BankSimple moves to Portland

http://banksimple.com/blog/BankSimple/were-moving-to-portland/

by ahhrrr • 15 years ago

82 96 15 years ago

dminor5• 15 years ago

Portland seems to be attracting a lot of hackers lately, so it will be interesting to see if the startup scene and investment money follow.

ronnier4• 15 years ago

I don't understand why, other than being among other hackers. I recently visited there and was really disgusted with the place.

dminor5• 15 years ago

What disgusted you?

arjn2• 15 years ago

You're just trolling right ? Portland is a great place. And its good even though Oregon (in general) has had an unemployment problem for longer than most other states.

jvoorhis3• 15 years ago

It's already here. Our company (AppFog) was founded in Portland and we just secured our Series B. We have offices in the same building as JanRain and yet another co-working space. In Old Town or the Pearl District, there are startups on every other block.

Interestingly, our biggest challenge right now is recruiting. If you're considering moving to Portland, we could use you.

http://blog.phpfog.com/2011/06/10/we-are-hiring/

dminor5• 15 years ago

There's definitely increased activity, but I think it falls short of being a scene (I say this as someone looking on from Hillsboro). I guess I'm looking for a larger VC to set up shop, rather than visit from somewhere else.

shrikant• 15 years ago

OT, and completely uninformed question: how's the scene in recruiting straight from Portland State University?

(I ask out of idle curiosity, because I once had the opportunity to do an MS in CS there a while (6 years) back, and I passed up because I couldn't take on the financial burden - please drop me an email if you feel this might threadjack the discussion here.)

jgmmo• 15 years ago

I live in Eugene OR. I am dying for a Ruby users group, or coworking spot, or anything! There is no sign of a tech scene at all here!

jordanlev• 15 years ago

Umm... Eugene is not Portland. You should come on up to a rubypdx meetings some time -- really great people and almost always interesting topics. http://pdxruby.org/

MatthewPhillips• 15 years ago

Still waiting on that invite I signed up for what seems like a year ago.

Can't leave Fifth Third soon enough.

thinkcomp2• 15 years ago

BankSimple isn't a bank!

What I don't understand is the fact that all of BankSimple's customers (banks) are in...New York...

al3x8• 15 years ago

We're not a bank, but we view our customers as being the people who would use traditional banks. We partner with banks, and those banks are located around the country.

That said, our processing technology partner, TxVia, is located in NYC, as are several of our investors.

reustle• 15 years ago

BankSimple == Duke Nukem Forever

heyrhett2• 15 years ago

Duke Nukem Forever, you mean that established product with nearly half a million customers?

KirinDave• 15 years ago

Just downrate the unfair comparison and move on.

There is no way to positively spin a comparison to Duke Nukem Forever. Don't even try.

thedjpetersen2• 15 years ago

False

thedjpetersen2• 15 years ago

Come on guys, its humor, he used "==" instead of "="

ry0ohki2• 15 years ago

I really love Portland, and I'm sure it's a great new home for BankSimple, but I am a little shocked that a company would move to a city where literally everyone in the company would have to be relocated. I've seen companies move to SF or NY before because of VC raised, but this is almost the opposite!

skrebbel2• 15 years ago

Well, I heard that my milkman's aunt heard from a friend that Alex Payne said he would quit unless everybody moved over to become his neighbour!

al3x8• 15 years ago

Cute. But, actually, if my co-founders had decided to move the company to another city entirely, I would have happily moved. Portland happens to be a good fit for what we're doing, particular from a customer service hiring perspective.

darushimo• 15 years ago

" It already has a small, five-person development office in Portland's Pearl District, led by Payne, who moved here last year. " - http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2011/08/p...

jvoorhis3• 15 years ago

I have no idea where they are now, but we were neighbors once: http://blog.phpfog.com/2011/07/25/want-to-be-the-next-php-fo...

Before we were at PIE, our company worked at cafes. I guess you could say we scaled from our home offices to a multi-tenant office to dedicated office space.

pchristensen• 15 years ago

There are clues there:

1) they wanted everyone to be in once place 2) they're hiring a lot of people, especially customer service.

Customer service in NYC or SF would be prohibitively expensive, so if they want to be all in one place, they would have to move anyway. This is no different than Zappos being in Las Vegas or Groupon being in Chicago (I think Zappos relocated). Personnel costs when you have 50 employees per hacker become a big deal.

Portland has a ton of skilled, educated people and high unemployment, so they're going to get a lot of bank for their buck.

al3x8• 15 years ago

You got it.

Lewisham• 15 years ago

I wonder how well Vegas is doing for Zappos.

Portland, from all accounts, is beginning to look like a city-sized SOMA startup scene, and the city's personality certainly jives with the common stereotype of the hipster startup developer.

