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BankSimple moves to Portland
- dminor 15y agoPortland seems to be attracting a lot of hackers lately, so it will be interesting to see if the startup scene and investment money follow.
- ronnier 15y agoI don't understand why, other than being among other hackers. I recently visited there and was really disgusted with the place.
- dminor 15y agoWhat disgusted you?
- ronnier 15y agoThe place was filthy and dilapidated. Seeing people covered in tattoos and piercings gets old and tiresome for some reason. It's just not the place for me, but awesome for those who fit in there.
- dminor 15y ago> The place was filthy and dilapidated I can't say it seems any more so than other large cities I've visited, like SF, Seattle, or LA. What are you comparing it to? > Seeing people covered in tattoos and piercings gets old and tiresome for some reason. Yeah, if this isn't your thing the Portland might be wrong for you ;) Still, there are suburbs and such where this isn't the norm.
- arjn 15y agodunno what you're talking about. Portland is not filthy and dilapidated.
- tolmasky 15y agoAre you sure you're thinking of Portland? Portland is consistently named one of (if not THE) America's cleanest cities. http://www.google.com/search?q=americas+cleanest+city http://www.google.com/search?q=americas+cleanest+city What are you comparing it against?
- ronnier 15y agoPlano, Texas (and surrounding areas: Frisco, North Dallas, Richardson, Allen). I live in Seattle now. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plano,_Texas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plano,_Texas
- tolmasky 15y agoSo let me get his straight, you are comparing Plano, a town with a population of roughly 250,000 people, that was named the wealthiest city in America (per your own link), with Portland. I might as well compare it to my tiny hometown in orange county, of course I'm going to reach a ridiculous conclusion about it's employment level and cleanliness (and tattoo level?) I think you would hate SF btw.
- ronnier 15y agoNo, I'm comparing it with Plano and surrounding areas, which is larger than Portland. There are aspects of SF I like, I've been. The problem is the housing costs. It's just much cheaper to live in the DFW area. And not only is it cheaper, you can buy a new home that's much larger compared to what one could buy in Portland or SF. Even in Seattle, the houses here are very old, small, and expensive. Some people like that style of home, it's just not me. What I do like about Portland, SF, and Seattle is the geek culture.
- thos3000 15y agoMan, if Portland was anything like Plano, I'd leave here faster than anyone. I grew up in Austin with cousins in Plano and while it was certainly clean, it was the most soulless, character-less place I have EVER been. Thank FSM we're not anything remotely like that place.
- bkudria 15y ago> Seeing people covered in tattoos and piercings gets old and tiresome for some reason. "For some reason"? This sort of willful cognitive dissonance is always fascinating to see in the wild. Here's a hint: it's either you, or it's them.
- kemiller 15y agoI guarantee that if you like what Plano represents, you'll hate what Portland represents, and that the feeling is mutual. But you'd probably like Lake Oswego or Beaverton. I'm surprised you like Seattle, for that matter, unless you're actually living in the suburbs and not telling us.
- Pakourama 15y agoProbably the rampant unemployment, underemployment, low paying jobs if you can actually get one, and the huge homeless population which is more a reflection on how abysmal the city and local economy is than those unfortunate enough to be homeless themselves. Don't forget the nonstop rain and suicide hotline numbers posted on every bridge or parking garage higher than 20 feet, since nearly everyone is cranked out on antidepressants or else they'd be leaping into the Willamette river with cement shoes on too. When I lived there and had visitors from out of the area, everyone commented on how depressing the place was. Not a good place to live or raise a family. If you like the Pacific Northwest, go with Seattle, yes the weather is still crap but the city is vibrant, has real jobs with real wages, and you can actually build a career there.
- larrykubin 15y agoWow, can't believe all of the negative comments on here towards Portland. My wife and I moved here a couple months ago and can't stop thinking about how much we love the place. We were just joking last night about how if we listened to people on the internet, we would have never made such a great move out of fear we would be depressed and living in the streets. We've had a completely opposite experience from the points listed here: 1) Impossible to find a job? My wife just applied to 3 companies and got offers from all 3 within one month of us getting here, all paying equal or higher to her previous jobs -- and we knew literally zero people when we arrived. 2) Filthy and disgusting? Sorry, I've seen some disgusting shit (literally) on the streets in some of the other cities mentioned in this thread. People have tattoos and piercings? I'm surprised that bothers anyone. Who cares. 3) Rain? Sure, it rains. Not many cities have perfect weather. Where I just moved from (Austin), it has been 105 degrees for 70 days straight. That can be pretty depressing. Since we've been here, we've gone to O'Reilly's OSCon, went to multiple beer festivals, went to multiple block parties, went to the coast, visited Cannon Beach, Rockaway Beach, Cape Meares, went to the Columbia River Gorge, saw many waterfalls, saw the Shins perform live in a small bar, also Phife from A Tribe Called Quest. Frequently visit amazing coffee houses and breweries, went to a neighborhood picnic, ate at a jillion food carts for less than $5, worked at a free coworking space downtown, walked/jogged/hiked in many beautiful parks, and browsed badass bookstores. I like the food better, the public transportation is better, the rent is affordable, it is bike friendly, there are beautiful flowers in the neighborhood, the people are chill. Depressing? Not at all.
