two even. And now the official Starbucks iPhone drink app—myStarbucks—is available from the App Store.
Yes, yes. Starbucks is headquartered in Seattle, I know. And [...]
tweetmeme_url = 'http://siliconflorist.com/2009/09/24/memepdx-05-wordcamp-portland-recap-porch-linuxcon-linux-plumbers-conference-google-recaptcha-384-484-yesterday-twitter/'; tweetmeme_source = 'siliconflorist'; It’s Thursday and that means it’s time to unveil a new version of memePDX, Portland tech news for those short on time and attention. And you’ll be happy to hear that we took your feedback to heart. We tried to keep it shorter and [...]
Now we all know I’m a big fan of the niche sites. Why? Because there are any number of sites out there that focus on being everything to everyone—which makes them mean basically nothing to no one. It’s the focused sites—those sites with which we can personally identify—that hold a [...]
