Five Tech Startup Founders Weigh-in on the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

An entrepreneurial ecosystem is the social and economic ingredients of a region, that affect the probability of success for newly forming companies. The ecosystem is all the inputs to economic growth taken together including: capital, talent, partnership, and mentorship. I caught up with five founders during Eugene’s recent Tech Tour to get an update on how things are going.

WHY EUGENE: ETHAN RALSTON, PRESIDENT OF UBCO US

Eugene is an amazing place to live with access to a variety of outdoor activities, active lifestyle culture, and makes it attractive for starting new companies here. I have lived here my entire life, traveled all over the US for business, but always prefer to come back home to zero traffic and a comfortable pace of life. There are multiple top notch business groups in town from accounting service, to legal, to marketing, and everything in between that is needed to help start a new company. The tech scene in Eugene has always been growing rapidly since the early 2000’s and seems to be getting better every year.

FINDING CAPITAL: TODD EDMAN CO-FOUNDER OF BITCORK.IO

I'm lucky in that I've been in the business community for a while and grew up in Eugene which allowed me to raise money from my own network. Despite that, it has still been a challenge. I've done upwards of 50 pitches and for most here, making a Venture investment for $50K is too risky. There are huge holes in the capital landscape from Angel all the way to VC. I think there are different groups trying to fill those holes but fundamentally that's hard to do with the amount of capital here. Most Funds are predicated on making early stage investments and then following on in their investments in a big enough way to keep their equity stake high "enough."  Additionally if a company is raising funds in Oregon there is no fear of "missing out" on a deal. This keeps valuations low, which then makes it harder for companies to raise their next round outside of the state, and the cycle continues.

ACCESS TO TALENT: MICHELE ZIMBA, PRESIDENT OF NULIA

Nulia decided to locate our global headquarters in Eugene in large part because of the access it offered to high-quality employees from the passionate students and graduates of the University of Oregon and Lane Community College. We also felt there was a fast-growing technology industry and community in Eugene, which would continue to attract a strong and diverse base of talent for our business well into the future. We have developed strong partnerships with the Universities and the technology community which have allowed us to grow quickly. We expect to continue adding more jobs and expanding our Eugene workforce in the promising years to come.

LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS: NICHOLAS SKREPETOS, CEO AND FOUNDER OF MYCOFFEEHELPER

Local businesses have been eager to offer mobile order and pay ahead, and they’ve been both supportive and encouraging of MyCoffeeHelper. They appreciate being able to compete against larger chains while supporting local technology!

PEER MENTORSHIP: CHRIS LEE, CEO OF CONCIERGE365

Peer mentorship has been the foundation of providing me direction in my business endeavors. Every encounter with a fellow entrepreneur is a learning experience for success. What I love about Eugene is the accessibility to other founders. All the founders I know set aside time to help grow and provide a better community through peer mentorship. My top peer mentors have been Justin Bloom, Michael Nail, Lanny Berg, John Friess, Kevin DeWhitt, Richard Geiger, Matt Beaudet, Joe Maruschak & Shane Johnson.

A version of this story was originally authored for the Q4 edition of Open for Business Magazine