Company News

By Mike Rogoway

Glider, a Portland startup that makes collaboration software for businesses, said this afternoon that it has raised $1 million in investment backing.

Wall Street Journal Online

Watch TechCrunch Senior Editor Leena Rao talk about Glider on WSJ Video.

By Alex Williams

At Disrupt NY 2013, Glider unveiled its SaaS for corporate teams to bring structure, clarity and reporting to the contract process much like Salesforce.com did for the sales funnel. The visual analytics tool should help shed light on the number of contracts closed, those outstanding and a host of other metrics to help executives get a better view of deal flow.

By Geoffrey Fowler and Shira Ovide

When the webcam on Mr. Stamm’s Mac computer caught him slouching, software called PostureTrack made an audible buzz. When he spent too much time on the couch, a thumb-size gadget tracking his physical activity flashed “ucandoit.” When he failed too often at these goals, or others like going to bed on time and flossing, a life-cataloging website called Beeminder fined him $5 or more.

McClenahanBruer

This past week the Portland 100 program completed its inaugural trip to Silicon Valley, with five of the participating companies—Opal Labs,GlobeSherpa, Vizify, Athletepath, andTellagence—joining Nitin Khanna, Chris Logan, and the Portland Development Commission and TAO on the trip.

By Matthew Kish

Brandlive on Wednesday took home the top prize at Angel Oregon, an annual business plan competition where startups compete for a big cash prize.

By Kerry Tomlinson

A new app, powered by GlobeSherpa, for buying TriMet tickets might just save folks a lot of frustration and plenty of people want to help test it out.

By Jennifer Alsever

Vizify got a high-visibility chance to work with Twitter. Was it a golden opportunity or the start-up’s road to ruin?

By Deborah Gage

Some companies, like Tellagence in Portland, Ore., are developing new algorithms capable of handling today’s ever-changing data.

Indow Windows won the Innovation in Sustainable Product Award from the Portland Business Journal, was one of two runners up in the Clean Tech Open competition, won approval from Clean Energy Works, was a finalist in the Edison Awards 2012 Best New Product in building materials, and was named a 2011 “Top 10 Product” by Sustainable Industries Magazine. The company has been a finalist in several angel investment competitions, including Angel Oregon, and one of the reasons cited is the Oregon BEST Commercialization Grant and the opportunity it represents, CEO Sam Pardue says.

By Suzanne Stevens

A graduate of the Portland Seed Fund accelerator continues to get attention from venture capitalists, raising $1.3 million in a funding round led by the Oregon Angel Fund.

By DK Row

Shopping has increasingly become an online experience, including the way in which retailers interact with consumers. That’s where a Web application from Portland-based Your Brandlive  comes in.

By Erica Nochlin

Having trouble finding a running partner?  Look to race yourself, instead.

A tool coming out by Christmas this year will help you do just that, according to Portland startup OnTheGo Platforms. The founders are building software and applications for the Vuzix Smart Glasses.

Co-Founder and UX Lead of PSF Class 3 company Wikisway talking about her experiences with the Portland Seed Fund on Women 2.0

Vizify featured on KGW News Channel 8 on their big Twitter partnership

“In another sign of the emerging market for cloud monitoring, Cloudability announced it now monitors more than $250 million in cloud spending for customers, more than double what it did fewer than six months ago. It illustrates how customers are shifting perspectives to more detailed and analytical views of their compute and storage costs.”

“Says Matt Hixson, chief executive officer of Tellagence: ‘We look at whether you’ll turn around and tell your friends.’ The service takes into account the strength of users’ relationships with other key industry players (based on metrics such as how frequently they retweet their Twitter posts), and the number of times they have to see a piece of news on Twitter before passing it on.”

“Today geographic information systems leaderEsri announced its acquisition of geo-locating platform Geoloqi, the 2010 FORBES Name You Need To Know company led by 26-year-old CEO Amber Case.”

“Not just another social analytics platform, Tellagence instead calls itself a “conversation monitoring system” that identifies context and relationship dynamics to predict the path of communication. The goal is to allow brands and businesses to optimize marketing efforts and increase reach by moving away from focusing on individual influencers to targeting smaller, key group of users and their most significant relationships.”

“Twitter Facebook FB -2.65% and their ilk have spawned many firms that try to extract insights from the flood of posts. One of the most ambitious is Tellagence. The Portland, Ore., startup says it can predict how information will flow on social networks. The goal is to allow companies to figure out who is really likely to spread their messages–and avoid wasting time and money on reaching others.”

“The transit agency said Monday it has signed a contract with GlobeSherpa, a Portland-based software company, to offer paperless ticketing for buses, MAX and WES commuter rail starting next spring. Once it’s launched, the system will save riders the frustration of wrestling with ticket machines or diving into their wallets for exact change.”

“Besides private messaging, Gliph also takes advantage of cloaked email. This means you can protect your privacy when responding to an email on Craigslist and other public sites.”

“One thing that’s improved, Case said, is that the larger community has become more accepting of failure — anticipating the setbacks will teach valuable lessons.”

By Curt Woodward

“Superbly: From Portland, OR, Superbly is building a software service that allows secure sharing, markup, and approval (including signatures) of legal documents. The startup has previous investment from the Portland Seed Fund, and two of its co-founders have worked with the Portland Incubator Experiment.”

By Jon Mitchell

“You could accomplish a similar thing by setting up a bunch of new email addresses on free Web-based email services. But with Gliph, email addresses are easy to create and delete, your emails sent via your addresses all come to one location, and you don’t have to log into multiple services to access different email accounts.”

By Erin Griffith

“Vizify launched a week ago amid the increasingly crowded market and it’s already amassed 17,000 profiles with 3,000 more in the closed beta queue. The site has crossed a million pageviews in its first week.”

Fast Company Co.DESIGN Feature

By Mike Rogoway

“The Portland startup plans to announce today that it has landed $8.7 million in investment backing to help market its technology…Today’s investment round is led by the Foundry Group…Other participants include 500 Startups, Trinity Ventures and Wieden + Kennedy. “

By DK Row

“Riding TriMet buses and trains in Portland may soon become a paperless, machine-less and generally more convenient experience if GlobeSherpa has anything to say about it.”

By Christina Williams

“Indow Windows formally announced its $1.3 million Series A investment”

By Christine Lagorio

“Cyborg anthropologist Amber Case teamed up with location whiz Aaron Parecki to build a platform for mobile location services. (Oh, and they’re helping save lives.)”