Blog Posts

Contact:          Jeff Fishburn

                       OnPR for Oregon Entrepreneurs Network

                       503-802-4408

                       jefff@onpr.com

Portland, Oregon—August 25, 2010 — Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN) and Entrepreneurs Foundation of the Northwest (EFNW) announced today that they will merge to create a single organization devoted to developing businesses and communities around the Northwest. In addition to connecting emerging businesses to expertise and valuable resources, OEN will now incorporate EFNW’s expertise in helping companies develop and implement strategies for community involvement.

“Becoming a part of OEN will allow EFNW to build on its strengths and to continue implementing community involvement programs that match the corporate culture and philanthropic interests of Oregon companies with the many needs in the local community,” said EFNW founding board chair, Hugh Mackworth.

EFNW brings a long history of corporate development and community involvement to the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network. Lisa Sloan, president of EFNW, reports that collectively, EFNW and its member companies have returned $4.5 million to the Portland community since its inception in 1991. EFNW is affiliated with 11 other Entrepreneurs Foundations worldwide and currently has 54 member companies in the northwest.

“We are pleased to welcome EFNW to the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network,” said Linda Weston, president and executive director of OEN. “Economic and job growth depend on a company’s ability to thrive on all levels, including giving back to the community.”

Recent EFNW success stories include a group of start-up companies who raised more than $27,000 to sponsor Portland elementary schools, and a downtown PR firm who donated office space to Community of Writers (COW), a non-profit teacher support program dedicated to improving the quality of writing instruction.

"EFNW and OEN both do great work for entrepreneurs, so the merger is completely natural. It creates a one-stop shop for the nurturing we need to get to the point where we can give back... and now helps us do the giving back, too!" said Ray King, CEO of AboutUs.org and OEN Advisory Board member.

The merger will benefit both organizations and coming at a time when small businesses are both searching for funding and recognizing the need to give back to the community. Since its founding in 1991, EFNW has partnered with companies who recognize that corporate philanthropy is not limited to big budgets or large volunteer forces. Using the same entrepreneurial thinking that makes businesses successful, EFNW will grow within OEN to better serve the community and expose its members to beneficial partnerships in the business and non-profit sectors across Oregon and Southwest Washington.

About Entrepreneurs Foundation of the Northwest

Entrepreneurs Foundation of the Northwest (EFNW) helps small and mid-sized companies develop and implement strategies for community involvement that jointly meet the goals of the company, the passions of the employees and the needs of the community. EFNW is affiliated with 11 other Entrepreneurs Foundations worldwide and currently has 54 member companies in the northwest. For more information, visit www.efnw.org.

About Oregon Entrepreneurs Network

Founded in 1991, the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to providing opportunities for Oregon entrepreneurs and to improving the business climate for emerging companies statewide. The organization has members throughout Oregon and southwest Washington. For more information about OEN, visit www.oen.org.

Congratulations to Angela Jackson and Jim Huston for being selected as the Portland Seed Fund Managers by the Portland Development Commission. It is great to see the city investing in the future of start ups and taking proactive steps such as this to support economic development.

The Portland Development Commission has chosen a veteran venture capitalist and Portland business consultant to manage the Portland Seed Fund, an investment pool deploying $500,000 of city money to help launch startups.

Read the article Portland Seed Fund names managers by Mike Rogoway,The Oregonian.

http://www.intelapplicationlab.com/

This Wednesday, come see four companies put it all on the line in a speed pitching competition. In this contest both the judges and the audience will tell the competitors if they’ve got what it takes to be a fundable company. The winner will be selected by the judges.  This company will than advance to the first round of OEN's Seed Oregon.

After the judges select the winner by voting with OEN Dollars, the judges will give feedback on each presentation, explain how they chose the winner, and answer questions from the audience and the contestants.

The Judges:

• Nick Stanley

• Diane Fraiman

• Kathleen A. Sego

The Finalist Companies:

• ItsyBid

• Nozzlmedia

• Truss Core Specialties LLC

• VendScreen

Register to attend OEN's PubTalk and see So You Think You Can Pitch today!

