In a city full of entrepreneurs organizations and start up incubators, MESO (Microenterprise Services of Oregon) stands apart. Founded in 2005 as a program of the Black United Fund of Oregon, the program — which became its own nonprofit in 2001 — provides low income and minority residents with loans and technical assistance to start or expand their companies.
During an energy forum yesterday, renewable energy leaders spent the majority of the breakfast explaining the nuances of a landmark law, Senate Bill 1547B — which transitions Oregon away from coal energy.
Some companies offer employees opportunities to take prolonged time out of the office through an unlimited paid time off policy. They say it can reduce costs by improving employee retention and creates a professional workplace culture of highly motivated employees. On the flipside, they point to potential downsides for business, and admit that unlimited isn’t always as unlimited as it suggests.
It’s been five years since Wendy Strgar and her Eugene-based sexual health startup Good Clean Love won the Tom Hulce award at the annual Oregon Entrepreneurship Network awards ceremony. (Since then, she has set up an incubator for women owned business, secured a publisher for her second book — “Sex That Works: A Woman’s Guide to Embracing the Erotic, Awakening Arousal, and Deepening Intimacy — and become a spokesperson for sustainable sexual health.)
Good Clean Love products are now available in more than 10,000 stores, from Kroger and Target, to Safeway, CVS and Whole Foods. Oregon Business spoke with Strgar about sex as a growth driver, relationship-based marketing and GCL’s new cannabis lubricant.
How can performing arts organizations capitalize on Portland’s new gilded age? A group of arts leaders talked about how to cultivate a new generation of tech donors during an Oregon Business panel discussion held at the Portland Armory this morning.
A weekly list of new hires, fires and promotions, as well as retail and restaurant openings and closings:
On June 1st, we will reveal our 8th annual 100 Best Green Workplace rankings at an awards luncheon in the Nines Hotel. In anticipation of that event, we conducted brief interviews with a few of the organizations on the list regarding their green workplace practices. Here is the fourth in a series, a Q & A with Alyson Short, assistant manager with Escape Lodging.
There are many ways to look at economic trends. Each month, analysts at Ferguson Wellman Capital Management share how global economic data and market trends are viewed here in Oregon.
The Demise of the Consumer Has Been Overly Exaggerated
Earlier this month, several major retailers reported tough earnings. A common metric in the retail industry is Same-Store Sales (SSS), which measures the growth of the average store for a retailer. This metric standardizes industry data so it isn’t skewed by acquisitions, divestiture, etc. When three major U.S. retailers reported in May, SSS were very disappointing.
Vigor Industrial’s work with community action group Neighbors For Clean Air is a model for how businesses can engage with the community to reduce concerns over air pollutants, said Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) interim director Pete Shepherd at a City Club of Portland meeting last week.
The concept of sharing office space in Portland arguably got its start with developer/architect Kevin Cavenaugh more than ten years ago and has since grown to include dozens of startup incubators and most recently venture backed startups like WeWork that scale the idea nationally. Now, in yet another spin on “everything old is new” lifestyle … Read more