We are proud to present our 9 new graduate companies who rocked it yesterday at Portland Seed Fund Demo Day.

After completing our 90-day intensive start-up boot camp. they presented at Demo Day on Wednesday to an invitation-only audience of West coast angel and venture capital investors.

From crowd sourced music and mobile applications to innovative thermal pane windows, many of our companies exited the PSF incubator period already on their way with sales and additional investment. 

The second Portland Seed Fund Class 02 graduates are mostly software and mobile application development companies with products at varying stages of development and experience, but all will call Portland home. Each receive a $25,000 initial investment to help further develop their growth. Each have an interesting story.

Portland Seed Fund Class 02:

Beeminder tracks your goals and makes you stick to them. It plots your progress along a Yellow Brick Road and if you go off track, they take your money. Founded by computer scientists with backgrounds in data analysis and incentive systems, Beeminder has thousands of devoted users. @bmndr

Cloudability is the simple way to track and control cloud costs across all of your IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. Just a year old and based in Portland, OR Cloudability already has 3,000 users in 80 countries managing $75M – and growing daily – of cloud spending. Cloudability was a PIE class 1 grad before entering Techstars Cloud and Portland Seed Fund. @cloudability

Gli.ph allows you to connect with others safely online without having to share personal and private information. @gli_ph

Globesherpa – Secure, convenient mobile ticketing for transit commuters and more. Secure, convenient mobile ticketing for transit commuters and more. @globesherpa

Good Works Now produces cloud-based solutions to modernize the infrastructure for non-profits to increase revenue, donor base, board accountability, and online reputation management. @goodworksnow

Indow Windows - the only non-tech or mobile company this term, Indow Windows makes thermal window inserts that press into place on the inside of window frames, offering double pane window performance without the hassle and price tag. It has developed a custom IT system for managing all aspects of the value chain: estimation, window measurement, and manufacturing. @indowwindows

SERPs.com is a search engine optimization monitoring dashboard. It deeply enhances Google Analytics with link, social & keyword data for daily insights to improve traffic. Early customers include simple.com and customink.com. @scottkrager

ShowKicker enables fans to crowd-source events on the web, capturing more money for artists and venues and gets fans into the right shows. It delivers pre-sold audiences for promoters and reduces their risk. ShowKicker makes the shows venues want to book and that people want to see. @ShowKicker

Superb.ly (formerly Tell it in 10) is an SaaS platform for investors, lawyers and entrepreneurs to collaborate on deal documents and due diligence. @superb_ly

“The selection process was very competitive this time around,” said Jim Huston, co-managing director and co-founder of Portland Seed Fund with Angela Jackson. “The word is getting out that Portland is a great place to build a company, and entrepreneurs from other cities are applying.” 

After graduating its first investment class last November and closing $3 Million in investments, Portland Seed Fund managers met with hundreds of entrepreneurs and screened applications from Oregon and beyond before offering spots to these eight Class 02 companies. Those selected will partake in Portland Seed Fund’s innovative 90-day boot-camp, featuring a small capital injection plus heavy-duty coaching from fund managers, peer entrepreneurs, investors and mentors. The model is loosely based on incubator programs Y Combinator in Silicon Valley and Techstars in Seattle. Class 02 companies will graduate in late May by pitching to an invitation-only audience of West coast angel and venture capital investors looking for their next great deal.

Rob Banagale decided to relocate to Portland with co-founder Nick Asch of Montreal, Canada to launch their privacy and security-focused startup, Gliph, Inc. ”We can’t wait to realize the full potential of the creative and technological talent that already exists right here in Portland,” said Banagale, who is relocating from Seattle. ”It was a natural place for Gliph to put down roots.” 

As with the Portland Seed Fund inaugural class, which has already raised a combined $3 million+ since graduation, Class 02 features software and mobile development, with product at varying stages of development. Founding teams range from seasoned entrepreneurs to first-time CEOs. The crop includes a green product company with manufacturing/assembly in North Portland, and two companies initially incubated at Portland Startup Weekend last October. Good Works Now will be headquartered in Hillsboro, while all other Class 02 companies will call Portland home. 

Portland Seed Fund Class 02

Beeminder – Track progress toward a goal on your yellow brick road; pay a price if you fall off-track / beeminder.com

Gliph – Connect safely online without having to share personal and private info / gli.ph

Globe Sherpa – Secure, convenient mobile ticketing for transit commuters and more / globesherpa.com

Good Works Now – Cloud-based tools for nonprofits to modernize how they manage fundraising, boards and online reputation / goodworksnow.com

Indow Windows – Thermal window inserts that are quick to install and aesthetically pleasing, without the double pane price tag or hassle /indowwindows.com

SERPs – Cloud-based software tools for businesses to optimize SEO monitoring in-house  / serps.com

Showkicker – Crowd-booking platform for live music fans that reduces financial risk for bands and venues  / showkicker.com

Tell it in 10 – Quickly gather and sort your photos into one elegant story no matter where on the web they live  / tellitin10.com/