OEN PubTalks are sponsored by Ater Wynne and Dotster.

I recently came across the story about Karen Zilkha and how she was rewarded $1 million from the SEC for handing over a hard drive with emails on it. This story could easily pass for a compelling Lifetime made-for-TV movie, but underneath the drama is an important message.

Back in 2001, David Zilkha went to work for Pequot Capital Management. He was previously employed by Microsoft. According to the SEC, David Zilkha tipped the firm and Pequot founder Arthur Samberg about Microsoft's earnings.

The SEC contended that Samburg traded using this information, and it tried (and failed) to bring a case a few years ago.

Enter Karen Zilkha, 2009.

The SEC received a computer hard drive from Karen, who had been involved in a particularly nasty divorce proceeding with David Zilkha. After reviewing the content of the hard drive, emails were discovered that allowed the SEC to reopen their case. And as a result, the SEC charged Pequot Capital and Samburg with insider trading for trading on non-public information related to Microsoft.

The emails discovered on the hard drive included direct communication with a former colleague at Microsoft concerning the company's earnings. These emails were not produced despite subpoenas requiring David Zilkha to disclose all related communication. Pequot and Samberg agreed to pay nearly $28 million as part of the settlement.

What's the lesson from all of this?

It always goes back to email. Communication through email is more often than not the proverbial "smoking gun." Not just in this case, but in countless others, both in business and in private or civil situations. The viral nature of email makes it difficult to stifle - there are multiple copies created (start with the receiver's server as well as the sender's). To borrow the sports cliché, "you can not stop email, you can only hope to contain it."

Now I can't say with any certainty that the penalties eight years later are more severe than they would have been in 2001. From where I sit though, it makes far more sense to archive and monitor email and know what you're up against than to count on email disappearing completely.

Adam Bullock is the digital media specialist for Smarsh and veteran blogger. In previous stops in his professional career, Adam has spent time with an Internet marketing firm as a project manager as well as a leading domain name registrar.

Smarsh was an OEN Tom Holce Entrepreneurship Award Finalist for Working Capital Stage Company of the Year in 2009.

U.S Senator Ron Wyden and U.S Congressman Greg Walden conducted a ribbon cutting ceremony with 2010 Angel Oregon finalist James Martin to celebrate the completion of The Copa DI Vino Winery facility and the Sunshine Mill Winery roundabout as the gateway entrance into The Dalles. The ceremony marks the end of a five year 5 million dollar project between local government agencies and James Martin’s companies to redevelop the 100 year 9 story antique flour mill into an exotic winery with a stunning roundabout intersection.

From Left to right: Copa Di Vino's, James Martin and US Congressman, Greg Walden at the Sunshine Mill tasting room.

Martin’s fast growing company Copa Di Vino developed exclusive IP technology to bottle wine in a wine glass so wine can be served easily and appropriately in areas where wine bottles create a challenge such as golf courses and stadiums. The last quarter has seen distribution move into 15 more states cumulating with an exclusive joint sales and distribution agreement with premium wine giant Kendall Jackson. The self invested company is currently starting a series A offering.

GoGreen ’10 Portland is a one day sustainability conference for business in Portland on Tuesday, October 5, 2010 built to motivate, inspire, and educate business owners to “go green” and become more sustainable. As an action-oriented, non-typical conference, GoGreen ’10 Portland teaches tactical steps on how to “green” your business and provides actionable next steps to sustainability for business owners and decision makers. Attendees will learn from live success stories and participate in panel discussions geared to provide solid takeaways to make any size of business the most sustainable that it can be. The GoGreen Conference will feature over 50 business leader speakers and 15 different sessions on how to build sustainability into your business.

When |           Tuesday, October 5th, 2010, 8:30-5:00pm

Where |          Gerding Theater at the Armory 128 NW Eleventh Avenue,  Portland, OR 97209

WHO |            Business owners + leaders

Visit |             http://portland.gogreenconference.net/

OregonEntrepreneurs Network members received $25 off to attend, use discount code: OEN when registering.