- arjn 15y agoYou're just trolling right ? Portland is a great place. And its good even though Oregon (in general) has had an unemployment problem for longer than most other states.
- jvoorhis 15y agoIt's already here. Our company (AppFog) was founded in Portland and we just secured our Series B. We have offices in the same building as JanRain and yet another co-working space. In Old Town or the Pearl District, there are startups on every other block. Interestingly, our biggest challenge right now is recruiting. If you're considering moving to Portland, we could use you. http://blog.phpfog.com/2011/06/10/we-are-hiring/ http://blog.phpfog.com/2011/06/10/we-are-hiring/
- dminor 15y agoThere's definitely increased activity, but I think it falls short of being a scene (I say this as someone looking on from Hillsboro). I guess I'm looking for a larger VC to set up shop, rather than visit from somewhere else.
- shrikant 15y agoOT, and completely uninformed question: how's the scene in recruiting straight from Portland State University? (I ask out of idle curiosity, because I once had the opportunity to do an MS in CS there a while (6 years) back, and I passed up because I couldn't take on the financial burden - please drop me an email if you feel this might threadjack the discussion here.)
- jvoorhis 15y agoWe haven't tried recruiting from PSU ourselves, but we probably should. Galois (http://corp.galois.com/ http://corp.galois.com/) recruits students from PSU's CS program. My colleagues from PSU's mathematics dept have also been a pleasure to work with.
- thos3000 15y agoYup, Galois is the most obvious direct recruiter from PSU, but there are others, to be sure, but not enough. I've got a few friends in the MS and PHd programs at PSU and they certainly don't have people beating down their doors, I'm sorry to say. It would certainly be good to see more direct recruiting and internship opportunities opening up.
- jgmmo 15y agoI live in Eugene OR. I am dying for a Ruby users group, or coworking spot, or anything! There is no sign of a tech scene at all here!
- jordanlev 15y agoUmm... Eugene is not Portland. You should come on up to a rubypdx meetings some time -- really great people and almost always interesting topics. http://pdxruby.org/ http://pdxruby.org/
- MatthewPhillips 15y agoStill waiting on that invite I signed up for what seems like a year ago. Can't leave Fifth Third soon enough.
- thinkcomp 15y agoBankSimple isn't a bank! What I don't understand is the fact that all of BankSimple's customers (banks) are in...New York...
- al3x 15y agoWe're not a bank, but we view our customers as being the people who would use traditional banks. We partner with banks, and those banks are located around the country. That said, our processing technology partner, TxVia, is located in NYC, as are several of our investors.
- thinkcomp 15y agoI don't know your plans, but if banks (or Fiserv or FIS) are the ones paying you for a license to your front-end, then they are your customers. End users are the banks' customers, and in whatever contractual agreements you end up signing, based on my experience, the banks and their regulators will make absolutely sure you know that. Also, you should change your name now before the regulators make you. Consumers think that financial companies with "bank" in their names are banks.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- reustle 15y agoBankSimple == Duke Nukem Forever
- heyrhett 15y agoDuke Nukem Forever, you mean that established product with nearly half a million customers?
- KirinDave 15y agoJust downrate the unfair comparison and move on. There is no way to positively spin a comparison to Duke Nukem Forever. Don't even try.
- thedjpetersen 15y agoFalse
- thedjpetersen 15y agoCome on guys, its humor, he used "==" instead of "="
- ry0ohki 15y agoI really love Portland, and I'm sure it's a great new home for BankSimple, but I am a little shocked that a company would move to a city where literally everyone in the company would have to be relocated. I've seen companies move to SF or NY before because of VC raised, but this is almost the opposite!
- skrebbel 15y agoWell, I heard that my milkman's aunt heard from a friend that Alex Payne said he would quit unless everybody moved over to become his neighbour!
- al3x 15y agoCute. But, actually, if my co-founders had decided to move the company to another city entirely, I would have happily moved. Portland happens to be a good fit for what we're doing, particular from a customer service hiring perspective.
- skrebbel 15y agoIn fact, you made me wonder: how the hell do you determine that one city is better than another for "customer service hiring"? I don't imagine there's indexes for these sorts of things. Or education programmes for customer service people, at all. Or a single "best profile", even?
