We see ourselves not as a trade association but as a community-building organization. We are built on the premise that a thriving city supports thriving businesses. Our members want to do their part towards solving community-wide problems like housing affordability and workforce diversity. Working alongside government and nonprofits, we’ve seen real results. That’s a fundamentally different way of operating when compared to traditional chambers of commerce.

From knife manufacturers in Oregon City to cheese companies on the Southern Coast, we are keenly aware that the things we make sustain and support who we are. Our mission is to support and accelerate the founders and companies through the state, and create inclusive opportunities to the next generation of entrepreneurs.

PIE (Portland Incubator Experiment) is an ongoing experiment designed to explore how established organizations — corporations, government, and educational institutions — can effectively collaborate with startup communities for mutual benefit. Throughout our history, we have served as a coworking space, an early stage startup accelerator, and a consultancy, partnering with organizations like Autodesk, Coca-Cola, Daimler, Google, Intel, Nike, Prosper Portland, Puppet, the State of Oregon, Target, and Wieden+Kennedy, among others.

Covering breaking news in the world of the Open Web, Web 2.0, and Web applications.

Focusing on the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area, Silicon Florist (http://siliconflorist.com) covers the Portland tech startup and open source community, giving special attention to those small startups and developers that might not garner coverage in other local publications. 

Have a tip or company that the Silicon Florist should be tracking? Drop me a line at siliconflorist@gmail.com.

Advise on strategy and manage execution for all facets of marketing communications, external communications, and internal communications, be they evangelistic, educational, or commercial. Programs under management include branding, collateral, events, external and internal Web properties, sales tools, advertising, and agency relations.

Manage strategy and execution for all facets of marketing communications, external communications, and internal communications, including branding, collateral, public relations, events, external and internal Web properties, sales tools, advertising, lead generation, and agency relations. Report to Vice President, Marketing. 

 Branding and positioning expertise enabled company to create, define, and lead commercial and federal portfolio management market, with limited budget and resources

 Creative, integrated program development drove lead generation and brand awareness that fueled exceptional revenue growth, year over year

 Customer-relations skills helped leverage public opportunities with executives in name-brand accounts like AAA of Northern California, AT&T, BMW, DaimlerChrysler, FDA, Ford, Hershey Foods, HUD, Panasonic, Sears, and Snap-on

 Interactive marketing expertise drove increased Web traffic, improved Web lead generation, and solidified market position

Chosen by executive committee to oversee corporate communications following the merger of MedicaLogic, Medscape, and Total eMed. Managed all facets of marketing communications, branding, media relations, analyst relations, and agency relations for the company; worked directly with Investor Relations and Chief Financial Officer. Reported to Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing. 

 Public relations skills enabled MedicaLogic/Medscape to garner major media activity with customers like General Motors and NASA in industry verticals and popular media

 Positioning expertise kept the Medscape brand and voice consistent even through executive management transitions

Volunteered time and effort to put together the first entirely volunteer run open source conference in Portland, Oregon, Open Source Bridge. The event attracted upwards of 500 people from around the globe.

Return helps companies focus.

Return does this by helping you distill your ideas into concepts that your customers and employees appreciate, understand, and embrace. Then, we help you develop the strategy and tactics that will breathe life into those concepts.

This isn't magic. It's simply focus.

Selected by managers and executives to lead formation and development of a mission-critical interactive marketing program and position, designed to raise visibility of Web properties as part of the preparations for both an IPO and the launch of two new products. 

 Groundbreaking interactive marketing programs created first integrated programs with measurable metrics for every marketing and public relations campaign, resulting in better understanding of the most effective methods for approaching target audience 

 Agency management enabled MedicaLogic to deliver first fully integrated print and interactive advertising campaign that resulted in 300% improvement in both Web traffic and name recognition 

 Interactive community knowledge allowed MedicaLogic to develop new means of communicating with customer community through electronic newsletters and publicly accessible forums, resulting in more than 10,000 subscribers in a six-month period

 Marketing communications production knowledge allowed MedicaLogic to pull expensive agency activities in-house, saving time and money

 Brand development skills ensured consistency of MedicaLogic brand throughout the launch of multiple new products, even with the departure of the Director, Marketing Communications

 Microsoft Powerpoint expertise enabled MedicaLogic executives, including CEO, COO, and EVPs to deliver consistent, creative, and brand-conscious presentations that helped company rise above the dotcom noise during drive to initial public offering

Purveyor of random rants and tanrtrums on marketing, branding, and the online world.

 Branding development and management ensured brand consistency for companies like MedicaLogic, Tektronix, PacifiCorp, Symatrix Technologies, ABC (now SAS), Branden Technologies, and Transcat

 Marketing and production expertise allowed agency to offer creative development and execution of marketing strategies, brand management, art direction, Web development, editing and proofing, and account management

 Management skills enabled agency to optimize resources, improve production efficiency, deliver comprehensive scheduling, and solidify vendor relations, improving agency-client relations and perception of value

 Account management expertise provided successful pitching and representation for authors seeking publication in a variety of genres, both fiction and nonfiction

 Editing proficiency enabled clients to deliver more targeted, well-written, and appealing manuscripts

 Communications and negotiation skills helped Northwest authors gain placement with both New York and Chicago publishing houses

More than mildly obsessed with connecting dots in the Portland (#pdx) startup community

Meet the Startup is a video series focusing on the entrepreneurial scene in northwestern U.S.

Meet the Startup

Building a startup accelerator is hard. That's why PIE wants to open source its learnings. So anyone can build one for their community.

PIE Cookbook: An open source guide for startup accelerators

Keep investors, advisors (heck, your entire team) in the loop. Your status reports deserve better than email.

Rick Turoczy

More than mildly obsessed with connecting dots in the Portland (#pdx) startup community