Cash for anything you need is available through a personal installment loan. The best selection of lenders and terms for personal loan could be found online. Personal loans could be utilized for any financial purpose. Personal installment loans could be a practical solution for debt consolidation and debt relief, especially if the loan has a lower monthly payment than credit card debts. Collateral is needed from a lender when you are apply for secured personel loans.

Resource for this article:Practical debt consolidation - personal installment loan online

Loans for a bad credit score

Individuals with bad credit, limited credit, or no credit history - virtually anybody can get a personal loan online. In all these cases, you are able to qualify for a personnel loans. You will start out with higher interest rates and shorter terms, but once you make all your payments on time, pay back the loan and boost your credit rating, the next loan could be easier to get with lower interest and longer terms.

unsecured personal loans bad credit

A borrower can use a personal cash loan online for anything, unlike automotive loans or mortgage loans. An online personal loan can address any money matter -everything from vacations to emergency expenditures like car repair or medical bills. The maximum loan amount for an unsecured personal loans online depends on the lender’s personnel loans guidelines. Getting the money you need approved and inside your account with the bank right away is the best part of getting an unsecured personal loan online

Relieving debt online with loan consolidation

Debt consolidation and debt relief are some of the most practical reasons to get a personal loans online. Many people use these loans to consolidate other debts into a single monthly payment. Debt consolidation is ultimately used to cut back monthly expenses. Before applying for the online personal loan, make sure the monthly payment is less than the total of the payments you were making on all the other debts.

easy credit repair online

Debt consolidation with an online personel loans can work for most individuals.The endless loop of minimum payments on credit card debt can end with a set monthly payment. But do not borrow any more than you need and keep the term as short as possible. Longer loan terms make for a lot more expensive loans. And with discipline, you won’t set yourself back by creating a lot more debt. Don’t take out an online loans to consolidate debt unless you get your spending budget under control.

Read more on this topic here

articles.moneycentral.msn.com

www.ehow.com

www.usnews.com/money/blogs/my-money

There is no question Tiger Woods can still play championship level golf. His very sharp 67 in the first round of the 2010 British Open on Thursday July 16 is testimony to that. But there is also no question Tiger has lost his mojo. Swagger, killer instinct, self-confidence, whatever you want to call it, Tiger used to have it in spades and now it is gone.

Tiger Woods Struggles at the British Open

Tiger Woods struggled again in the fourth round at the 2010 British Open. He ended up carding a 72, even for the day, leaving him at -3 for the tourney and finishing tied for 23rd place. Woods had a scintillating first round 67 on Thursday and was right in the mix, but from that point on he was clearly frustrated throughout the Open (especially with his putting) and was seen banging his clubs and cursing to himself on several occasions.

Tiger's Problems with the Putter

After becoming unhappy with his putting over the last few weeks Woods played the first three rounds of the British Open with a Nike Method putter, thinking it would help him handle the slower speed of the greens at St Andrews.

As the crowd dispersed, those who remained flocked around the true star of the evening, Jordan Steffy. It was Jordan, a genuine born and bred homie; a former all-American high school quarterback himself, who booked Vick as the keynote for this event, sponsored by his, Children Deserve A Chance Foundation. The people in Lancaster who have seen Steffy develop into a community leader are admittedly awed by what he’s already accomplished in such little time.

Homeless and Broke

Born to an, unwed mother who was but a child herself, Jordan’s early life was never a walk in the park. Regrettably though, at the age of eleven, things went from bad to worse when a representative from the sheriff’s department appeared at the front door of the rented trailer he and his mother were sharing with an eviction notice for nonpayment of rent. For the next several months, buoyed by each other, they wandered Lancaster's environs, mostly living out of their car.

Jordan’s journey beyond the confines of this small sized city in the southeast part of the state began at the completion of his high school career. And quite a career it was, breaking all sorts of records and receiving a multitude of honors in basketball and track, as well as his primary sport, football. In the process, Steffy became a highly recruited student-athlete, ultimately deciding to take his talents to the University Of Maryland. No sooner than after the first few two-a-days of his freshman year were under his belt, head coach of the Terps, Ralph Friendgen and his staff knew that they had a special kid in their presence, One whose leadership, savvy and clear thinking transcended sports.

