Portland does an incredibly good job of describing what's happening in the startup community anecdotally, but an incredibly poor job of quantifying what is actually happening. This will be an effort to better quantify and capture what's happening in Portland in regards to startups.
CC0. This work is dedicated to the public domain under CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) To the extent possible under law, Rick Turoczy has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to the Portland startup community cheat sheet. This work is published in: United States.
To get started, try talking to Rosie (https://sflo.me/rosie), an ever-evolving AI concierge designed to help with questions about the Portland startup community. For more background on Rosie, visit https://siliconflorist.com/2024/01/16/portland-startup-questions-talk-to-rosie-an-ai-mascot-for-silicon-florist/
If you're interested in a quick tutorial on Portland startup community resources, visit:
- https://siliconflorist.com/2022/01/06/looking-to-engage-or-re-engage-with-the-portland-startup-community-here-are-a-few-tips-and-tricks-pandemic-or-no/
- https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/inno/stories/inno-insights/2021/09/13/portland-startup-ecosystem-101.html
And if you're on Bluesky looking to add a smattering of Portland and Oregon folks, these Starter Packs may help
- PDX Tech https://go.bsky.app/LYrfH44
- PIG (Portland Indie Game) Squad https://go.bsky.app/R9kkPYt
- Portland https://go.bsky.app/Sr4hJBr
- Portland! https://go.bsky.app/LLjy23m
- Portland (PDX) https://go.bsky.app/72332w1
- Oregonians https://go.bsky.app/CE5vE5k
- Aggregated event calendar (http://calagator.org/)
- Asks & Offers (http://pdxstartups.switchboardhq.com/)
- Community chat (https://pdxslack.com)
- Local Mastodon instance (https://pdx.social/)
- Pacific Northwest Packaged Food & Beverage Group (https://groups.google.com/g/pnw-packaged-food-bev/about)
- News
- Portland Business Journal (https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/)
- Portland Inno, startup focused news from the PBJ (https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/inno/)
- Silicon Florist (https://siliconflorist.com/ or https://siliconflorist.substack.com/)
- Silicon Forest from The Oregonian (https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/)
- Techstars Startup Digest Portland (https://read.letterhead.email/techstars-portland)
- Jobs
- The Silicon Forest (https://www.thesiliconforest.com/)
- Wellfound - Formerly AngelList Talent (https://angel.co/location/portland)
- Who's hiring on Hacker News (https://hnhiring.com/locations/portland)
- Y Combinator "Work at a startup" (https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs)
Active
- CENTRL Office (http://centrloffice.com/)
- Eastside
- Lake Oswego
- Pearl
- Westend
- Collective Agency (https://collectiveagency.co/)
- Kiln (https://kiln.com/communities/portland/)
- NedSpace (http://nedspace.com/)
- openHAUS (https://www.openhauspdx.com/)
- Place to B (https://www.placetob.co/)
- Rockwood Market Hall (https://www.rockwoodmarkethall.com/rockwood-coworking)
- Spaces (https://www.spacesworks.com/portland/)
- Central Eastside
- Slabtown
- St. John's Landing
- Upstart Collective (https://www.upstartcollective.org/)
- VIDA (https://vidacoworking.com/)
- WeWork (https://www.wework.com/buildings/830-ne-holladay-st--portland--OR)
- Workfrom Portland (https://workfrom.co/portland)
Defunct
- Clean Slate (Defunct)
- Factory @ The Ford (Defunct)
- Forge (Defunct)
- NXT Industries (Defunct)
- Remotely (Defunct)
- WeWork Custom House (Defunct)
- WeWork Pioneer Place (Defunct)
- WeWork Power & Light (Defunct)
Sourced from Calagator (https://calagator.org), Portland Startups Slack events channel (https://pdxslack.com), Eventbrite, Meetup, and more.