- pbreit 15y agoMaybe it's simple experience and observation? Do those still count anymore? Does everything have to be written up in BusinessWeek before it becomes assertable?
- darushimo 15y ago" It already has a small, five-person development office in Portland's Pearl District, led by Payne, who moved here last year. " - http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2011/08/promising_ny_startup_banksimple_moves_hq_to_portla.html http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2011/08/p...
- Pakourama 15y agoPortland? WTF? Why? It's a hipster dump. Rains 9 months a year, has 12% perpetual unemployment, plus the USA's largest resident homeless population, which isn't terribly shocking given the awful job market. But, if you can actually get a job the salary will be circa 1994 and yet the property and rent prices are in fantasy land stuck in the 2006 housing bubble. Oh, plus the city has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation. Great place to live if you like being wet, underemployed, and depressed. Glad I got out of that dump, if you want to have a future you need to be in Boston, NYC, or The Valley.
- waxpancake 15y agoWe're glad you got out too. :)
- endlessvoid94 15y agoThe company is moving there. The company isn't trying to get a job like you were. The company is actually CREATING jobs there.
- fatpanther 15y agoPortland unemployment rate - 9.2%; United States - 9.3% (source: http://bls.gov/web/metro/laummtrk.htm http://bls.gov/web/metro/laummtrk.htm) Real estate prices are definitely down from 2006; maybe not as much percentage-wise as California, but the equivalent house here still costs much less than one in Boston, NYC, or The Valley. The rain can get you down sometimes but summers are fantastic (and dry). I feel I have a high quality of life here without having to sit in a car for 12% or more of my waking hours. Not that I don't get annoyed by something or another here from time to time. Every city has its own benefits & burdens.
- dreamdu5t 15y agoLoL, like Boston, NYC, or the Valley are any less of a joke. All of America is same sprawling hollow suburbia.
- binarycleric 15y agoVisit Pittsburgh someday. We have some hollow suburbia but we don't have the typical endless suburban sprawl. We do have a fair amount of hipsters though, just a warning.
- heyrhett 15y agoThe dream of the 90's is alive in portland: http://www.hulu.com/watch/205428/portlandia-i-dream-of-the-90s http://www.hulu.com/watch/205428/portlandia-i-dream-of-the-9...
- dailo10 15y agoPortland is basically where San Francisco was at 20 years ago. In terms of a tech hub, the only thing missing is a stronger university presence.
- Pakourama 15y agoLOL, no
- dminor 15y agoThe Bay Area had many large defense contractors employing a lot of engineers. I don't think that should be underestimated.
- harryh 15y agoThis is not true. There is a history of technology entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley going back (at least) 60 years. There are a great many pieces of human infrastructure that exist in SF that do not exist in Portland from the largest collection of technology VCs & Angels in the world, to lawyers that understand corporate structure and stock options, to bankers that understand IPOs, and of course thousands and thousands of engineers. A 20 year difference if a vast understatement.
- al3x 15y agoEven though I guess I'm supposed to be the one sticking up for Portland in these comments, I have to agree with this. I don't think Portland or any other city is likely to be the next Silicon Valley. I also don't think that's a bad thing for some types of businesses.
- mathattack 15y agoFrom anecdotal experience, it does seem like Portland is drawing a lot of talented folks. It is definitely a "bike to work, complain at city hall and drink obscure beer" crowd, but is that such a bad thing?
- pnathan 15y ago"bike to work, complain at city hall and drink obscure beer" Sounds great to me.
- mathattack 15y agoIndeed. It appeals to the hacker ethic. And the Green ethic. But not to the SUV and Strip Mall ethic. Or the Zenga (sp?) tie ethic.
- LiveTheDream 15y agoDoes this have anything at all to do with the new California money transmission laws?
- al3x 15y agoNope.
- nivertech 15y agoCan this be related to the fact that Oregon has no Sales Tax? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_States#Oregon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_State...
- scottkrager 15y agoProbably not. It's actually a very exit-unfriendly state from a tax standpoint. Very high state income-tax rate and capital gains are taxed at your state income level as well. However, it's pretty sweet to pay the price listed at stores and restaurants.
- al3x 15y agoNope.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- bh42222 15y agoPortland is a great town.... but seriously gastro-pubs are silly, get some real restaurants people.
- ironchef 15y agothe portland area has some amazing restaurants, such as: Beast, Pok Pok, Nostrana, Le Pigeon, and Gruner. Those are all beard nominees. Not one of them is a gastropub. Have you not been to any of the above? If not, I'd suggest you get to "some real restaurants"
- bh42222 15y agoBeard nominees are expensive. All up scale restaurants are "real restaurants". But beneath them (while still well above fast food) are mid level restaurants. In Portland this market niche seems almost entirely dedicated to "gastro" pubs. The very fact that they are called "gastro pubs" suggest people are aware there is something lacking in mid and low end (but not fast food) restaurants.
