After watching the video above, Portland seems like a perfect place to start your next company — or, at the very least, a really nice place to live.

That’s the vibe I get from the 5-minute clip above called “Techtown Portland.” The video is a sequel to the first “Techtown Portland” video that came out in May 2013 and was produced by the same crew at Uncage the Soul Productions.

portlandtechtown43The recruitment video is paid for by about a dozen of Portland’s tech startups, in addition to organizations like the Technology Association of Oregon and Business Oregon. While the first “Techtown Portland” video showed off the inside of Portland’s startups, the new montage that published this week takes a much different angle and instead highlights transplants who now call Portland home.

For example, there’s GlobeSherpa CTO Michael Gray — a former GeekWire Geek of the Week — who re-located from Charlotte to help build one of Portland’s fastest-growing startups that is developing mobile ticketing apps for public transit operations.

Michael Gray, co-founder and CTO of Portland, Ore., startup GlobeSherpa.
Michael Gray, co-founder and CTO of Portland, Ore., startup GlobeSherpa.

There are others from San Francisco, Washington D.C., Boston, and even Iran that all explain why they love Portland. Phrases like “for less money you can afford more,” “collective sense of purpose,” and “sustainable software culture” are peppered throughout the video.

“People here care about the tech industry and the opportunity in front of us,” says Carla Nichols, an SVP of Client Services at Smarsh. “I have not seen this kind of passion in my life and I’ve been in this industry for 25 years.”

The video, which The Oregonian notes cost $50,000 to produce, also tries to get across the idea that “we are not trying to make Portland the next Silicon Valley.”

“We are excited to solve each challenge in our own way,” says Tom Kobayashi, a product manager who moved from San Mateo, Calif.

Elemental CEO Sam Blackman speaks at TechFestNW. Elemental is one of Portland's most successful startups in recent years.
Elemental CEO Sam Blackman speaks at TechFestNW. Elemental is one of Portland’s most successful startups in recent years.

As a Portland native, I can attest to the region’s livability. There are mountains and beaches two hours away, the food scene is poppin’, the air is clean, the Blazers are great, there’s no sales tax, etc., etc.

“We won’t compete with Facebook and Google on starting salaries, but we will compete on being a great place to live, work, and raise a family,” Elemental CEO Sam Blackman, who led the charge to produce the first “Techtown Portland” video, said in September at TechFestNW.

The tech scene is growing, too. For one, there are several successful startups that have sprouted up in the last decade.

“You can build great teams here, and you can do them in very large markets,” Portland-based venture capitalist Fraiman told GeekWire in October. “You can have an outstanding environment for growth and you can do that in a highly capital efficient environment — which, to be honest with you, is a beautiful thing.”

There’s also a recent pattern of big tech companies like eBay, Salesforce, and Airbnb setting up satellite offices in the region.

When you put it all together, Portland is certainly a unique city with a lot to offer for budding entrepreneurs. In September, Blackman encouraged his fellow techies to continue building successful companies in Portland, so to strengthen the tech ecosystem on a daily basis and attract more talent to the city.

“We absolutely have to take responsibility as the next generation of potentially great tech companies here to build solid financial foundations so the public sector can continue to innovate and so we can continue the cycle of making Portland the best city in the world to live in,” Blackman said.

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