Although his plans to start Georgetown Law School this fall, where he has already been accepted, have been temporarily sidetracked due to last minute glitches in the construction project (surprise, surprise), Jordan’s future appears to be unlimited. Still, all does not sit well with him. What is troubling is his first hand knowledge that all sorts of kids like himself, from low-income communities with potential, who have suffered from inadequate resources since birth through no fault of their own Deserve A Chance. And once the town’s inspectors issue a certificate of occupation for his center, the name of foundation on the entrance will say it all.

This is the first article in a two part series revealing the life and times of Jordan Steffy including his Children Deserve A Chance foundation

During his first year at College Park, the coaches rewarded Jordan’s commitment, skills and work ethic by according him ample playing time, unique among true freshman quarterbacks. Despite sustaining two serious injuries that required surgery at the completion of the season, his future was beginning to look very promising. At the University, where he started his junior and senior years, Jordan was once again on the receiving end of a bunch of athletic and humanitarian awards. What is even more impressive though, is that Steffy, carrying a three point G.P.A., was incomprehensibly able to squeeze out two degrees, a B.S in Kinesthology as well as a Master’s degree in Real Estate Finance, while on the institutions dime.

Financed exclusively by private donations and fundraisers such as this one, Steffy and his bare bones staff are eagerly waiting to occupy a new facility, which is presently being built. The structure, which in addition to serving as headquarters will provide a vast array of services and recreational activities to all the low-income kids in the vicinity. Kids, who by virtue of their family’s impoverished circumstances have been denied, through no fault of their own, equal access to those resources that are necessary for success.

OEN Media Contact: 
Casey Boggs
LT Public Relations for Oregon Entrepreneurs Network
503-477-9215
cboggs@ltpublicrelations.com

Oregon Entrepreneurs Network Honors Ken and Joan Austin with the 2010 OEN Lifetime Achievement Award

A-dec co-founders propelled business into world’s largest dental supply company

Portland, Ore., July 12,  2010—The Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN) today announced that Ken and Joan Austin, co-founders of Newberg, Oregon-based A-dec Inc., are the deserving recipients of the 2010 OEN Lifetime Achievement Award.  At the discretion of the OEN Board of Directors, the OEN presents the Lifetime Achievement Award to an Oregon or SW Washington-based individual who has had a long career of entrepreneurial achievements that place them in the top echelon amongst their peers. The Austins will be presented the award at the OEN Tom Holce Entrepreneurship Awards on September 22nd at the Portland Hilton Downtown. More information about the event and the list of finalists in the other award categories can be found at http://www.oenentrepreneurshipawards.org.

Ken and Joan Austin co-founded A-dec Inc. in 1964 and have since quietly grown the business into the largest dental supply company in the world—employing nearly 1000 people and consistently named as one of the top 100 Oregon companies by the Portland Business Journal. The Austins have positively impacted Oregon’s economy via their entrepreneurial success through their business leadership support and remarkable philanthropy efforts.

The Austins were also one of the initial funding sources for the launch of the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network in the early 90s. To demonstrate the power of an effective business and education partnership, they were passionately involved in the Multiple Engineering Cooperative Program and the Civil Engineering Cooperative Program (MECOP and CECOP) at Oregon State University, Portland State University and the Oregon Institute of Technology.

Both Ken and Joan are Oregon State University graduates and have provided generous support to their alma mater. Throughout their careers, both have assisted local entrepreneurs by serving on boards of business organizations, as well as funding entrepreneurship programs, such as OEF/OEN, the OSU Austin Entrepreneurship Program, the OSU Austin Family Business Program, the new OSU College of Business building, and various scholarships.

