Portland is one of my favorite cities I've lived in but it's not a tech city by any means. If you're looking for tech culture you should definitely look elsewhere.
This can also be said about a number of other cities.
> but really any city
...is not that great of an answer. I mean look at Philly. Philly is a massive city but it's not a tech giant nor does it have a huge tech culture. Houston, Dallas, San Diego, etc. These cities are not necessarily known for their tech culture.
But this is all relative. To me Portland doesn't seem like a tech city because I've lived in DC where they average > 1000 attendees at tech meetups.
Edit: Portland OR, not ME
Portland is one of my favorite cities I've lived in but it's
not a tech city by any means.
But then again it's all relative. Someone coming from the bible belt might consider Portland to be a tech city.
Here is why I think Portland's startup/tech culture is lacking:
1.) In DC I had ~12 co-working spaces to choose from. All of which had both bull-pen and dedicated office space. One of the spaces I worked out of had ~10 startups with their own offices, and that was just at the single location in Arlington. At their other 3 locations they had just as many if not more. In Portland I maybe have 2 solid co-working spaces to choose from and as far as I know none of them are supporting any well known startups.
2. Meetups in Portland are very low key and don't draw very many attendees. I mean check out this meetup in DC[1]. It had close to 900 confirmed attendees. From experience I'd say at least 70% of those confirmed actually showed up. Portland on the other hand has only 70[2] confirmed attendees for a very similar event.
3. There's a lack of startup accelerators and incubation in Portland. PIEPDX seems to be the largest (and looks awesome). Nike moved FuleLab to SF this year[4] and everything else that I've researched seems to have closed down. In DC you have 1776[5], Acceleprise[6] and The Fort[7].
Perhaps comparing the two isn't fair as DC is a larger city. These are simply my observations as a person who has lived in both places.
It could also be that I'm just not looking in the right places. I know startups like Simple, Treehouse and New Relic are all in Portland, I just haven't seen any presence from them (be it at meetups or otherwise).
To be honest, one of the reasons I love living in Portland is because it's tech/startup culture is smaller than other cities. I'm excited to be part of it's growth.
• 1. http://www.meetup.com/DC-Tech-Meetup/events/154948792/
• 2. http://www.meetup.com/PDX-Tech/
• 4. http://www.nikefuellab.com/
• 5. http://1776dc.com/
• 6. http://acceleprise.vc/east-coast/
• 7. http://fortify.vc/Fortifyventures/
p.s. - Let me know if you're up for a coffee the next time you're in town. I'm always interested in meeting HNers.
I really don't think it has much to do with the "bible belt" as much as it has to do with being in a large metro area and then different metros have different strengths and weaknesses. I mean, Georgia Tech is in Atlanta, it is one of the premier engineering schools in the world. Somehow it has managed to prosper despite being located in the bible belt.
Obviously cost of living, things to do in the city, etc. But should I also try to ascertain hard numbers on the "growth" of the tech sector in that area?
Yes. You really need to start looking for either remote jobs that are headquartered elsewhere, or start looking to relocate to one of those places. The second will likely get you more culture, there are plenty of good remote companies but also plenty of bad ones.
SF seems to be the commonly-referenced location, but really any city. Portland, DC, New York, really anywhere that's not bible belt.