The Venture Out Festival is accepting applications from outdoor startups through the end of this month. So if you’re looking for cash prizes, investment or simply a chance to get the word out to an enthusiastic crowd of outdoorsy people, then you best apply. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 18.
Bright.md — a Portland startup with Bend connections — announced today that it closed an $8 million Series B funding road. The round was led by B Capital Group, and included additional investment from Seven Peaks Ventures.
Remember how much fun the Bend Venture Conference was last year? Remember when they rolled out the social impact track? Or when they just kept handing out giant checks for a total of $4 million and everyone was just crying and cheering? That was fun. Guess what? It’s happening again and if you’re a startup founder who wants to be on the stage, then the time to apply is now.
Please stop what you’re doing so that we can talk about cookies. Specifically, FoundersPad, Bend’s own early-stage venture fund plus mentoring, has made an investment in The No-Bake Cookie Company. FoundersPad is also actively mentoring the company to help speed up its growth and put more cookies into more stores around the country. FYI if you’re ever given a choice between cookies and more cookies, the latter is always the right answer.
Bend-based Seven Peaks Ventures recently announced that they’re raising a second fund of $30 million to invest in up to two dozen startups around the Pacific Northwest. The VC’s first $7.4 million fund backed 20 companies, including Bend startups Droplr, Manzama and Amplion, as well as startups in Portland, San Francisco and Boulder. In a story in Geekwire today, general partner Dino Vendetti says:
If you’re a startup looking for money, then you have plans Tuesday. What are they? Glad you asked. The Technology Association of Oregon is hosting a panel discussion on funding and fundraising featuring experts from right here in Bend.
Wildish co-founders Rick Lee and Adam Allen have reimagined something that’s already good — a hammock! — and made it even better. The pair debuted the M.C. Hammie on Kickstarter last week, and they’ve raised more than $8,200 of their $15,000 goal already.
Does money buy happiness? No, people it does not. But it can get your startup another developer or fund a production run of your product, and sometimes, that’s just what you need. And if you happen to be looking for investment, then consider applying for Cascade Angels’ second funding round of the year.