In Portland, Startups Work Together to Recruit Engineers

Watch out Silicon Valley. Up in Oregon, the CEOs of Portland’s top tech startups kicked off a recruiting campaign on May 29. Their goal: stop stealing each other’s engineers and start poaching talent elsewhere. “I don’t think there are any unemployed software engineers in Portland,” says Sam Blackman, CEO of Elemental Technologies, a video integration company with 130 employees and $21 million in annual revenue. “So it means that we’re recruiting from other companies here—our friends—and that’s a race to the bottom. A better strategy is to improve the pipeline.”

As a first step, Blackman and his 10 co-conspirators have filmed a five-minute video called TechTown Portland. It takes viewers on a high-speed tour of startups offices, highlighting light-filled lofts, bike storage lockers, and bring-your-pet-to-work policies. A silent cast of tech staffers looks busy but not stressed. The film can be viewed on Vimeo, and is being played at corporate recruiting events.