StumpTECH

StumpTalk: Innovations Large and Small Stack Up in Techlandia

One of the great things about Techlandia is that innovation is bubbling in companies of all sizes: from the Fortune 100, to firms with fewer than 100 employees. We were reminded of that this week with a couple of news items.

On the large end of the scale, Intel announced it has promoted five executives at its Hillsboro facilities, once again demonstrating the importance of the company’s extensive Oregon operations. At the same time, we saw a couple of Portland startups getting some well-deserved notoriety for their super cool technologies. LittleBird and Presto Box automate time-consuming work in fun and interesting ways. LittleBird streamlines the painstaking process of identifying the most influential experts on a given topic on social media. Presto Box’s technology allows users to answer a series of questions and receive branding guidance for their company.

Speaking of startups, we noticed Portland’s own Dylan Boyd has been named Managing Director of the Nike+ Accelerator powered by TechStars. Boyd is a veteran of the Portland business and technology scene with stints at eROI and Urban Airship, among other positions. The Portland-based Nike+ Accelerator was introduced late last year with the mission of supporting startups building on top of Nike+ and Fuelband technologies.

Still hungry for exciting news coming out of Techlandia? More StumpTalk next Thursday!

The Latest in Techlandia

The tech and startup scene have been buzzing for the past few weeks in Portland.  The highlights: the Portland Seed Fund’s Lynn Le writes about the City’s startup culture in techonomy; learn about Opal Labs social enterprise brainstorming tool for problem solving; early funding success for recent PIE graduate Little Bird; the increase in venture funding in the 3rd quarter of 2012; Ebay’s expanding presence; and Esri’s acquisition of Geoloqi.  Here is a roundup of these stories and more.  Sign up for the RSS feed or follow Portland4Biz on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Portland 100

Note: this blog post first appeared May 7, 2012 on the Silicon Florist blog. Reprinted here with permission from the author and Silicon Florist.

Portland 100 is an idea I first came up with almost eighteen months ago sitting in front of the fireplace at the River Place Hotel bar chatting about the Portland startup scene with Kerry McClenahan of McBru. My point, as I explained to her, was that our marketing should focus less on the region and the city and more on the amazing companies that are thriving here. Most people who love Portland already love it and people who want to ding us for a being a lifestyle city will continue to do so. Why not then focus on companies and spend our marketing dollars cataloguing, presenting and promoting our leading startups to help them with what they need most: mentors, investors, and talent.

Kerry loved it and before I knew it she had brought it up to folks at the Mayor’s office (thanks Skip Newberry) and PDC (thanks Chris Harder and Patrick Quinton) who loved it as well and we launched the idea to the community about a year ago at an event at Puppet Labs. The response was very positive and so we set about to bring the idea to fruition.

Well, today I am so pleased to announce that the idea has come to life and Portland 100 will be a living, breathing thing. Portland 100 will focus on three core services: securing capital, finding executive talent and mentoring. Strategic marketing of the region and firms to tech investment hubs around the country will also be part of the work.

The first class of participant companies include Athletepath (David Embree), Chirpify (Chris Teso), Cloudability (Mat Ellis), Giftango (David Nelsen), Meridian (Kiyo Kubo), Simple (Josh Reich) and Vizify (Todd Silverstein). These seven companies exemplify the new energy that everybody can sense in Portland and we look forward to helping these companies and entrepreneurs create jobs, wealth, and more companies. In addition to the seven participant companies Puppet Labs (Luke Kanies), Urban Airship (Scott Kveton), ShopIgniter (Matt Compton) and Elemental (Sam Blackman) have agreed to serve as ambassadors and promoters to audiences such as tech talent, investors, entrepreneurs, executives and media. Together, we hope to position Portland as not just a great place to launch a startup, but a city and region with access to the right resources to scale our most promising companies.

I am also delighted with the public and private sector folks who agreed to join the Executive Board and so a deep thank you to Patrick Quinton (PDC), Skip Newberry (SAO), Scott Kveton (Urban Airship), Chris Logan (SweetSpot Diabetes), and Brewster Crosby (Unique Investments). Thank you also to Chris Harder at PDC without whom we really could not have gotten to this point.

