This is another profile of a local company who had big success in Mashable's Blogger's Choice Open Web Awards. Seattle-based Wishpot snagged the Blogger's Choice Open Web Award for best 'Social Shopping' site, beating out Tigerbow and Pikaba. CEO Todd Humphrey naturally calls it a "great honor" to be placed among site like Digg, Google and YouTube.
Wishpot users can save any item they want from online stores or websites in a wish list that can either be kept private, shared with specific friends and family, or shared with everyone. Humphrey thinks that Wishpot is onto something big:
"Social shopping is the way that people are going to shop on the web for years to come. With thousands of new members every day, and the Blogger’s Choice Award, our team is proving that Wishpot is the most engaging and useful social shopping site on the Web."
The site isn't necessarily as self-indulgent as it sounds - users can also recommend products they like, ask for opinions and advice on gift-giving, compare prices, or subscribe to price alerts for their favourite products. You can vote for Coolspotters as the Open Web Awards "People's Choice" until Sunday at midnight.
Wishpot has been making paper and pens redundant in the 'gimme gimme' scene since 2006. They recently finished a funding round led by Monster Venture Partners and H-Farm.
Wishpot is a free social shopping service that makes it easy to save and share interesting things you find in stores and online. Items are easily... [more]
If you're desperate to develop a 'personal style' ganked entirely from celebrity culture, look no further than Coolspotters. Seattle-based trend-spotting startup Coolspotters won Mashable's Blogger's Choice Open Web Award for Best Fashion Site this week. CEO and co-founder Aaron LaBerge told me via email that he is thrilled with the win:
"We couldn't be more excited about our win. We believe we've created a new category of product [...] that combines people's passion for great product and brands with their interest in pop-culture and entertainment."
According to LaBerge, Coolspotters created "a platform that makes it easy to discover the coolest products, brands and fashions." In a nutshell, the startup encourages rampant consumerism and celebrity fanatacism, but they have certainly started enjoying some real success in doing so. If you care about what brand of stroller a celebrity dad pushes their child around in (Orbit Baby), what sort of overpriced, oversized purse your favourite starlet carries on her frail arm (Chanel), what movie you should go see (teenaged Vampire love story 'Twilight,' aka Vampire Potter), or what sort of car is the coolest one to drive right now (omg, a Range Rover), then Coolspotters will genuinely appeal. Coolspotters beat out runner up Gift Girl. If you're a big fan, there is still time to vote for Coolspotters as the "People's Choice" - voting closes on Sunday at midnight.
Coolspotters is a online service that makes it easy to discover and buy the products, brands, and fashions being used by your favorite celebrities... [more]
A pleasant surprise this weekend: Techvibes has been nominated for a Canadian Blog Award in the category of Best Sci/Tech blog. We share this category with some top notch blogs like Amber MacArthur's, Bad Astronomy, and DeSmogBlog. The many awards competitions that come out around this time of year can seem stale and meaningless, but the CBAs are a wholesome and non-profit affair, organized by a volunteer group of bloggers. With hundreds of nominees across 27 categories, they're also the most thorough poll of Canadian blogs. Browsing the categories is a great way to discover other fine blogs.
Round 1 voting goes until November 29, then the top five of each category move on to the final round. Please vote for us today!
Tuesday, November 18
SAO: The Future of Targeted Marketing: Micro-efforts with Macro-thinking
7:30am - 9:00am: Governor Hotel
Jefferson Grapevine (new business development meetup)
5:00pm - 7:00pm: RCC/SOU Higher Education Center
Portland Java User Group
6:30pm - 8:00pm: Oracle (Downtown Campus)
WhereCamp PDX Meetup
7:00pm - 9:00pm: White Eagle
November 19, 2008
OEN Webinar - Quality Market Research on a Shoestring, with Mike Riley
10:00am - 11:00am: Online
Winning International Customers Online
11:30am - 1:00pm: US Bank Tower, Ground Floor Conference Room
SAO Poker Night (Special Networking Event)
5:30pm - 8:30pm: Kell's Irish Restaurant & Pub
Negotiating Better Deals: Insights into the Psychology of Decision Making in Contracts
5:30pm – 7:30pm: Schwabe, Williamson, & Wyatt
PDX 501 Tech Club/Net Tuesday: Nonprofit Tech Extravaganza
5:30pm – 7:30pm: Lucky Labrador Beer Hall
XPDX - Agile Methodologies: A Matter of Survival
6:30pm – 9pm: CubeSpace
PLUG: Linux Advanced Topics Talk
7:00pm - 9:00pm: Jax Bar
Thursday, November 20, 2008
SAO: Life Inside an Iteration
6:00pm - 9:00pm: Governor Hotel
The Showdown in Stumptown: 2008 PAF Rosey Awards
5:30pm - 10:00pm: Antoinette Hatfield Hall
WordIgniteBarCampCampCampCampPalooza… PDX
6–8pm: CubeSpace
Friday, November 20, 2008
Portland Business Journal 4th Quarter Sustainability Luncheon
11a:00m – 1:00pm: The Nines Hotel
Monday, November 24, 2008
MIT Enterprise Forum: The Future of Wireless Communication
4:00 – 6:00pm: OTBC (The Round)
DorkbotPDX Meeting
7:00pm – 10:00pm: Lucky Labrador Beer Hall
PDX Critique
7:00pm – 9:00pm: CubeSpace
WestSide Polyglot Programmers
7:00pm – 9:00pm: OTBC (The Round)
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
OTBC Open House
3:00pm – 5:00pm: OTBC (The Round)
The deadline for the Knight News Challenge is in just three days. What is the Knight News Challenge?