About the 2010 OEN Lifetime Achievement Award
This award—which is given at the discretion of the OEN Board of Directors—is awarded to an individual who has had a long career of entrepreneurial achievements that place them in the top echelon with their peers. Recipients typically possess the following:

•    Started and built an Oregon-based company (or companies) to a major size
•    Built a highly regarded company amongst its customers, employees and vendors
•    Built a company that had a measurable impact on Oregon’s economy
•    Given back to the community in a significant way
•    Earned the highest reputation for integrity
•    Served as a mentor to other entrepreneurs
•    Invested in other entrepreneurial companies

About OEN
Founded in 1991, the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to providing opportunities for Oregon entrepreneurs and improving the business climate for emerging, growth-oriented companies statewide. The organization has members throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington. For more information about the OEN, visit its website at www.oen.org.

The SEC helped ring in "Social Media Day" a day early with the June 29, 2010 announcement of their complaint against a Canadian couple who, among other methods, were fraudulently touting penny stocks on a Facebook page and Twitter.

Eric L. Bustillo, Director of the SEC's Miami Regional Office, explained that the couple used "the PennyStockChaser website, e-mail, text messages, Facebook and Twitter" to provide fraudulent information to those who signed up to receive messages. The issue with this? The couple was creating demand through their deceptive hyping, and in turn was selling millions of shares of these same companies, fraudulently profiting from this method.

This is significant from the standpoint that the SEC is looking beyond just emails - they are now searching for a company's social media presence. This is just another sign that social media is on the SEC's radar. I hope you had a great Social Media Day, and here's to a compliant year!

Adam Bullock is the digital media specialist for Smarsh and veteran blogger. In previous stops in his professional career, Adam has spent time with an Internet marketing firm as a project manager as well as a leading domain name registrar.

Smarsh was an OEN Tom Holce Entrepreneurship Award Finalist for Working Capital Stage Company of the Year in 2009.

Small business loans could very well start getting more affordable, and the U.S. unemployment rate could be affected. The nation's second-largest bank announced Wednesday that it plans to lower the interest rate on small business lines of credit for companies that hire new employees. Small business lending has been a hot button issue as credit dried up when banks were bailed out by the government. Banks have resumed raking in billions while small business continues to struggle and unemployment remains high. Loosening credit might finally be being affected by the public.  

Resource for this article: Chase cuts rate on small companies loans for companies that hire by Personal Money Store

All of the hiring incentives of small business loans

Small business hiring incentives from J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. include lowering its interest rate by 0.5 percent on a new business line of credit for each and every new employee hired, for up to three employees, for the life of the loan. It was reported by Zacks.com that J.P. Morgan will also provide discounts to small businesses for opening checking accounts. In addition, J.P. Morgan plans to hold conferences in 11 cities across the country to help local and small company owners to improve their sales figures and fund their companies.

Are businesses ready to hire with all of of the banks ready to loan?

Politicians and the public at large have scorned banks that received government assistance, yet refused to make small company loans to help reduce unemployment. The Wall Street Journal reports that bankers have offered the excuse that there's not enough demand from credit-worthy borrowers. And it’s true that losses from small-business loans have been severe at major small-business lenders. But Kevin Watters of J.P. Morgan Chase told the Journal the economic outlook among small company owners has improved and small businesses are ready to expand and hire.

Other banks offer small business help

Many banks are making more small companies loans. J.P. Morgan said first-quarter loans to small companies rose 31 percent from a year earlier, to $ 2.1 billion. The nation's largest bank, Bank of The US, reported that small company loans rose 18 percent from a year earlier to $ 19.4 billion. Numerous banks, including J.P. Morgan, U.S. Bancorp, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. and Capital One Financial Corp. are giving some of their previously rejected small-business loans a second look. Two years ago U.S. Bankcorp started training about 3,000 bank managers about small business lending.

On small business loans, Chase will keep its word

The J.P. Morgan Chase offer to cut its rate of interest for companies that are going to hire new employees is available for business lines of credit up to $ 250,000. MarketWatch reports that the offer is also available for existing customers who hire new employees to increase their lines of credit by $ 10,000 or more. Chase business checking customers are likely to receive an additional half percent discount on their loan rates for hiring new employees. This makes good the promise that JP Morgan Chase ended up making last year. The bank announced it prepared to increase its lending to small companies by $ 4 billion in 2010 to a total of $ 10 billion through access to working capital, term loans for expansion, commercial mortgages, lines of credit and business credit cards. It also pledged to hire 325 additional business bankers.

