Tech-Savvy Story Tellers Present at Oregon Story Board Event

Many of Oregon Story Board's recent crop of companies are services aimed at helping tech-savvy creatives and their businesses.

Movie house popcorn and craft beer accompanied a diverse collection of attendees at Oregon Story Board's startup showcase Thursday afternoon at the iconic Hollywood Theater. The nascent organization, which is under financial pressure after the Oregon State Legislature shot down a request to continue its funding, introduced the second group of young companies it has fostered through seed funds and hands-on expert mentoring since its launch in early 2013.

"We recognize that startups need a little help," said OSB Director Shelley Midthun in the theater lobby before the latest class of entrepreneurs presented on the Hollywood stage.

Turns out OSB needs help, too. Originally funded by the state through a cash infusion of around $880,000 requested by Business Oregon's Oregon Innovation Council for the 2013-2015 budget, the organization will not receive money from the state in its 2015-2017 budget. The Governor's office and Innovation Council requested $900,000 for OSB for this latest budget but that was not passed by the legislature.

The Oregon Innovation Council is a state initiative designed to create jobs, grow new industry sectors and bring outside dollars to the state.

OSB plans on replacing at least some of the state funds with private investment in the coming months.

"Part of this funding is driving new programming," said Midthun. OSB always anticipated that additional funding from private investors would be part of the mix, she added, declining to name the new investors at this time.

The 2015 class of seven firms set up shop in OSB's offices on NW Flanders for the last four months. They include virtual reality company WILD (whose founder, Gabe Paez, spoke at TechfestNW in August) and visual effects firm Sprocketship, which is comprised of a crew of former Hollywood special effects artists who have worked on flicks like Men in Black and The Lord of the Rings.

Many of this recent crop of companies are services aimed at helping tech-savvy creatives and their businesses. Teak offers software to gaming companies to help streamline the jumble of technologies they use. Rose City Game Consulting connects independent game makers with companies that turn their craft into a sustainable business (think games created for brands, for example).

Rose City founder Will Lewis, whose abundant copper-colored beard serves as inspiration for the firm's logo, told the audience that his company has formed a new partnership with Cartoon Network.

Another service aimed at providing a sense of cohesion and sustainability for Portland's digital creatives, Scopic acts as a project management hub for designers, copywriters, developers and other freelancers.

One OSB business did not present at Thursday's demo day. Secret Book Club, a kid-aimed literacy project that helps merge books with real life, chose to focus on developing its business rather than a presentation, according to founder Cynthia Salbato. Among the organization's challenges, she said, is the fact that Secret Book Club is based in Southern Oregon in Ashland and is affiliated with Ashland's TreeHouse Bookstore.

"We entered into OSB with the hope of building a technology team that would help us scale from a brick and mortar store to an online offering," she wrote in an email. "We did indeed find our team and we are very grateful that OSB took a chance on us, and believe ultimately it will prove to be a gamble that pays off."

Paying off, for at least some of the entrepreneurs involved with OSB, would come in the form of venture capital funding. It isn't clear whether any of the firms presenting at Hollywood Theater were approached by investors at the event.

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