6 ms·

Portland, Oregon, is (one of the) most entrepreneurial towns in the world

42 points by markbao 17y ago

kailoa 17y ago
His definition of entrepreneur is different from what we normally think of tech startups, but even for tech startups, Portland surely ranks high. I've lived there and at one point was a late state startup employee. It's got the moxie and atmosphere for it, but it still doesn't have the surrounding ecosystem like Silicon Valley or even Boston. That being said, in my list of best cities for startups, Portland makes a good case for 3rd place. Quality of living is super high. Combined with a reasonable cost of living, it's a fantastic place to live.
- mediaman 17y ago
  I think Silicon Valley, Boston, Seattle, and NYC are in the top four. Except for the Valley, people argue about which city is in which spot for 2-4 (they all have their niches), but it seems unlikely that Portland -- although it's a wonderful place to live and a solid runner-up -- could make a solid case for the top four.
jsackmann 17y ago
My reaction is mostly personal: This is f'ing awesome. I've lived in NYC for most of the last decade after growing up in the northwest, and I've had the urge to move...somewhere. Just in the last few days, I came to terms with the fact that while I didn't really want to move "back home," Portland is the ideal place. Decent-size place, nice climate year-round, plenty of culture, great variety of stuff to do within a day's drive or less ... it is kind of a mini-bay area without the tech tilt in many ways. I grew up in a mid-sized town several hours away, but many of the more interesting people I knew in high school have ended up there. Added bonus: If you live in Vancouver, WA (north suburbs of PDX) and work from home (or just in WA), there's no state income tax.
- davidw 17y ago
  > I grew up in a mid-sized town several hours away, Eugene? That's where I'm from. > nice climate year-round, Let's be honest, if it were, then it would be inundated with people because it is a nice place in so many other ways. It's not, though, IMO; it's gray and drizzly from October to early summer (and usually stops raining the 5th of July). If people don't mind that, it's a great place, though, although it does tend towards laid back rather than busy/active. IMO you could do a lot worse.
  - jsackmann 17y ago
    Nope, Spokane. High end of "several." "Nice" is probably overstating the climate, but the flip-side is that it's rarely too hot or too cold; you don't usually suffer through the heat+humidity of the eastern seaboard, which probably has something to do with me holding that opinion right this second!
    - mtrichardson 17y ago
      Amusingly enough said during a horrible heatwave here - 106 degrees and the like. Of course, it'll be only this week, and there's no humidity...
    - cschep 17y ago
      I just moved to Portland from Spokane, and I am loving my life. So many cool places and the community feel is great. Cuts the drive to the coast down to 90 minutes rather than 7 hours as well.
  - mikeryan 17y ago
    Upmodded for calling out the "nice climate year-round" bit. Portland can be miserable with rain.
    - kscaldef 17y ago
      Portland gets the same amount of rain as New York, but it hardly ever rains hard, and many people manage without even owning an umbrella. It doesn't get very cold in the winter, and there's typically only a week or two of 90+ weather (with low humidity) in the summer. Personally, I enjoy the seasonality far more than the uniform sunnyness of (parts of) California.
zandorg 17y ago
The film Wargames was set in Portland, and I've always wanted to see if the arcade is still around.
- jim-greer 17y ago
  Seattle, actually.
- mtrichardson 17y ago
  There's always http://www.groundkontrol.com/ http://www.groundkontrol.com/ .
thesethings 17y ago
I suspect I have a super different background and interests than the author of this article, but totally agree. I'll start from an arts angle. I really like music, and one of the main reasons I live in Portland is the incredible music scene. Coming from San Francisco, one can see a million reasons why so many bands (and artists) move from SF/Oakland to here. A million more houses with basements, let alone dwellings that don't share two sides with others. (in SF, even practice spaces are hard to get, even when you're able to afford one). And of course the cost of living is better than SF, so theoretically artists can spend more time on their art. But then you notice a lot more "community" resources in Portland, too, like the IPRC for zinesters. (free/very low cost access to old-school letterpress, Macs w/layout apps). And MANY small venues for bands to play/artists to have shows, including many all ages venues, sometimes co-ops, sometimes regular business, sometimes house shows (but houses that have "real" names, and a decent setup, and show schedule) (high turnover, but these places are always starting up). The venues are a really important building block for artists. Sometimes they're coffee shops with 20 feet of wall space for photos, sometimes they're spacious warehouses for orchestra bands. But they are not just a satellite for OTHER artists, these spaces are somebody's dream in their own right. I now see restaurants and cafes in Portland as their own kind of awesome art/startup business that I've never seen anywhere else. A dungeon-like donut shop? Vegan convenience store (they don't even try to be healthy :D), An all food-cart food court? For whatever reason, people try crazy business/art ideas all the time in Portland, probably because failure isn't that terrifying financially. But it's not just the "low cost" that I give credit to in Portland, but the symbiotic nature of businesses and projects. It's probably fragile, but all these disparate pieces are critical parts of other peoples projects. It's not mere generosity or community spirit, but just the nature of the ecosystem that gets created when you have enough people with a sincere passion in different parts of a common theme. Some of the traditional building blocks of tech startups are missing in Portland (VC, multiple universities with business friendly tech research), but I think one reason that Portland geeks are unphased by this is that we're so grounded in some of the DIY principles of punk (there, i said it), that resourcefulness/open source/small scale scrappiness are just "business words" for values we've already internalized.
- Keyframe 17y ago
  I'd like to see that dungeon donut shop - google does nothing, can you help?
gcheong 17y ago
There is a lot to like about Portland. Free public transport within the downtown "fareless square", a relatively lower cost of living, and you are not very far away from almost any kind of outdoor activity you can imagine and you can find a group for just about any interest (robotics, rocketry, etc.). It also has, hands down, the best new/used retail bookstore (Powell's books) and technical bookstore I've ever seen. The weather is manageable though it does rain quite a bit but I'd take a Portland summer over the lukewarm San Francisco summers/falls anytime.
mikeryan 17y ago
This whole article seems to be based around 2 strange strawmen about the original article. First the original article never said the "Best" or "Top Ten" entrepreneurial cities. It was just a "here are some good towns to start a business in" It's also very much not tech focused.
- colins_pride 17y ago
  Right, it is not tech focused, because his point is not so much Portland as the actual cultural distinction between good places for entrepreneurial people and good places for starting up.
mtrichardson 17y ago
I'm a developer at a small tech startup in Portland. The quality of life here is great and there's definitely a fantastic amount of community support here for pretty much anything you would want to do. It's a very open community which is really appreciated. I would say that there might be a bit too much focus on side project and not enough on startup. I think that everybody thrives in their own way in different places - I love promoting Portland because it'll work very well for some people. For others, not so much, but that's how it goes with almost everything.
wglb 17y ago
Portland is a wonderful city in a wonderful state. I spent several intern quarters there, and have friends from there. Two interesting tech startups that have connections to Reed College, which is not known as a tech school are Tektronix which was started by a physics PhD candidate who needed the tools (so the story goes) and Apple where Steve went to school. Tektronix is credited with starting the Silicon Forest. One suspects that this is less well known as part of a conspiracy to guard against Californification of the state. Speaking of food, does anyone remember the "Heavy Number Taco Company" chain which used old gas stations?
didip 17y ago
Portland have diverse neighborhood; classic suburb (beaverton), edgy & expensive (pearl dist. & uptown), hip (NE & SE). But whereever you live there are a lot of coffee shop and bar that have free wireless, perfect for late night hacking with friends.
didip 17y ago
A little trivia, memcached was invented here in Portland (LiveJournal).
luckyland 17y ago
Portland is clearly the greatest city in the world right now. What's possible there on a daily basis never ceases to amaze me.