We’re giving away around $5 million in 2009 for the development and distribution of neighborhood and community-focused projects, services, and programs.
If you have a great idea that will improve local online news, deepen community engagement, bring Web 2.0 tools to local neighborhoods, develop publishing platforms and standards to support local conversations or innovate how we visualize, experience or interact with information, we’d like to see it! You have the opportunity to win funding for your project and support within a vibrant community of media, tech, and community-oriented people who want to improve the world.
Interested? There are three rules to follow to apply to the 2009 Knight News Challenge:
Applications for the 2009 award cycle close at the end of the day Saturday, November 1, 2008.
Jama Software won the Bend Venture Conference on friday. They were part of the 5 companies which presented business pitches to the 250 people who went to the conference. Jama provides an webservice which facilitates collaborative software product development.
The companies that presented were:
Gadget Trak was the winner of the wild card session where ten companies gave one minute pitches and was provided a slot to present and be eligable for the award.
This style of Angel Investment Conference has grown out of the activities at the Oregon Entrepreneur Network, which sponsors several events including the Oregon Seed , Angel Oregon (March 12,2009) and Venture Northwest (Oct 30,2008). This year, there are two new Angel investment conferences: The Gorge Angel Conference which as held in september and the Willamette Angel Conference (May 14, 2009).
These conferences in Oregon differ from the Early Stage Investors Conference, held by NWEN in Seattle, because the conferences forn an Angel Fund which creates an LLC which provides an award of a specific cash investment in the company. The awards range from $70,000 to $150,000 for most of these conferences. Jama Software was awarded $110,000 for the Bend Venture Conference.
There is a great write-up of the event in Bend by the local Bend paper.
Based in Portland, Oregon, GadgetTrak provides theft recovery and loss prevention solutions for mobile devices. Through our unique and... [more]
Angel Oregon 2008 , a program of the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network, announced the winners of their annual conference last week with three companies receiving awards. This year, Angel Oregon showcased premier opportunities in the sectors where Oregon is considered world-class; Technology, Sustainability and Consumer Products. In each category, two companies were chosen to make final presentations and the winner of the Seed Oregon event was also provided the opportunity to present, making for a total of 7 presentations.
End//Outdoor, a sustainable footwear play, won the grand prize of a $150,000 investment. Osoeco and Revelation both won investments of $57,500. The three track system encouraged a more focused evaluation of the companies and created a wider expectation of the types of companies that would be funded. This new system should put to rest the thoughts that Angel Oregon only looks at Tech companies.
In the Tech category, Vesticon has developed a machine to aid in treating vertigo. Consumer Products track finalists Sameunderneath and Ausculto are both also sustainable apparel plays. Sustainability track finalist Powermand provides a way to aggregate power for small businesses as a way to conserve energy.
Frequently, companies will find additional funding after the event as individuals invest directly in the companies.
In Washington, the Northwest Entrepreneur Network (NWEN) is now taking submissions for the Early Stage Investment Forum (ESIF). The ESIF conference will be held on May 9th at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle. If you are interested in investing in start-up companies, or you have a start-up you would like to see funded, it is worth connecting with these types of conferences to get connected to the people who are engaged in this activity.
Jive Software is making news again. Fresh on the heels of their corporate identity revisions, Jive has announced that its Clearspace product has been nominated for the prestigious Codie.
As a finalist for the "Best Collaboration Software Solution," Jive Clearspace will be competing with some familiar names, including Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional, Citrix GoToMeeting, Central Desktop, Inspire Communications, and SightSpeed 6.0.
The Codie Awards holds the distinction of being the only peer-recognition awards program of its kind in the industry, providing a unique opportunity for companies to earn the praise of their competitors. The Codie Awards program, now in its twenty-first year, remains the standard-bearer for celebrating outstanding achievement and vision in the software industry.
In related news, Jive has also been named a finalist for the Intranet Journal product of the year award.
