When we sat down with Elemental CEO Sam Blackman earlier this month, the GeekWire Startup CEO of the Year wasn’t shy about his thoughts on Portland being the hottest startup spot in the country.
“In my opinion, if you are a software engineer graduating from college right now, there is no better city you can move to than Portland,” said Blackman, who previously was a design manager at Pixelworks before helping found Elemental in 2006.
So it comes as no surprise that it was Blackman spearheading a slick, just-released five-minute video showing off 11 of Portland’s top tech startups as part of a new endeavor to attract more talent to the Rose City.
The impressive clip was put together by Uncage the Soul Productions in collaboration with Business Oregon, the Portland Development Commission and the Technology Association of Oregon. It takes the viewer through 11 Portland tech startups and shows off sweet city shots, some of which were taken by a remote-controlled drone.
Here are the 11 startups featured:
- Viewpoint
- Jama Software
- Simple
- Thetus
- Urban Airship
- Acquia
- Elemental Technologies
- Act-On
- Puppet Labs
- The Clymb
- Jive
Portland is definitely growing quickly as a startup hub, though it’s not quite on the level of places like Seattle, San Francisco or New York in terms of activity level. But Oregon did see some huge blockbuster deals in the first quarter — a $30 million round for Puppet Labs; a $33 million round for Janrain and a $25 million round for Urban Airship — as the state overtook Washington in terms of venture capital investing during the first quarter for the first time since 1993.
And as Blackman told us, there are a lot of nice little perks about P-Town.
“Not only are there a ton of great companies to work for doing excellent technology work in rapidly growing markets, but the house will cost you half than what it does in Seattle, the schools are great, the food is incredible, the cultural resources are phenomenal and the public transit is incredible,” he said. “You have all these livability benefits on top of the great companies that are starting to grow — that’s the kind of place I think you want to live your life.”
The video definitely worth a watch and I’m now wanting to see something like this for Seattle.
