Startupalooza is an interactive forum for the Portland tech startup community. It’s where you can find out about cool tech startups, learn from successful tech entrepreneurs and meet local tech-business people. The event features discussions, presentations, demonstrations and networking allowing participants to share, learn and connect in a candid, no-BS environment.
Startupalooza was started because I thought it would be cool to find out about all the tech startups in Portland. There is a lot of really great stuff being created in spare rooms and coffee shops in this town.
Being a web entrepreneur myself, I also wanted to ask questions of and get advice from the successful technology entrepreneurs I kept hearing and reading about. I wanted the real scoop from the founders about how they started their companies and overcame challenges- not the rehearsed statements from the CEOs that I hear at a lot of conferences. I probably couldn’t get them to meet just me, but I figured that if I organized an event and a bunch of other people came, I could probably convince them to come and talk.
I’ve heard, “it’s not what you know, but who you know”. I’m not sure who I’m supposed to know, but whoever they are, I wanted an event where I could meet them too. Maybe they could help me get funded or find great business partners or find customers.
And I wanted it to be a very casual fun atmosphere, kind of like at Portland BarCamp*, so I can ask questions or chime in if someone asks a question I happen to know something about. And there should be pizza. Really good pizza.
I bet there are a lot of other people like me who would like to learn about cool local startups, get advice on how to start a successful tech business and meet the “right people”. It would be fun to get all of these people together in one room. To get people to come, I’ll need to get people to blog and Twitter about it. A catchy name would help. Startupalooza!
*[Disclaimer: Startupalooza is not affiliated with BarCamp but it’s free like BarCamp, and it’s at the same place as Portland BarCamp, and the same people are organizing it, and a lot of the same cool people will probably be there.]
Saturday, March 29, 2008 from 12:00 PM - 7:00 PM
CubeSpace
622 SE Grand Ave
Portland, Oregon 97214
