SILICON
FOREST
donated furniture, a $10,000 stipend, and free legal, accounting
and human relations services.
The existence of the competition and the dose of entrepreneurial energy it has injected into
Produce Row underscores the aggressive role city governments are
increasingly playing in catalyzing
the creation of startups in a bid to
HUFFINGTON
11.10.13
scene — now known, perhaps
inevitably, as Silicon Forest —
kicked off in February when the
development commission put out
invitations for young companies
to join the Startup PDX Challenge.
In May, the commission announced the six winners. The list
included CoPatient, which combs
through medical bills in pursuit of
“Why not start a business in a place you’d really like to live as
opposed to Silicon Valley? Everybody gets the Portland story.”
generate quality jobs.
In New York, Mayor Michael
Bloomberg has led a muscular effort to boost the city’s technology
prowess, enticing Cornell University to construct a tech-centered
campus on Roosevelt Island as
the innovative anchor for socalled Silicon Alley. In St. Louis,
city officials and local business
leaders have joined forces to try
to raise as much as $100 million over the next five years, with
plans to pour those funds into local startup companies.
Portland’s latest campaign to
accelerate the local technology
errors and overcharges; Safi Water Works, which is developing a
bicycle-powered water treatment
system for the developing world;
Walker Tracker, which customizes programs designed to encourage walking; OnTheGo Platforms,
which builds software for smart
glasses; and Alum.ni Inc., an Israeli company that later received
funding and moved to the Bay
Area, to be replaced by Seamus
Golf, which makes hand-crafted
woolen golf accessories.
This is how a modest,
2,900-square-foot space in a
building long ago used to assemble
cars, later occupied by a rug dealership, and most recently employed
as a campaign field office by Port-