
Portland Seed Fund seeks inspiration from Y Combinator grads - turoczy
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/04/portland_seed_fund_looks_to_ca.html
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mikey_p
Feels like most of the people in Portland need to figure out what they want
first.

At their software industry summit, after a long series of surveys, the
takeaway was that people in Portland value quality of life over making more
money. That's great, but that's not what's going to drive serious
entrepreneurs to Portland. So I'm not sure why this would lead the idea that
we need more funding here for startups. And to top that, the Portland Seed
Fund along with most of the other funding networks in Oregon are pay to apply.

At a the recent UpdatePDX event[1] one of the comments was "Several people
commented on how lovely Portland was – even in the rain. But damn, they wish
they could hire the types of people they needed here."[2]

The conclusion that I keep coming back to seems to be "There aren't enough
people here ready to dive into a startup, yet everyone thinks we need more
startups and likes that idea, but we value our quality of life more anyway."
I'm afraid that this is just a huge setup for more pay to apply and pay to
mentor programs designed to profit off this notion that we need to have more
startups in Portland. Call me skeptical, but I just don't see all the
movements in Portland leading anywhere significant.

[1]<http://www.meetup.com/updatepdx/events/16416694/>
[2][http://www.chesnok.com/daily/2011/04/05/updatepdx-nosql-
oper...](http://www.chesnok.com/daily/2011/04/05/updatepdx-nosql-operational-
complexity-and-hiring/)

P.S. And I'm saying this as someone who just moved his services business into
Portland.

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hugh3
One thing Portland really doesn't have compared to the other West Coast cities
is a good university. (Sorry Portland State, it's true). I don't see that
being fixed anytime soon, so that's always going to cause a problem for
recruiting new grads.

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jranck
I have to disagree here both Oregon and Oregon State are underrated
universities. I'm a bit biased towards Oregon State as I graduated from there
but their Engineering and Science colleges do a fantastic job.

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hugh3
Neither is actually in (or especially close to) Portland, though, right?

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michaelleland
What should the role be of (local) public money in private investments?

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jranck
Good question, does anyone know if they're using public funds as a loan
instrument or are they taking equity in these companies?