- ironchef 15y agoBut that's not what you said. You stated "but seriously gastro-pubs are silly, get some real restaurants people". I provided several excellent counterexamples. You then state "All up scale restaurants are "real restaurants"". That's poor logic. Portland has real restaurants. Some of them are expensive. You then state mid level restaurants in portland are almost entirely dedicated to gastro pubs. Do you want me to debunk that as well? Very well, I'd suggest you look at: del inti (italian) gilda's (italian) doc (italian) a cena (italian) de carli (technically beaverton) st. jack vindalho meriwether's oba etc. Portland has a vibrant restaurant scene full of "real restaurants". It's not just high end. If you want more than gastropubs, seek out more than gastropubs. To be fair, I wasn't that much a fan of the gastropubs in portland. A couple were ok (ned ludd and the victory were the only two i remember), but i've never been a big fan of gastropubs anyways....
- al3x 15y ago
- mosburger 15y agoAs someone from Portland, Maine, I always get a little miffed when people don't specify that this is Portland, Oregon. Yeah, Portland, Oregon's metro area is about 4x the size of that of Maine's largest city, but it's not like it's an order of magnitude or anything. Maybe I'm just jealous that there's more going on there than here. :(
- dmix 15y agoThen isn't mentioning "Portland, Maine" the better requirement?
- blackguardx 15y agoShould everyone in California have to specify that they live in California the state, rather than this place: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California,_Pennsylvania http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California,_Pennsylvania
- fuzionmonkey 15y agoIt's like somebody in Moscow, Idaho getting upset that people don't refer to it as Moscow, Russia. Face it, Portland, Oregon is the real Portland.
- pnathan 15y agoWoah, someone actually knows Moscow, Idaho exists. +1, sir.
- bfe 15y agoPortland is one of my favorite American cities. But if you're freely choosing somewhere to relocate to, I would think Seattle would be a tough competitor. It's nearby, has a bigger tech community, and has Washington's zero state income tax versus Oregon with the highest state income tax in the country at 11% for the top bracket.
- m0nastic 15y agoWhen I was out in California, my company closed up our Santa Cruz office very suddenly. A large contingent of people working there decided to move to just outside of Portland (Vancouver Washington) mainly because of the fact that by living in Washington you wouldn't pay any income tax, and by adjoining Portland, you could do all your shopping and avoid paying sales tax. I opted not to relocate there with everyone else (it seemed silly to move somewhere just for tax reasons), but I imagine there are at least a fair number of people who use that scenario.
- bfe 15y agoI think it is kind of silly to move somewhere just for tax reasons. I've spent nearly my whole career so far in relatively higher tax jurisdictions, but it's typically way more than worth it for what you get with the location. And for example I'd much rather live and work in the Pearl district of Portland than in Vancouver, Washington. But it seems like Seattle versus Portland is anomalously competitive.
- MrVitaliy 15y agoWith average traffic/distance and ~25mpg, it takes about $6 for a round trip from Vancouver, WA to Portland, OR. Which would save you ~$4 on a $100 item. However, for some reason, lots of people in general were fleeing CA at the peak of housing bubble.
- bfe 15y agoThat was a "~" too far for HN. It's a 19.8 mile round trip, and gas was $3.71 yesterday in Vancouver, Washington, so making the trip in your 25 mpg vehicle would cost $2.94 in gas.
- Zimahl 15y agoThe Pearl District in Portland is nice and all but I'll never understand why you would want an office there, especially if you aren't a business that requires a trendy, hip image. A web-based business with no front door is going to pay a TON per square foot just to be downtown. Is it the address they are after? The need to impress investors? It's already expensive enough to run a business, why burden yourself and your employees with a completely irrelevant location? I do live and work here and love the city, I just don't get the appeal of working downtown. The company I currently work for left downtown before I joined and I'm glad they did. Not many people live downtown and getting to and from work every day would take longer for me (and many others) than it does now. Not to mention an added cost of parking or taking mass transit.
- MrVitaliy 15y agoMany people live in Goose Hollow (87% of them are renters) and the Fareless zone covers most of the transit distance. I find that many people who live in downtown simply do not own a car, which seems almost impossible to function in this day and age.
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- al3x 15y agoWe asked our employees here, and even the ones who live on the East Side enjoy working in the Pearl. Plus, we like that there are other startups in this neighborhood, PIE (the incubator), etc. etc.
- cancelbubble 15y agoAwesome to see so much Portland activity here on HN! If anyone is looking for a front-end developer, hit me up, I'll be leaving my cushy Enterprise-land gig soon (bored). cancelbubble "at" that gmail place.