About The Portland Seed Fund

www.portlandseedfund.com / @pdxseedfund / facebook: portlandseedfund

Portland Seed Fund is a professionally managed seed investment fund led by co-founders and co-managing directors Angela Jackson and Jim Huston. Portland Seed Fund’s portfolio includes 16 high-growth, capital-efficient companies concentrated heavily, but not exclusively, in software and mobile development. Companies receive an initial $25,000 investment and dive in to a 90-day intensive program of coaching, networking, education and product-building. They are surrounded by mentors, a peer group of entrepreneurs who understand their challenges and share successes, and help sourcing customers and securing future capital. The cycle repeats every six months, resulting in 25-30 investments every two years in highly-scalable job-creating companies. In 2011, Portland Seed Fund’s inaugural investment class created 58 jobs in their first seven months.

Investors in the $3 million Portland Seed Fund include City of Portland, Oregon Growth Account, City of Hillsboro / OEN Catalyst Fund and 24 individual accredited investors. Portland Seed Fund sponsors include White, Summers, Caffee & James, LLP, a premier boutique corporate law firm with offices in Portland and Silicon Valley; Perkins & Co. accounting firm, Bank of the Cascades, Ziba Design and Portland State University Business Accelerator.

To all you entrepreneurs who stuck your neck out, we salute you- three minutes is brutal but you all handled it well. Those of you who are applying for Portland Seed Fund: Don’t forget our Jan. 9 2012 deadline (click Apply). Earlier applications have advantage, so don’t delay!

First up:
Tues. Dec. 6, 4:30-6:30pm
PSU Business Accelerator (PSBA)\
First Floor
2828 SW Corbett Ave. (corner of SW Corbett and Meade)
Portland, 97201

Use these:

http://psba.pdx.edu/drivingdirections

We will be scheduling several other appearances around town to meet you in the next few weeks. Watch the blog for details.

Held in Portland, Oregon, today’s Demo Day gives each company the chance to pitch to a broad field of angel investors and venture capitalists.  Each company received an initial $25,000 investment from the Fund, with an option for this amount to grow.  Demo Day will be held at Ziba Design and is open to VCs and angel investors to hear pitches from the fund companies.

Each company gained tremendous traction in just 90 days. Not only from the strong mentors that were brought in, but from each other. The climate was ripe in Portland to launch mentor-led investing.  This was an experienced bunch. It was so much fun to watch them feeding off of each other, giving not only positive feedback, but tough feedback too. We look forward to watching them all succeed.

These hot new startup technology companies (and one high-tech gear company) include:

4-Tell is unique in that it launched in 2009 and is experiencing impressive growth already, but still looking for additional funding, as well as mentoring in order to grow this e-commerce recommendation software even further. With a functionality that is Amazon.com-esque, with “people who bought this also bought…” its target market is storefronts that are far smaller than Amazon. They are helping companies boost their e-commerce sales by steering customers to products they might like in addition to what they set out to buy. 4-Tell’s business customers report sales increases of 10 to 25 percent by using the constantly updated software.  With almost 100 business customers so far, 4-Tell growing 25 percent month over month and having trouble handling all the demand. 4-Tell won $120,000 at the Gorge Angel Investors Network Competition last year, and has received generous angel funding, in addition to the money from the Portland Seed Fund.

Audioname, headed by entrepreneur Sheetal Dube, enables people to record their name in their own voice and add it to their email signature and social profiles. An interesting point is that there are 7 billion people on the planet with names, and this will help them learn how to pronounce each others name and build better relationships. It not only will help bridge cultural differences, but also provide high value to direct marketers, sales professionals and anyone who needs to pronounce an unfamiliar name. The concept had immediate success in April 2011 when Audioname won the top prize at Portland’s start-up weekend. After that, Sheetal quit her job, and started pursuing Audioname full-time. Audioname also recently won a $10k grant for the concept stage category at the Bend Venture Conference.

Comic Rocket mixes Portland’s love of technology and comics. Founders Tim Shields and Andy Grossberg will soon be launching the next generation digital reader for back-issue comic books with plans to dramatically increase comic readership.  Starting as an interactive Facebook App, users will not only read new and old comics online, but will see what their friends like and receive customized recommendations. Comic Rocket leverages deep experience in the comics space with over 30+ years in the comic book and gaming industries.

Geoloqi  co-founders Amber Case and Aaron Parecki have a shared obsession for location tracking. Their cutting-edge product offers an API and mobile applications that lets developers easily build location-based apps and bring large datasets to life. Users can choose to subscribe to apps built on the platform such as privately sharing their location with loved ones or sending location-based reminders. Still in beta, the product just launched a Wikipedia layer that, when turned on, will send push notifications to your phone about notable Wikipedia articles around you. Geoloqi raised $300,000 from local Portland investors, in addition to the $25,000 they received from Portland Seed Fund.

