MASSCHALLENGE
SILICON
FOREST
scended, renovating Victorian
homes on leafy streets.
Now, city leaders have set
their sites on Produce Row. They
plan for it to remain an industrial sanctuary, with housing
confined to the periphery. But
the nature of industry now tends
toward the local technology
scene. The commission sought to
harness the startup contest as a
way to work towards two goals
at once: boosting startups and
elevating Produce Row.
“We wanted to specifically get
HUFFINGTON
11.10.13
the word out about the district
outside of Portland,” Quinton says.
For Portland, nurturing a startup
culture may depend upon emphasizing the city as a pleasing place to
live and work, in order to compensate for some missing elements.
Throughout the country, technology startups tend to be clustered around world-class research universities that spawn
entrepreneurial undertakings
and then feed them with breakthroughs and talented recruits.
Researchers at Stanford and the
University of California, Berkeley, have long stocked Silicon
Valley with talent and ideas. The
A finalist
participates
in the MassChallenge
2013 Boot
Camp.