Upward and onward.

- Nitin Khanna

About Nitin Khanna

Nitin Khanna is the Chief Executive Officer of MergerTech.

Prior to becoming CEO of MergerTech, Nitin was the founder, Chairman and CEO of Saber Corp., one of the largest providers of state government solutions in the country. Nitin started Saber in July 1998 and helped grow it a minimum of 50% each year.

Saber’s growth was celebrated by an Inc. 500 award in both 2006 and 2007, the Deloitte Fast 500 award, and the #1 spot on Oregon’s Fastest Growing Companies list in 2007. This dramatic growth led to a significant investment by Accel-KKR Private Equity in 2005 and to the eventual sale of the company for $460MM to EDS in December 2007. Nitin then assumed leadership of EDS’ government business operation that included Saber.

Prior to Saber, Nitin held a number of positions in Consulting and Education at Oracle Corporation. He holds Master’s and Bachelor’s of Engineering degrees from Purdue University.

 

Elemental On A Roll...And Hiring

It’s always fun to share good news, particularly when it involves one of our members here at the Software Association of Oregon (SAO).


Our friends at Elemental Technologies just announced they have raised $13 million in Series C financing, led by Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) and joined by existing investors General Catalyst, Voyager Capital and Steamboat Ventures, who also participated in the round.

This is another great win for an Oregon-based company and more proof, as if we needed it, of the creative vitality here in Techlandia. The new funding comes as Elemental invests aggressively to extend its leadership in the multiscreen content delivery market - and follows on the heels of last month’s report that a number of leading international broadcasters will use Elemental products to deliver coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

In response to all these impressive developments, Elemental is expanding its workforce and aggressively seeking new talent - which is great news for Elemental, our gifted pool of local high-tech pros, and of course the larger Oregon economy.

Elemental’s well-deserved success on the global stage is another reminder of how important the technology industry is to our state’s economic health. At a time of economic transition, Oregon’s high-tech sector is helping lead the way toward growth - a proof-of-concept for SAO’s vision for Oregon’s high-tech community to become a driver of economic development and be recognized as the hotbed of innovation it truly is.

Oregon’s thriving high tech industry has long been one of the state’s best-kept secrets, but with success stories like Elemental - and with advocacy and support from organizations like SAO - news is getting out that Oregon is a fantastic place for tech companies to start-up, grow and succeed.

And did I mention that Elemental is hiring?

Kerry McClenahan
SAO Board Member
CEO of McBru

Welcome To Techlandia, Population…?

There's something happening here in Oregon. Something creative. Something entrepreneurial. Something world changing.

We all know it. We just haven't really been able to put our finger on it.

And we've all been gushing--okay maybe I’ve been gushing--with anecdotal evidence about all of the activity. About all of the great things happening here. About all of the amazing people and projects and companies. About how things are changing drastically and for the better.

But we've been distinctly lacking in facts. In the metrics to defend it. To quantify it. To measure it.

Today, that changes. With the launch of Techlandia.

I've been in the Portland startup scene for more than 16 years. And I honestly can’t say that I've seen an endeavor like this one. It’s a project that will help us quantify the impact of technology on the economy of Oregon and Southwest Washington. That will help connect our community. And that will make Oregon and Greater Portland as strong as we know them to be.

And it’s all thanks to the Software Association of Oregon embarking on this journey.

In my opinion, there is no better local entity to lead this effort. To enforce the collaboration that will make us successful. And to help guide the activity that will help ensure this is a valuable resource for years to come.

But launching is only a first step. Now, it’s up to us--the community--to take Techlandia from here. And to continue championing Oregon as an amazing place to start, build, and succeed with technology companies.

If you're a software, hardware, or technology services company, create a profile on Techlandia. The website is a community effort so please give us your feedback on how we can improve and grow over time.

Let’s get started.

Rick Turoczy
@Turoczy