Feels like most of the people in Portland need to figure out what they want first.<p>At their software industry summit, after a long series of surveys, the takeaway was that people in Portland value quality of life over making more money. That's great, but that's not what's going to drive serious entrepreneurs to Portland. So I'm not sure why this would lead the idea that we need more funding here for startups. And to top that, the Portland Seed Fund along with most of the other funding networks in Oregon are pay to apply.<p>At a the recent UpdatePDX event[1] one of the comments was "Several people commented on how lovely Portland was – even in the rain. But damn, they wish they could hire the types of people they needed here."[2]<p>The conclusion that I keep coming back to seems to be "There aren't enough people here ready to dive into a startup, yet everyone thinks we need more startups and likes that idea, but we value our quality of life more anyway." I'm afraid that this is just a huge setup for more pay to apply and pay to mentor programs designed to profit off this notion that we need to have more startups in Portland. Call me skeptical, but I just don't see all the movements in Portland leading anywhere significant.<p>[1]<a href="http://www.meetup.com/updatepdx/events/16416694/" rel="nofollow">http://www.meetup.com/updatepdx/events/16416694/</a>
[2]<a href="http://www.chesnok.com/daily/2011/04/05/updatepdx-nosql-operational-complexity-and-hiring/" rel="nofollow">http://www.chesnok.com/daily/2011/04/05/updatepdx-nosql-oper...</a><p>P.S. And I'm saying this as someone who just moved his services business into Portland.