
First month as a start-up founder in Portland, OR - turoczy
http://trekdek.wordpress.com/2011/05/08/first-month-as-a-start-up-founder-in-portland-or/
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fearless
Are you moving to Portland to found a startup or to look for a job? Your
experiences would be very different depending on which one it is.

If you're looking for a job, going to tech events and networking meetups is
great idea. If you're building a startup, all you need to do is go head down
and work on a product/prototype, which you can do anywhere, at least until you
get to the stage where you're actively fundraising.

Finding a cofounder will be a lot easier if you already have a prototype/early
version to show that you're not just an "idea guy".

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bruce511
For the non-programmer this is something of a catch 22. Unfortunately ideas
guy's are a dime a dozen. And it really just isn't hard to have new ideas. The
hard part is separating the good ideas from the bad ones.

For a programmer you can usually mock up something in a weekend - or maybe a
month - enough to either validate or kill the idea. Unfortunately the non-
programmer typically has to; a) find a programmer b) explain the idea c) hang
around while it gets implemented then d) when it doesn't work, throw some new
parameter into the mix and repeat from step (b).

All to often the ideas guy just keeps having ideas on how to turn things
around. So a bad idea can have a life all of its own. Meanwhile the programmer
of course isn't getting paid, and there seems to be no light at the end of the
tunnel.

So catch 22 - ideas are nothing without the programmer - the programmer would
rather work on his own ideas.

If I had a nickle for each person who comes to me with an idea for fixing
credit-card fraud, or for eradicating spam, or for some other boil-the-ocean
scheme, well, I'd have $1.75...

Basically a founder needs to have either cash, or a skill that an early
startup needs. And unfortunately no, it doesn't need a lawyer, or a salesman,
or a marketing bloke, or, dare I say it, an "ideas guy".

I'm not sure what the OP was - but it's hard to convince a programmer when all
you bring to the table is an idea.

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pstack
I didn't see taxes mentioned. Portland is a fantastic place for technology,
but you're looking at very high taxation and the city government is rather
anti-business. Great place to live, otherwise, though. Especially if episodes
of Portlandia don't turn you off (because after 30 years, I can tell you that
they're not far off from the truth).

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Mcoates
Agree on the taxes and anit-business attitude of city/county govt (but then
again, who elects these people?). Advice I heard once: Start the business in
Oregon when profits are nil, move to Washington when you start making serious
money as an individual.

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robinduckett
Are you a Northampton Townie who got the irresistible urge to migrate to to
Portland, Oregon?

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dmd149
Ha I'm gettig a lot more views when you posted this.

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turoczy
It's a really solid post. And it's dead on about the pluses and minuses of
Portland. Well done.

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brianobush
as a Portlander myself, I would agree entirely. Many of the individuals in
tech industry here are from CA and came here to live not work. Though I found
you can have a successful startup and a good life as well. Just balance and in
PDX you are more or less forced to balance.

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sandwiches
The dream of the 90s is alive.. in Portland.

~~~
scottkrager
Put a bird on it.

