I don’t get as much time as I’d like to peruse the Portland startup scene. But there’s a heck of a lot of interesting stuff happening along the Willamette, and as you can well imagine I’m not talking about the Timbers.
I’ll stack up Seattle’s soccer and startup prowess against Portland’s any day. But it’s worth keeping an eye on what’s emerging with our neighbors to the south, and I know having talked to Madrona Venture Group’s Matt McIlwain this week that they are certainly intrigued with Portland too.
With that in mind, the Portland Seed Fund — a unique public-private partnership supported by various government agencies and organizations — today is taking the wraps off a new crop of nine companies.
The startups each got $25,000 in capital to get their ideas off the ground, participating in a TechStars-like three-month long bootcamp. This afternoon, the nine startups are pitching their offerings to angel investors. Here’s a quick look at each one, with descriptions from the Portland Seed Fund.
- Beeminder: Tracks your goals and makes you stick to them. It plots your progress along a Yellow Brick Road and if you go off track, they take your money. Founded by computer scientists with backgrounds in data analysis and incentive systems, Beeminder has thousands of devoted users.@bmndr
- Cloudability: Track and control cloud costs across all of your IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. Just a year old and based in Portland, OR Cloudability already has 3,000 users in 80 countries managing $75M – and growing daily – of cloud spending. @cloudability
- Gliph: Allows you to connect with others safely online without having to share personal and private information. @gli_ph
- Globesherpa: Secure, convenient mobile ticketing for transit commuters and more. Secure, convenient mobile ticketing for transit commuters and more. @globesherpa
- Good Works Now: produces cloud-based solutions to modernize the infrastructure for non-profits to increase revenue, donor base, board accountability, and online reputation management. @goodworksnow
- Indow Windows: Indow Windows makes thermal window inserts that press into place on the inside of window frames, offering double pane window performance without the hassle and price tag. It has developed a custom IT system for managing all aspects of the value chain: estimation, window measurement, and manufacturing. @indowwindows
- SERPs.com: A search engine optimization monitoring dashboard. It deeply enhances Google Analytics with link, social & keyword data for daily insights to improve traffic. Early customers include simple.com andcustomink.com. @scottkrager
- ShowKicker: Enables fans to crowd-source events on the web, capturing more money for artists and venues and gets fans into the right shows. It delivers pre-sold audiences for promoters and reduces their risk. ShowKicker makes the shows venues want to book and that people want to see. @ShowKicker
- Superb.ly: (formerly Tell it in 10) is an SaaS platform for investors, lawyers and entrepreneurs to collaborate on deal documents and due diligence. @superb_ly
Investors in the $3 million Portland Seed Fund include City of Portland, Oregon Growth Account, City of Hillsboro / OEN Catalyst Fund and two dozen angel investors.
Previously on GeekWire: Meet the 8 companies that just sprouted from Portland Seed Fund
