

Why Portland is a great place for startups - moses1400
http://www.centernetworks.com/why-youll-love-portland-oregon

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marcusestes
You know what Portland does _really_ well? Not start-ups, not yet. It has
fostered an amazing array of web geek user groups. Check out this list of
goings on in the local tech scene, and note that the calendaring app itself
was developed by a collaborative effort that spawned from a user group:

<http://calagator.org/>

And the quality of discourse at some of these local meet-ups is astonishingly
progressive and technical. It feels like Portland's start-up scene isn't the
best indicator of our technical culture and potential. Our traditional start-
ups stand in the long shadow of Silicon Valley, and may expend too much energy
wondering when someone will swoop down and invest.

Portland will make a name for itself by doing business in a much different
manner than is done in the valley. The absence of venture capital will force
us to invent better models.

BTW, have you guys seen Urban Edibles? It's a collaboratively developed wiki
detailing where one can find food growing in Portland's urban areas.
<http://urbanedibles.org/>

My roommate used it to make 3 jars of golden plum jam entirely from foraged
fruit.

~~~
Sam_Odio
Does SF have anything like calagator? If not, someone should build it.

~~~
undees
It probably goes without saying, but the source behind the calagator.org site
is freely available: <http://github.com/calagator>

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jasonkester
Portland has this almost unhealthy obsession with getting itself "On The Map".

\- If we just build this convention center, that'll put us Portland The Map.

\- If we can build a successful light rail system, that will put Portland On
The Map.

\- If we could only attract a major league baseball team, that would put
Portland On The Map.

There's a Map out there somewhere, and Portland _really_ wants to be on it.
Pick any thing that any big city has, and Portland will want one too, because
that will be the thing that finally pushes it over the edge to where it is
respected as a "real city."

This article sounds like more of the same. There are Startup Hubs to be had,
and P-town needs one. Because that'll put it on the map.

Don't get me wrong. I lived in Portland for almost 10 years, and it's a great
place. But it's got like 1/10 the population of Seattle, and I think that
gives it a bit of a complex. I wish it would chill out and settle into its
role of a comfortable small city where you can live and work downtown.

That's all you need to be, Portland. Stop trying to grow up too fast.

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grinich
Portland really is a great city, and I think it's a lot calmer than Silicon
Valley. Although your local pub might not be filled with a dozen angel
investors, Portland _has_ embraced the young startup culture. With groups like
OMSI, DorkbotPDX, Cubespace, and recently TechShop, it's a haven for hackers
of all types. Not to mention a great music scene, delicious food trucks, and
the best microbreweries in the nation.

The crucial thing it's missing is a large technical school. And that's likely
the reason it will never be able to touch Silicon Valley in terms of startups.

~~~
seshagiric
"The crucial thing it's missing is a large technical school".

100 miles south of Portland is the OSU. I hope they do something about this.

~~~
Adam503
Not true. Portland State has a decent Engineering/CS school that's growing
like a weed. It's just going to take a little while for it to build a bigger
rep.

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lyime
Yes and No.

I am currently in Portland and we started our company here (Mugasha) about a
year ago. Cost wise, its much cheaper to live here which definitely reduces
burn-rate. The community is pretty cool, lots of awesome people who are
constantly throwing local tech events. Lot of designers and developers
(creatives) in the area.

What is missing? For one. Statup types. Most people I have come across in
Portland don't seem to be the type that would build companies. People seem to
be working on mostly side-projects. The community is very "social media"
driven and there is not a lot of chatter going around on about how do you
build businesses?

Second, would be. Mentorship. It has been fairly difficult for us to find
people who have been there and done it. People who have built companies in the
past. There are no VC's here. Very few angels here, at least angels who are
focused in the web/tech space.

I think Portland is a great place to start a project. Potentially meet co-
founders. Although, It's hard for me to say that I would continue to build my
company here.

~~~
bjclark
I'd like to start a group for "Startup Types". Interested?

~~~
lyime
Go for it.

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arthurk
This years DjangoCon (conference from 8th - 10th September; sprints from 10th
to 12th sep) is in Portland, OR. It's my first time travelling to USA and I'm
really looking forward to this :-)

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petermarks
I grew up here and moved back after college in CA, so I'm a little biased.
It's a great place to live. The tech scene is really inviting and impressively
sophisticated as others have mentioned. The Ruby group where that calagator
app was developed is superb, as is DorkbotPDX. I find it substantially cheaper
and easier to get around here than LA/SF since it's not that big of a city
(strict urban growth boundaries), it's reasonably dense and it's public
transportation is well above average.

While it's easy to find people who are passionate about technology and
building things, I don't feel it has the culture of ambition that's so
prevalent in CA. Maybe it's because people are happy to be doing things that
don't cost anything, like enjoying the outdoors or local music scene, and are
less self conscious about what they drive.

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donw
I've actually been considering going up for a few weeks, because California's
tax structure, high cost of living, and overall lack of decent public
infrastructure is seriously unfavorable to small business.

~~~
dpifke
Oregon has no sales tax, and as such its income and property taxes are much
higher than many states. This is especially true in Multnomah County (where
Portland is located), due to county income and business taxes on top of state.
See, i.e.

[http://credc.sterling.net/business/infocenter/Clark-
Multnoma...](http://credc.sterling.net/business/infocenter/Clark-Multnomah-
Washington%20Tax%20Comparison%20-%20Jan%202009.pdf)

I've lived in both San Francisco and Portland, and anecdotally I found
Portland's infrastructure and services to be far inferior to those in San
Francisco: worse roads (climate doesn't help), more homeless, more difficult
city bureaucracy, etc. This is of course somewhat subjective, so YMMV.

Personally, if I were to move from the Bay Area due to cost of living and
taxes, I'd be looking at Texas.

~~~
kingkongrevenge
Arguably the real reason many people are keen to move to Portland, especially
from California, is that it's the whitest city in North America.

~~~
icey
I presume by "arguably" you mean "I have a bizarrely distorted worldview and
therefore I'm going to assert this fact that I have just produced from the
depths of my colon."

~~~
kingkongrevenge
No, actually it was the articles about white flight from California I've
encountered over the last few years.

~~~
icey
And the reason those articles stated was that people were leaving for "whiter
cities"? I think that's a stretch. The last I heard a lot of people were
leaving California because the white collar jobs were leaving California. As
I'm sure you're aware, there are more white people working white-collar jobs,
so maybe that's the reason, eh?

If those articles said that people were leaving because California wasn't
"white enough" or whatever, I'd love to see them.

------
callmeed
I think we've been through this recently:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=732923>

(sent from the Sheraton Portland Airport)

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brianobush
I am in Portland now and have been for the last nine years. I would say that
pdx is a great place for startups if you are a hardware company and/or a
venture related to Intel. Other than you will be hard pressed to find
qualified SW engineers that are actually can write something else other than
drivers. Then there are the occasional VB slackers or .NET potheads that do
contract work.

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speek
How are y'all dealing with the water? Is it an obnoxious drive to the beach?

~~~
jedediah
The drive is fine, but it's not like anyone actually gets in the water once
they get there. It's far too cold.

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joshuarr
I drank the kool-aid. :) Goes great with the doughnuts.

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dshah
I like Portland a lot, but I'll assert that:

[X] is a great place for startups.

Where [X] = wherever you happen to be.

~~~
icey
I disagree with that; as soon as you need one other person who is local,
location does matter.

~~~
curoi
Also: as soon as you need funding, location does matter. In-person access to
investment shouldn't be discounted.