42 points by markbao 17y ago

His definition of entrepreneur is different from what we normally think of tech startups, but even for tech startups, Portland surely ranks high. I've lived there and at one point was a late state startup employee. It's got the moxie and atmosphere for it, but it still doesn't have the surrounding ecosystem like Silicon Valley or even Boston. That being said, in my list of best cities for startups, Portland makes a good case for 3rd place. Quality of living is super high. Combined with a reasonable cost of living, it's a fantastic place to live.

mediaman 17y ago
I think Silicon Valley, Boston, Seattle, and NYC are in the top four. Except for the Valley, people argue about which city is in which spot for 2-4 (they all have their niches), but it seems unlikely that Portland -- although it's a wonderful place to live and a solid runner-up -- could make a solid case for the top four.

jsackmann 17y ago

My reaction is mostly personal: This is f'ing awesome. I've lived in NYC for most of the last decade after growing up in the northwest, and I've had the urge to move...somewhere. Just in the last few days, I came to terms with the fact that while I didn't really want to move "back home," Portland is the ideal place. Decent-size place, nice climate year-round, plenty of culture, great variety of stuff to do within a day's drive or less ... it is kind of a mini-bay area without the tech tilt in many ways. I grew up in a mid-sized town several hours away, but many of the more interesting people I knew in high school have ended up there. Added bonus: If you live in Vancouver, WA (north suburbs of PDX) and work from home (or just in WA), there's no state income tax.

davidw 17y ago
> I grew up in a mid-sized town several hours away, Eugene? That's where I'm from. > nice climate year-round, Let's be honest, if it were, then it would be inundated with people because it is a nice place in so many other ways. It's not, though, IMO; it's gray and drizzly from October to early summer (and usually stops raining the 5th of July). If people don't mind that, it's a great place, though, although it does tend towards laid back rather than busy/active. IMO you could do a lot worse.
- jsackmann 17y ago
  Nope, Spokane. High end of "several." "Nice" is probably overstating the climate, but the flip-side is that it's rarely too hot or too cold; you don't usually suffer through the heat+humidity of the eastern seaboard, which probably has something to do with me holding that opinion right this second!
  - mtrichardson 17y ago
    Amusingly enough said during a horrible heatwave here - 106 degrees and the like. Of course, it'll be only this week, and there's no humidity...
  - cschep 17y ago
    I just moved to Portland from Spokane, and I am loving my life. So many cool places and the community feel is great. Cuts the drive to the coast down to 90 minutes rather than 7 hours as well.
- mikeryan 17y ago
  Upmodded for calling out the "nice climate year-round" bit. Portland can be miserable with rain.
  - kscaldef 17y ago
    Portland gets the same amount of rain as New York, but it hardly ever rains hard, and many people manage without even owning an umbrella. It doesn't get very cold in the winter, and there's typically only a week or two of 90+ weather (with low humidity) in the summer. Personally, I enjoy the seasonality far more than the uniform sunnyness of (parts of) California.