Hively, launched by technology veterans, Jason Lander and Ross Barbieri, Hively connects businesses with their customers by helping them gather ongoing, real time customer feedback in a fun and engaging way. Hively is finding a niche by creating a simple method for gathering and measuring customer satisfaction. Customers can rate every experience they have by simply clicking a rating option — a smiley face for good customer service and a frown for poor. Hively also includes a scoring and employee ranking system in order to reward teams for providing excellent customer service. The company launched in September 2011 and already has over 50 customers, in multiple industries.

Homeschool Snowboarding, the only non-tech company backed by Portland Seed Fund is run by Daniel Clancy, formerly a designer with Columbia Sportswear grew up as a surfer in Hawaii, but has has been boarding in the Pacific Northwest for over 15 years.  With co-founder Jevan Lautz, the company designs and manufactures the most breathable activewear apparel available today. Homeschool has a full-line of base layer, middle wear and outerwear made from activated carbon from coconut shells, which provides greater surface area — and thus better breathability — than any other technology.

LaunchSide  connects companies to new customers online. they solve the problem that many companies, especially innovative ones, really struggle with — how to be “found” when customers don’t know to search for you yet.  Initially focused on helping find early beta users, they are now moving into offering services for companies struggling with the transition form early adopters to mass market users. The founding team has more than 20 years combined in web-based customer acquisition applications.

Vizify, co-founded by Todd Silverstein, Jeff Cutler-Stamm and Eli Tucker, previously all with Monsoon, helps you create a great online impression by building a highly visual and interactive profile of you using the fragments of your life contained in the online services you already use such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more. Vizify has been simultaneously participating in both the Portland Seed Fund and TechStars (Seattle).

Portland is a great place to start and grow a company – the talent, the money available, the people invested in growing the entrepreneurial ecosystem. It has been interesting to see with open source, the cloud, application development, etc., that it takes far less money to do far more. We can’t wait to watch these eight companies succeed. We’re proud of each and every one of them!

– Angela Jackson and Jim Huston, Co-managers of Portland Seed Fund

But on Aristotle’s view, the lives of individual human beings are invariably linked together in a social context. In the Peri PoliV (Politics) he speculated about the origins of the state, described and assessed the relative merits of various types of government, and listed the obligations of the individual citizen. He may also have been the author of a model PoliteiaV Aqhnawn (Constitution of Athens), in which the abstract notion of constitutional government is applied to the concrete life of a particular society.

384—322 , Greek philosopher, b. Stagira. He is sometimes called the Stagirite.

Aristotle’s father, Nicomachus, was a noted physician. Aristotle studied (367—347 ) under Plato at the Academy and there wrote many dialogues that were praised for their eloquence. Only fragments of these dialogues are extant. He tutored (342—c.339 ) Alexander the Great at the Macedonian court, left to live in Stagira, and then returned to Athens. In 335 he opened a school in the Lyceum; some distinguished members of the Academy followed him. His practice of lecturing in the Lyceum’s portico, or covered walking place (peripatos), gave his school the name Peripatetic. During the anti-Macedonian agitation after Alexander’s death, Aristotle fled in 323 to Chalcis, where he died.

Aristotle’s extant writings consist largely of his written versions of his lectures; some passages appear to be interpolations of notes made by his students; the texts were edited and given their present form by Andronicus of Rhodes in the 1st cent. Chief among them are the Organum, consisting of six treatises on logic; Physics; Metaphysics; De Anima [on the soul]; Nicomachean Ethics and Eudemian Ethics; De Poetica [poetics]; Rhetoric; and a series of works on biology and physics. In the late 19th cent. his Constitution of Athens, an account of Athenian government, was found.

By 335 BC he had returned to Athens, establishing his own school there known as the Lyceum. Aristotle conducted courses at the school for the next twelve years. While in Athens, his wife Pythias died and Aristotle became involved with Herpyllis of Stageira, who bore him a son whom he named after his father, Nicomachus. According to the Suda, he also had an eromenos, Palaephatus of Abydus.

It is during this period in Athens from 335 to 323 BC when Aristotle is believed to have composed many of his works. Aristotle wrote many dialogues, only fragments of which survived. The works that have survived are in treatise form and were not, for the most part, intended for widespread publication, as they are generally thought to be lecture aids for his students. His most important treatises include Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, De Anima (On the Soul) and Poetics.

Aristotle not only studied almost every subject possible at the time, but made significant contributions to most of them. In physical science, Aristotle studied anatomy, astronomy, embryology, geography, geology, meteorology, physics and zoology. In philosophy, he wrote on aesthetics, ethics, government, metaphysics, politics, economics, psychology, rhetoric and theology. He also studied education, foreign customs, literature and poetry. His combined works constitute a virtual encyclopedia of Greek knowledge. It has been suggested that Aristotle was probably the last person to know everything there was to be known in his own time.

Near the end of Alexander’s life, Alexander began to suspect plots against himself, and threatened Aristotle in letters. Aristotle had made no secret of his contempt for Alexander’s pretense of divinity, and the king had executed Aristotle’s grandnephew Callisthenes as a traitor. A widespread tradition in antiquity suspected Aristotle of playing a role in Alexander’s death, but there is little evidence for this.