More data about this topic at these websites:

zacks.com

zacks.com/stock/news/36284/JPMorgan Motivates Small Businesses

TheWall Street Journal

online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100629-713817.html

Marketwatch.com

marketwatch.com/story/hire-a-new-employee-chase-will-lower-the-interest-rate-on-your-business-loan-2010-06-30?reflink=MW_news_stmp

OEN Media Contact:
Casey Boggs
LT Public Relations for Oregon Entrepreneurs Network
503-477-9215
cboggs@ltpublicrelations.com

Oregon Entrepreneurs Network Announces Finalists for the 17th Annual OEN Tom Holce Entrepreneurship Awards

Winners to be announced on September 22nd at Portland’s Downtown Hilton Hotel

Portland, Ore., July 1,  2010—The Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN) today announced the finalists for the 2010 OEN Tom Holce Entrepreneurship Awards.  Winners will be announced on September 22 during the 17th annual awards ceremony and will be selected from the finalists in the following four categories:

1. OEN Entrepreneurship Award for Individual Achievement
2. OEN Development Stage Company of the Year
3. OEN Working Capital Stage Company of the Year
4. OEN Growth Stage Company of the Year

The Finalists (From Each Respective Category)

Individual Achievement Category

James Johnson, Tripwire – Portland, OR
http://www.tripwire.com
Jim Johnson has served as Tripwire’s president, CEO and as a director since he joined the company in 2004. Prior to joining Tripwire, Jim spent 27 years at Intel Corporation, where he served as vice president of the Internet Service Operation and director of marketing for the Internet and Communications Group. He also co-founded and served as General Manager of Intel’s PC Enhancement Division, its retail products group. Jim holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University.

William Kelly, Learning.com – Portland, OR
http://www.learning.com
Bill Kelly is the founder and CEO of Learning.com. Since co-founding the company in 1999, Bill has been recognized as a leading innovator in the Educational Technology industry as well as a leading advocate for education in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. Prior to Learning.com, Bill was the co-founder and executive vice president of Sapient Health Network, which became part of WebMD in 1999. There, he pioneered the development of sustainable online support communities and personalized information delivery. Sapient Health Network was listed as a top Web site by BusinessWeek in 1998. Previous company experience includes Creative Multimedia, Fidelity Capital, and Knight-Ridder, Inc.

Manpreet Khaira, Avnera – Beaverton, OR
http://www.avnera.com

Manpreet Khaira is the chairman, president and CEO of Avnera and has 17 years of experience in the semiconductor industry.

Manpreet co-founded Avnera in early 2004. Prior to Avnera, he was the founding CEO of Mobilian Corporation, which was acquired by Intel Corporation in 2003. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Manpreet held various engineering and management positions at Intel.

He is a recipient of the distinguished President of India Gold Medal from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. He received his Master’s in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.

Sohrab Vossoughi, Ziba Design – Portland, OR
http://www.ziba.com
Sohrab Vossoughi is Ziba’s founder, president and chief creative director. During his 25-year tenure, Sohrab has received numerous accolades which include being named one of the five innovation gurus in the US by BusinessWeek, elected as a “Global Leader of Tomorrow” by the World Economic Forum, and has served as an elected advisor to the Hong Kong Productivity Council since 1998. He holds more than 40 patents. Sohrab speaks internationally and regularly contributes to BusinessWeek, AdAge and Rotman’s Business Journal.

Development Category

CGT – Portland, OR
http://www.columbiagreenroof.com

CGT/Columbia Green’s quest is Eco-Technologies that provide sustainable tools, products and services to fundamentally improve the environment. The company’s first product, the Advanced Vegetative Roof System® (“AVRS®”), is a turnkey proprietary eco-roof system that addresses the stormwater and environmental issues created by impervious surfaces.

ShopIgniter – Portland, OR
http://www.shopigniter.com

ShopIgniter is a cloud-based ecommerce platform provider. The company delivers an extensible, ecommerce solution integrating store management, merchandising and product content across physical retail stores, branded websites and the social web. The ShopIgniter platform enables retailers, wholesalers and product brands to merchandise products on social networks and manage all the functionality of their online store through an intuitive, easy-to-use interface.

