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BankSimple moves to Portland

banksimple.com

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Re: BankSimple moves to Portland

#22

Post by dminor »

jvoorhis wrote: post #14
dminor wrote: post #2

Portland seems to be attracting a lot of hackers lately, so it will be interesting to see if the startup scene and investment money follow.

It's already here. Our company (AppFog) was founded in Portland and we just secured our Series B. We have offices in the same building as JanRain and yet another co-working space. In Old Town or the Pearl District, there are startups on every other block. Interestingly, our biggest challenge right now is recruiting. If you're considering moving to Portland, we could use you. http://blog.phpfog.com/2011/06/10/we-are-h…

There's definitely increased activity, but I think it falls short of being a scene (I say this as someone looking on from Hillsboro). I guess I'm looking for a larger VC to set up shop, rather than visit from somewhere else.

Re: BankSimple moves to Portland

#24

Post by jgmmo »

dminor wrote: post #2

Portland seems to be attracting a lot of hackers lately, so it will be interesting to see if the startup scene and investment money follow.

I live in Eugene OR. I am dying for a Ruby users group, or coworking spot, or anything! There is no sign of a tech scene at all here!

Re: BankSimple moves to Portland

#25

Post by waxpancake »

Pakourama wrote: post #11

Portland? WTF? Why? It's a hipster dump. Rains 9 months a year, has 12% perpetual unemployment, plus the USA's largest resident homeless population, which isn't terribly shocking given the awful job market. But, if you can actually get a job the salary will be circa 1994 and yet the property and rent prices are in fantasy land stuck in the 2006 housing bubble. Oh, plus the city has one of the highest suicide rates in…

We're glad you got out too. :)

Re: BankSimple moves to Portland

#26

Post by dminor »

ronnier wrote: post #16
dminor wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What disgusted you?

The place was filthy and dilapidated. Seeing people covered in tattoos and piercings gets old and tiresome for some reason. It's just not the place for me, but awesome for those who fit in there.

> The place was filthy and dilapidated

I can't say it seems any more so than other large cities I've visited, like SF, Seattle, or LA. What are you comparing it to?

> Seeing people covered in tattoos and piercings gets old and tiresome for some reason.

Yeah, if this isn't your thing the Portland might be wrong for you ;) Still, there are suburbs and such where this isn't the norm.

Re: BankSimple moves to Portland

#27

Post by pchristensen »

ry0ohki wrote: post #6

I really love Portland, and I'm sure it's a great new home for BankSimple, but I am a little shocked that a company would move to a city where literally everyone in the company would have to be relocated. I've seen companies move to SF or NY before because of VC raised, but this is almost the opposite!

There are clues there:

1) they wanted everyone to be in once place 2) they're hiring a lot of people, especially customer service.

Customer service in NYC or SF would be prohibitively expensive, so if they want to be all in one place, they would have to move anyway. This is no different than Zappos being in Las Vegas or Groupon being in Chicago (I think Zappos relocated). Personnel costs when you have 50 employees per hacker become a big deal.

Portland has a ton of skilled, educated people and high unemployment, so they're going to get a lot of bank for their buck.

Re: BankSimple moves to Portland

#29

Post by dminor »

dailo10 wrote: post #19

Portland is basically where San Francisco was at 20 years ago. In terms of a tech hub, the only thing missing is a stronger university presence.

The Bay Area had many large defense contractors employing a lot of engineers. I don't think that should be underestimated.
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