- Annual
- OEN Angel Oregon (https://www.oen.org/programs-services/oen-angel-oregon/)
- Bend Venture Conference (http://bendvc.com/)
- Built Festival (https://builtoregon.com)
- FOSSY (Free and Open Source Software Yearly) https://2023.fossy.us/
- Idea-to-Business Lab (https://form.jotform.com/230174892286160)
- OEN Angel Bio & Life Science (https://www.oen.org/aobio23/)
- Open Data Day (https://www.smartcitypdx.com/events/2023/3/3/portland-open-data-day-2023-disco-tech)
- PitchBlack (https://pitchblackpdx.com)
- Pitch Latin0 (https://www.latinofounder.com/)
- Pitch Oregon (https://oregon.tie.org/pitch-oregon-2023/)
- Silicon Forest Tech Summit (https://steamcircuit.com/)
- TechfestNW (Defunct)
- Westside Pitch (https://events.tie.org/Oregon/WestsidePitch)
- Monthly (or more regularly)
- #social_beer (https://meetup.com/social_beer/)
- Accelerate Bio + Digital Health Happy Hour (https://www.meetup.com/accelerate-bio-tech-pdx/)
- AI Portland (https://www.aipdx.info/)
- Blacks in Technology (https://www.meetup.com/pdx-blacks-in-technology-meetup/)
- Bootstrap Startup (https://www.meetup.com/bootstrap-startup/)
- Climate Curious (https://climatecurious.splashthat.com/)
- Demolicious (https://meetup.com/demolicious-portland/)
- First Fridays @ Upstart Collective (https://calagator.org/venues/202397111)
- founder.coffee (https://founder.coffee/)
- Hardware Happy Hour (https://www.meetup.com/hardware-happy-hour-3h-portland/)
- Mentorship Saturdays (https://www.meetup.com/mentorship-saturdays/)
- New to Portland Tech Meetup (https://www.meetup.com/portland-new-in-town-entrepreneurs-group)
- NewTech PDX (https://www.meetup.com/newtechpdx/)
- North Bank Founders Open Coffee (https://www.meetup.com/northbankinno/)
- OEN PubTalks (https://www.oen.org/programs-services/oen-programs-2/pubtalks/)
- Portland Hardware Meetup (https://www.meetup.com/portland-hardware-meetup/)
- Portland Ruby Brigade (https://www.meetup.com/portland-ruby-brigade/)
- ProductTank Portland (https://www.meetup.com/producttank_portland/)
- Rose City Techies (https://www.meetup.com/rose-city-techies/)
- Startup ChatGPT (https://www.meetup.com/startupchatgpt/)
- Startup Your Startup (https://www.meetup.com/startup-your-startup/)
- Techies & Tacos (https://www.meetup.com/techies-and-tacos/)
- TiE Pitch Club (https://oregon.tie.org/programs/pitch-club/)
- VanTechy (https://www.meetup.com/vantechy/)
- Bricks Need Mortar (https://bricks-need-mortar.com/)
- Built Oregon (https://builtoregon.com/)
- Business for a Better Portland (https://bbpdx.org/)
- ChickTech (https://chicktech.org/)
- Community Copack (https://www.communitycopacknw.com/)
- Inclusive Business Resource Network (https://prosperportland.us/portfolio-items/inclusive-business-resource-network/)
- NuProject (https://nuproject.org/)
- Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN) (https://oen.org/)
- Oregon Startup Center (https://oregonstartupcenter.org/)
- PIE (https://piepdx.com)
- Portland Metro Regional Innovation Hub (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sfpspaEIELRI3arzdKCZmx5-ioXVR_xdEx2AxJmdz6s/edit?usp=sharing)
- PREGAME (https://pregamehq.com/)
- Technology Association of Oregon (TAO) (https://www.techoregon.org/)
- TiE Oregon/The Inclusive Entrepreneur Foundation (https://oregon.tie.org/)
- VertueLab (https://vertuelab.org/)
- Xcelerate (https://www.xceleratewomen.org/)
- Zebras Unite (https://zebrasunite.coop/portland)
- Bend Outdoor Worx (http://bendoutdoorworx.com/)
- Cambia Health Solutions (http://www.cambiahealth.com/companies/)
- e1ectr0n (http://www.e1ectr0n.com/)
- Founders’ Pad (Bend, OR) (http://www.founderspad.com/)
- The Initiative (https://www.intheinitiative.com/) (Defunct)
- Jaguar Land Rover Technology Incubator (https://www.jlrtechincubator.com/) (Incubator is defunct, company still here)
- Latino Founders Accelerator (https://latinofounder.com/)
- LEAP Venture Studio (https://www.leapventurestudio.com/) (Moved)
- Nike Valiant Labs
- Oregon Bioscience Incubator (https://otradi.org)
- Oregon Enterprise Blockchain Venture Studio (https://www.oebvs.com/)
- Oregon Startup Center (https://oregonstartupcenter.org/) (formerly known as OTBC (http://otbc.org/))
- PIE (https://piepdx.com/)
- Portland State Business Accelerator (http://www.pdx.edu/accelerator/)
- Startups for All (https://startupsforall.org/)
- Starve Ups (https://www.starveups.com/)
- TiE XL Bootcamp (https://oregon.tie.org/tie-entrepreneur-boot-camp/)
- Vanport Studio (https://www.vanportstudio.com/)
- Cascade Seed Fund (https://cascadeseedfund.com/)
- Coughdrop Capital (https://www.coughdropcapital.com/)
- Elevate Capital (http://elevate.vc/)
- Founders First Fund (TBD) (Background: https://medium.com/@josh_carter/founders-first-fund-lots-of-false-starts-9827339d6d3a)
- Ideaship (https://ideashipfund.com)
- Oregon Sports Angels (https://oregonsportsangels.org/)
- Oregon Venture Fund (https://oregonventurefund.com/) (formerly known as Oregon Angel Fund)
- Portland Seed Fund (http://www.portlandseedfund.com/)
- Prohibited Capital (https://www.prohibitedcapital.com/)
- Roadster Capital (https://www.roadstercapital.com/)
- Rogue Venture Partners (http://roguevp.com/)
- Rogue Women (https://roguewmn.com/)
- Seven Peaks Ventures (http://sevenpeaksventures.com/)
- Stargazer Ventures (https://www.stargazervc.com/)
- The BFM Fund™ (https://www.bfm.fund/)
- TiE Angels (http://oregon.tie.org/tie-angels-oregon/)
- Voyager Capital (http://www.voyagercapital.com/)