zandorg 17y ago

The film Wargames was set in Portland, and I've always wanted to see if the arcade is still around.

jim-greer 17y ago
Seattle, actually.
mtrichardson 17y ago
There's always http://www.groundkontrol.com/ http://www.groundkontrol.com/ .

thesethings 17y ago

I suspect I have a super different background and interests than the author of this article, but totally agree. I'll start from an arts angle. I really like music, and one of the main reasons I live in Portland is the incredible music scene. Coming from San Francisco, one can see a million reasons why so many bands (and artists) move from SF/Oakland to here. A million more houses with basements, let alone dwellings that don't share two sides with others. (in SF, even practice spaces are hard to get, even when you're able to afford one). And of course the cost of living is better than SF, so theoretically artists can spend more time on their art. But then you notice a lot more "community" resources in Portland, too, like the IPRC for zinesters. (free/very low cost access to old-school letterpress, Macs w/layout apps). And MANY small venues for bands to play/artists to have shows, including many all ages venues, sometimes co-ops, sometimes regular business, sometimes house shows (but houses that have "real" names, and a decent setup, and show schedule) (high turnover, but these places are always starting up). The venues are a really important building block for artists. Sometimes they're coffee shops with 20 feet of wall space for photos, sometimes they're spacious warehouses for orchestra bands. But they are not just a satellite for OTHER artists, these spaces are somebody's dream in their own right. I now see restaurants and cafes in Portland as their own kind of awesome art/startup business that I've never seen anywhere else. A dungeon-like donut shop? Vegan convenience store (they don't even try to be healthy :D), An all food-cart food court? For whatever reason, people try crazy business/art ideas all the time in Portland, probably because failure isn't that terrifying financially. But it's not just the "low cost" that I give credit to in Portland, but the symbiotic nature of businesses and projects. It's probably fragile, but all these disparate pieces are critical parts of other peoples projects. It's not mere generosity or community spirit, but just the nature of the ecosystem that gets created when you have enough people with a sincere passion in different parts of a common theme. Some of the traditional building blocks of tech startups are missing in Portland (VC, multiple universities with business friendly tech research), but I think one reason that Portland geeks are unphased by this is that we're so grounded in some of the DIY principles of punk (there, i said it), that resourcefulness/open source/small scale scrappiness are just "business words" for values we've already internalized.

Keyframe 17y ago
I'd like to see that dungeon donut shop - google does nothing, can you help?

gcheong 17y ago

There is a lot to like about Portland. Free public transport within the downtown "fareless square", a relatively lower cost of living, and you are not very far away from almost any kind of outdoor activity you can imagine and you can find a group for just about any interest (robotics, rocketry, etc.). It also has, hands down, the best new/used retail bookstore (Powell's books) and technical bookstore I've ever seen. The weather is manageable though it does rain quite a bit but I'd take a Portland summer over the lukewarm San Francisco summers/falls anytime.

mikeryan 17y ago

This whole article seems to be based around 2 strange strawmen about the original article. First the original article never said the "Best" or "Top Ten" entrepreneurial cities. It was just a "here are some good towns to start a business in" It's also very much not tech focused.

colins_pride 17y ago
Right, it is not tech focused, because his point is not so much Portland as the actual cultural distinction between good places for entrepreneurial people and good places for starting up.

mtrichardson 17y ago

I'm a developer at a small tech startup in Portland. The quality of life here is great and there's definitely a fantastic amount of community support here for pretty much anything you would want to do. It's a very open community which is really appreciated. I would say that there might be a bit too much focus on side project and not enough on startup. I think that everybody thrives in their own way in different places - I love promoting Portland because it'll work very well for some people. For others, not so much, but that's how it goes with almost everything.

wglb 17y ago

Portland is a wonderful city in a wonderful state. I spent several intern quarters there, and have friends from there. Two interesting tech startups that have connections to Reed College, which is not known as a tech school are Tektronix which was started by a physics PhD candidate who needed the tools (so the story goes) and Apple where Steve went to school. Tektronix is credited with starting the Silicon Forest. One suspects that this is less well known as part of a conspiracy to guard against Californification of the state. Speaking of food, does anyone remember the "Heavy Number Taco Company" chain which used old gas stations?

didip 17y ago

Portland have diverse neighborhood; classic suburb (beaverton), edgy & expensive (pearl dist. & uptown), hip (NE & SE). But whereever you live there are a lot of coffee shop and bar that have free wireless, perfect for late night hacking with friends.

didip 17y ago

A little trivia, memcached was invented here in Portland (LiveJournal).

luckyland 17y ago

Portland is clearly the greatest city in the world right now. What's possible there on a daily basis never ceases to amaze me.