Vegas is certainly ideally situated for a place that wants a big warehouse, but I wonder how well Zappos are attracting tech talent. I can imagine Vegas might be a fun place to be, or it might be hell. I'd try it out for a year. It's certainly very different.

al3x8• 15 years ago

We don't have to relocate "literally everyone" in the company. We have myself (one of the co-founders), three engineers, and a project manager here in Portland already. A couple of other people planned on moving for personal reasons in the next few months.

Still, there are a number of people in the company who are uprooting their lives in NYC, SF, and elsewhere, and we really appreciate that they were willing to do so.

ry0ohki2• 15 years ago

Ah somehow I missed you had people in Portland on the first read. It makes much more sense especially if some of the founders are located there.

Pakourama2• 15 years ago

Portland? WTF? Why? It's a hipster dump. Rains 9 months a year, has 12% perpetual unemployment, plus the USA's largest resident homeless population, which isn't terribly shocking given the awful job market. But, if you can actually get a job the salary will be circa 1994 and yet the property and rent prices are in fantasy land stuck in the 2006 housing bubble. Oh, plus the city has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation. Great place to live if you like being wet, underemployed, and depressed.

Glad I got out of that dump, if you want to have a future you need to be in Boston, NYC, or The Valley.

waxpancake• 15 years ago

We're glad you got out too. :)

endlessvoid94• 15 years ago

The company is moving there. The company isn't trying to get a job like you were. The company is actually CREATING jobs there.

fatpanther• 15 years ago

Portland unemployment rate - 9.2%; United States - 9.3% (source: http://bls.gov/web/metro/laummtrk.htm)

Real estate prices are definitely down from 2006; maybe not as much percentage-wise as California, but the equivalent house here still costs much less than one in Boston, NYC, or The Valley.

The rain can get you down sometimes but summers are fantastic (and dry). I feel I have a high quality of life here without having to sit in a car for 12% or more of my waking hours. Not that I don't get annoyed by something or another here from time to time. Every city has its own benefits & burdens.

dreamdu5t• 15 years ago

LoL, like Boston, NYC, or the Valley are any less of a joke.

All of America is same sprawling hollow suburbia.

binarycleric• 15 years ago

Visit Pittsburgh someday. We have some hollow suburbia but we don't have the typical endless suburban sprawl. We do have a fair amount of hipsters though, just a warning.

heyrhett2• 15 years ago

The dream of the 90's is alive in portland: http://www.hulu.com/watch/205428/portlandia-i-dream-of-the-9...

dailo10• 15 years ago

Portland is basically where San Francisco was at 20 years ago.

In terms of a tech hub, the only thing missing is a stronger university presence.

dminor5• 15 years ago

The Bay Area had many large defense contractors employing a lot of engineers. I don't think that should be underestimated.

harryh• 15 years ago

This is not true. There is a history of technology entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley going back (at least) 60 years. There are a great many pieces of human infrastructure that exist in SF that do not exist in Portland from the largest collection of technology VCs & Angels in the world, to lawyers that understand corporate structure and stock options, to bankers that understand IPOs, and of course thousands and thousands of engineers.

A 20 year difference if a vast understatement.

al3x8• 15 years ago

Even though I guess I'm supposed to be the one sticking up for Portland in these comments, I have to agree with this. I don't think Portland or any other city is likely to be the next Silicon Valley. I also don't think that's a bad thing for some types of businesses.

mathattack2• 15 years ago

From anecdotal experience, it does seem like Portland is drawing a lot of talented folks. It is definitely a "bike to work, complain at city hall and drink obscure beer" crowd, but is that such a bad thing?

pnathan2• 15 years ago

"bike to work, complain at city hall and drink obscure beer"

Sounds great to me.

mathattack2• 15 years ago

Indeed. It appeals to the hacker ethic. And the Green ethic. But not to the SUV and Strip Mall ethic. Or the Zenga (sp?) tie ethic.

LiveTheDream• 15 years ago

Does this have anything at all to do with the new California money transmission laws?

al3x8• 15 years ago

Nope.

nivertech• 15 years ago

Can this be related to the fact that Oregon has no Sales Tax?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_State...

scottkrager2• 15 years ago

Probably not.

It's actually a very exit-unfriendly state from a tax standpoint. Very high state income-tax rate and capital gains are taxed at your state income level as well.