TrustID – Portland, OR
http://www.trustid.com

TrustID helps financial institutions and other enterprises conducting telephone-based commerce to combat the growing threat of Caller ID Spoofing and ANI Spoofing. The first technology to address social engineering security breaches, TrustID’s patent-pending telephone firewall solution accelerates the authentication process to pre-answer, validating ID with physical information without relying solely on knowledge based authentication and the risky handling of personally identifiable information (PII.)

Working Capital Category

Certified Languages International, LLC – Portland, OR
http://www.certifiedlanguages.com

CLI was established to provide a bridge between diverse cultures and languages. They are a privately held company and serve over 4,000 customers with professional interpretation and translation services via a network of over 2200 articulate and sensitive US-based interpreters. CLI provides services in 176 languages to businesses, government and other public sector clients primarily via telephone interpretation. They also provide document translation, American Sign Language and in-person interpretation services.

ClearAccess – Vancouver, WA
http://www.clearaccess.com

ClearAccess offers service providers new possibilities in broadband deployments including the ability to manage TR-069 compliant gateways and other home or office networking devices. The ClearVision management system reduces operational costs, and provides an applications platform for delivering new revenue generating consumer services over a variety of network types including DSL, Fiber, Cable, and Wireless.

Elemental Technologies - Portland, OR
http://www.elementaltechnologies.com

Elemental Technologies is the leading provider of massively parallel video processing solutions for enterprise video customers. Elemental's enterprise products, including Elemental Server and Elemental Live, use off-the-shelf, programmable graphics processing units (GPUs) for compute-intensive video processing and conversion tasks. The product line is ideal for digital media workflows that require video encoding for Internet and mobile delivery, faster-than-real-time transcoding, or support for adaptive bit rate distribution. Elemental’s innovative solutions deliver unprecedented price/performance advantages to a variety of customers including broadcasters, online video platforms and content delivery networks.

Oh! Shoes – Portland, OR
http://www.ohshoes.com
Oh! Shoes has uniquely combined patented American technology with Italian design to create the first complete collection of women's heels that are proven “healthy” to wear. Oh! Shoes targets the millions of women suffering from the foot and joint damage caused by traditional heels.  The products conform to recommended standards from both the American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Association and the American Podiatric Medical Association, and were developed by medical professionals, mechanical engineers and Italian designers.

Growth Category

Avnera Corporation – Beaverton, OR
http://www.avnera.com

Avnera is a venture-backed fabless analog semiconductor company based in Beaverton, Oregon that has pioneered Analog Systems-on-Chip (ASoC) technology for consumer electronics applications. The company’s ASoC products are designed to accelerate time to market by enabling very high levels of system integration on chip thereby reducing product development time. Avnera’s ASoC solutions allow consumer electronics manufacturers to quickly and easily create wireless “wired-quality” multi-source, multi-listener high fidelity consumer electronic audio products.  Avnera is funded by Altien Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Best Buy, DAG Ventures, Intel Capital, JAFCO Ventures, Onkyo Corporation, Panasonic Venture Group, Polycom and Redpoint Ventures

Coffee Bean International – Portland, OR
http://www.coffeebeanintl.com

Founded in 1972, Coffee Bean International is a visionary coffee company in the heart of the Pacific Northwest. As one of North America’s first roasters of specialty coffee, its unwavering commitment to handcrafted quality and sustainable business practices has earned it respect and a place among the coffee industry’s premier roaster/wholesalers. Coffee Bean International serves more than 2,000 active customers, including many independent specialty coffee retailers and prestigious larger, quality-oriented chains. Coffee Bean International operates out of a LEED® Silver certified roasting facility and invests in partnerships, direct trade and certification programs which support improving coffee quality and coffee growers' lives and communities world-wide.

nLIGHT – Vancouver, WA
http://www.nlight.net

nLIGHT is a leading supplier of innovative high-power semiconductor lasers and high-performance specialty optical fibers for industrial, medical, defense and consumer applications. nLIGHT provides customer advantages in performance, reliability and efficiency. Global support is provided through state-of-the-art manufacturing and application centers in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Smarsh – Portland, OR
http://www.smarsh.com

Smarsh® provides hosted solutions for archiving electronic communications, including email, instant messaging and social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Founded in 2001, Smarsh helps over 10,000 organizations manage and enforce flexible, secure and cost-effective compliance and records retention strategies and mitigate risk.

