These guys know small businesses drive the economy and in Portland that is just what we need now, being known as a pretty slow start up scene when compared with fast runners Seattle and San Francisco. They may not seem so glamorous to the naked eye but these small start ups need investors to get them off the ground and angel investors in Portland have not been so quick to spread their wings.

Oregon Business Magazine has just published the article to explain who is out there and what they are doing to get these small businesses and startups funded and on a steady growth pattern. The young business leaders featured here bring with them a wealth of new ideas to “ignite the startup scene”. These are the guys who are investing in Portland’s small startups not only financially but with new ideas and dynamic views on how to succeed.

Find out who they are and what they have been doing.

“A LOT of good cyclists come out of Portland just because you can ride year-round,” said Bruce Rogers, an athletic-shoe designer visiting from his home in Hailey, Idaho. “I love coming back because I love the biking, no matter what time of year it is. More than fitness, it’s a fun outlet. As long as you have decent rainwear you can ride in any weather.”

Careering through streets on a bicycle in Portland, Ore., this time of year can be an easy weekend adventure that mixes showers, sunbursts, cafes and a robust bicycle culture. And equipped with a sturdy rain jacket, booties, fenders and a bike map (a waterproof version that folds to the size of a credit card is handy), visitors can enjoy the city the way locals do.

Check out the rest of the New York Times article here »

Our cause is to engage with software freelancers, engineers, tech entrepreneurs, interactive freelancers, bloggers, mobile app enthusiasts, anyone related to the tech industry in Oregon and let them know that SAO finally has something pretty valuable besides great networking and events – SAO is one of the only associations that now offers Healthcare coverage to single employee companies or organizations – yes, freelancers can finally get affordable medical coverage thru SAO (thanks to Regence Bluecross Blueshield for getting flexible with us to make this happen).  When SAO President Harvey Matthews mentioned a year ago that SAO was looking into having this unique health coverage come to fruition at a Bar Camp, he got a standing ovation.  Let’s hope that kind of goodwill is still there in the software community in today’s economy.  To learn more about the healthcare plan, go to SAO’s site >>.

Here are a few of the events we’ll see you (thanks Scott Kveton for heading the charge on this) – source for these events and more is http://calagator.org:
** Lunch 2.0 – AboutUs
** Ignite Portland 5 – 2/19
* RecentChangesCamp – 2/20 – 2/22
** Lunch 2.0 – OpenSourcery
** Innotech – 4/22 – 4/23
** BarCamp Portland – 5/1 – 5/3
* Webvisions – 5/21 – 5/22
** Open Source Bridge (the OSCON replacement) – 6/17 – 6/19

Also: we will try to make some of the Beer & Blog events that happen every Friday, 4-6pm, at the Green Dragon.

Check out the article: Oregon Finds a Counterweight in Software

By JUSTIN SCHECK
June 9, 2008; Page A3

PORTLAND, Ore. — Hardware-manufacturing layoffs in the Northwest’s tech industry echo cutbacks that hammered it early this decade, but this time the blow has been absorbed by the scores of software and online-services companies that have sprouted in the past few years.

Old-line tech manufacturing is retrenching because of global outsourcing and fierce competition — the same factors that shuttered Northwest chip and computer factories starting around 2001. Then, laid-off technology workers in states such as Oregon had few other tech-job options. This time, there is a parallel tech sector, including many small start-ups, to take on some of those skilled workers.

See the full article on wsj.com >>

However, it is flawed logic to look at giving back to the community as an expense. Here’s why:

• Gain awareness to large groups of prospective clients. Customer acquisition costs are much lower when a business and its customer have a shared connection and shared values.
• Community involvement creates a halo effect of positive association to an altruistic organization with shared values.
• Employee involvement in non-profit organizations deepens the emotional connection and loyalty between the employee and the company.
• Employee recruiting is a whole lot easier with greater local awareness and the positive association with your business doing the right thing (especially in the younger generation of recent college grads).
• Serving on non-profit committees and Board of Directors gives you access to some of the smartest local business execs that can give valuable entrepreneurial business advice you can’t get anywhere else.
• Public relations and marketing is a lot easier locally when people are genuinely routing for you.
• Finally, doing the right thing for your community is the whole point of being in business in the first place.

If you don’t run a company built on a socially-conscious business model, the least you can do is get involved in your community and I guarantee you will have a huge return on investment for that effort.

And of course a big hats off to the whole eROI team for the amount of work, drive and love they bring to the table each and every day (and many late nights).

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Ending the week on a high note and excited to crack the Top 10 next year for this award category. Who know what else might be on the horizon for us and our clients.

Thanks to everyone and come to the party July 20th at the eROI offices if you are in Portland, Oregon. We can celebrate together then. Until then… back to great ideas, great work, great partners/clients and the best team.

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You know Web 2.0 is mainstream when Colbert starts doing his schtick on Wikipedia. But will our great state of Oregon ever truly be mainstream?

http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/yankeetest.html