However, it's pretty sweet to pay the price listed at stores and restaurants.

bh422222• 15 years ago

Portland is a great town.... but seriously gastro-pubs are silly, get some real restaurants people.

ironchef2• 15 years ago

the portland area has some amazing restaurants, such as: Beast, Pok Pok, Nostrana, Le Pigeon, and Gruner. Those are all beard nominees. Not one of them is a gastropub. Have you not been to any of the above? If not, I'd suggest you get to "some real restaurants"

bh422222• 15 years ago

Beard nominees are expensive. All up scale restaurants are "real restaurants". But beneath them (while still well above fast food) are mid level restaurants. In Portland this market niche seems almost entirely dedicated to "gastro" pubs. The very fact that they are called "gastro pubs" suggest people are aware there is something lacking in mid and low end (but not fast food) restaurants.

al3x8• 15 years ago

I'm kind of a foodie, and our project manager is definitely a foodie. He runs this site that lists some great places to eat and drink if you're only in a city for a couple days. Here are his picks for Portland: http://noms.in/portland

I've seen very few places here that categorize themselves as gastropubs. There are a lot of breweries in Portland, and some of them have their own restaurants/pubs. But's that's a relatively small percentage of the diverse dining options here.

clistctrl• 15 years ago

As a fellow foodie, but in Boston, tell your project manager his site is right on for the area. All really great suggestions.

mosburger3• 15 years ago

As someone from Portland, Maine, I always get a little miffed when people don't specify that this is Portland, Oregon.

Yeah, Portland, Oregon's metro area is about 4x the size of that of Maine's largest city, but it's not like it's an order of magnitude or anything.

Maybe I'm just jealous that there's more going on there than here. :(

dmix2• 15 years ago

Then isn't mentioning "Portland, Maine" the better requirement?

blackguardx• 15 years ago

Should everyone in California have to specify that they live in California the state, rather than this place:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California,_Pennsylvania

pkamb• 15 years ago

As someone from "Washington, the state" I get good at saying that any time I'm on the east coast.

mosburger3• 15 years ago

36,000,000 people live in California. 6,259 people live in California, PA. I don't think that's a fair analogy.

fuzionmonkey2• 15 years ago

It's like somebody in Moscow, Idaho getting upset that people don't refer to it as Moscow, Russia.

Face it, Portland, Oregon is the real Portland.

pnathan2• 15 years ago

Woah, someone actually knows Moscow, Idaho exists. +1, sir.

mosburger3• 15 years ago

Nope. I won't. 500,000 people live in this area. We're the cultural center of the state. We aren't small potatoes. Face it, Portland, OR is bigger, but it certainly doesn't dwarf Portland, ME.

Moscow, Russia has 11 million people. Moscow, Idaho has 23,000. I know you're probably being flippant, but I hardly think that's a fair analogy.

Besides, we had the name first. :)

bfe3• 15 years ago

Portland is one of my favorite American cities. But if you're freely choosing somewhere to relocate to, I would think Seattle would be a tough competitor. It's nearby, has a bigger tech community, and has Washington's zero state income tax versus Oregon with the highest state income tax in the country at 11% for the top bracket.

m0nastic• 15 years ago

When I was out in California, my company closed up our Santa Cruz office very suddenly.

A large contingent of people working there decided to move to just outside of Portland (Vancouver Washington) mainly because of the fact that by living in Washington you wouldn't pay any income tax, and by adjoining Portland, you could do all your shopping and avoid paying sales tax.

I opted not to relocate there with everyone else (it seemed silly to move somewhere just for tax reasons), but I imagine there are at least a fair number of people who use that scenario.

bfe3• 15 years ago

I think it is kind of silly to move somewhere just for tax reasons. I've spent nearly my whole career so far in relatively higher tax jurisdictions, but it's typically way more than worth it for what you get with the location. And for example I'd much rather live and work in the Pearl district of Portland than in Vancouver, Washington. But it seems like Seattle versus Portland is anomalously competitive.

MrVitaliy2• 15 years ago

With average traffic/distance and ~25mpg, it takes about $6 for a round trip from Vancouver, WA to Portland, OR. Which would save you ~$4 on a $100 item.

However, for some reason, lots of people in general were fleeing CA at the peak of housing bubble.

geeksam2• 15 years ago

There seem to be enough of them to clog up I-5 on a daily basis.

Zimahl• 15 years ago

The Pearl District in Portland is nice and all but I'll never understand why you would want an office there, especially if you aren't a business that requires a trendy, hip image. A web-based business with no front door is going to pay a TON per square foot just to be downtown.

Is it the address they are after? The need to impress investors? It's already expensive enough to run a business, why burden yourself and your employees with a completely irrelevant location?

I do live and work here and love the city, I just don't get the appeal of working downtown. The company I currently work for left downtown before I joined and I'm glad they did. Not many people live downtown and getting to and from work every day would take longer for me (and many others) than it does now. Not to mention an added cost of parking or taking mass transit.

MrVitaliy2• 15 years ago

Many people live in Goose Hollow (87% of them are renters) and the Fareless zone covers most of the transit distance.

I find that many people who live in downtown simply do not own a car, which seems almost impossible to function in this day and age.

al3x8• 15 years ago

We asked our employees here, and even the ones who live on the East Side enjoy working in the Pearl. Plus, we like that there are other startups in this neighborhood, PIE (the incubator), etc. etc.

BankSimple moves to Portland

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