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About OEN
Founded in 1991, the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to providing opportunities for Oregon entrepreneurs and improving the business climate for emerging, growth-oriented companies statewide. The organization has members throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington. For more information about the OEN, visit its website at www.oen.org.

An interview with Thomas Thurston of Growth Science International

There’s no shortage of rumor and speculation about what makes businesses more or less likely survive.  Everyone has a pet theory, or two, or three.  The problem isn’t a lack of ideas; it’s a lack of quality control.  How can CEOs and managers separate good ideas from bad?

One way to put management theorists, academics and self-proclaimed gurus to the test is by subjecting their advice to the bright light of predictive scrutiny.  If their advice is good, it should predictably lead to desired outcomes.  If their advice is bad, outcomes should be random (at best) or negatively correlated (at worst).  Thomas Thurston, President of Portland-based Growth Science International, is in the predictions business.  Starting at Intel and then at Harvard (with the venerable Clayton Christensen no less), Thomas’s cell is on speed-dial with some of the most esteemed venture capitalists, angel investors and businesses in the world who turn to him for his predictions.  With an enviable track record of over 80% accuracy, here are some of Thomas’s top 3 indicators that have been found to highly correlate with startup survival or failure:

1) Don’t be better.  Startups should avoid positioning their products or services as having better performance than their larger competitors (you read that right).  More specifically, startups should not position their offerings as higher performance, along mainstream vectors of performance, than significant incumbents in their industry.  Don’t sell a better mousetrap.  If you do, according to Thomas, you will almost always put large incumbents in a position where they must either buy or squash your startup (and he says that acquisitions in this circumstance have been disproportionately small).

2) Be cheaper and worse, or chase markets that don’t exist.  Rather than pursuing higher performance than your rivals, try to be lower cost and lower performance (albeit ‘good enough’ for a large segment of the population that wants simpler, cheaper solutions).  Examples include Nucor in the steel industry, Toyota in cars, Salesforce.com in enterprise software, microprocessors in computing, and McDonald’s in food service.

Or, if you don’t want to be cheaper and worse, try pursuing a market where customers have no alternatives (other than you) when it comes to addressing a compelling unmet need.  Sell the first (and only) refrigerator in the desert.  Historical examples of these types of innovations in healthcare include angioplasty, ultrasounds, endoscopy and point-of-care diagnostics.

Thurston’s research says to start in markets that incumbents don’t care about, so that they are motivated to ignore or laugh at you rather than attacking.  Only after your business establishes itself at the fringe should it dare venture into the mainstream.  Stay under the radar as long as possible.  Companies that do this right, Thurston says, have far greater statistical probabilities of survival.

3) Don’t have vision.  Startups should avoid locking themselves into any one strategy or “vision” too early on.  There has been study after study showing that startups with “emergent” strategies (i.e. that methodically capture real-world data, learn, and make rapid course corrections in response) outperform those with more “deliberate” strategies (that stick to their guns no matter what).  The race is usually won by whoever learns the fastest and adapts the most… before the money runs out, that is.  According to Thomas, Netflix made radical changes to its strategy at least eight times before finding the model that ultimately proved successful.  “If they had stuck to their vision, or stopped learning at iteration number seven,” Thomas says, “they probably wouldn’t exist anymore and we wouldn’t be talking about them right now.”
Some say it’s easier to believe a lie that one has heard a thousand times than to believe a fact that no one has heard before.  Yet at the end of the day, it can be refreshing to know that some facts do exist.  The data is out there, and by making it more accessible and actionable for managers we can all hope to make better decisions and improve our odds.