Oregon Business Broadcast

A day in the life of an Oregon Business reporter might entail testing out augmented reality plumbing glasses. Or tailing an R2D2-like robot through his rural hometown. Or scaling a glacier on Mt. St. Helens. We reflect on what our escapades taught us about rebranding for the knowledge economy. This week's music is "Americana Folk," by Nicola Donchev

Oregon is growing too much weed, and cannabis companies have to figure out how to sell it. Ryan Michael, CEO of cannabis marketing agency KindTyme, says the answer lies in creative niche marketing. We talk with Michael about fielding demands for free weed from social media influencers, why LinkedIn is the only social network that hasn’t shut down his cannabis posts and why Oregonians might want to watch out for big corporate weed from Colorado.

What’s it like moving from a government job into entrepreneurship? Patrick Quinton, the former chair of the Portland Development Commission (now Prosper Portland) is the CEO of Dweller, a startup that helps homeowners finance and build accessory dwelling units. Deborah Kane, the former director of the USDA farm to school program, is the CEO of GoCamp, an AirBnB style camper van rental business. They talk about their new ventures, government vs. the private sector and the rise of purpose-driven organizations.

Our February cover story, "The Transporter," profiles Nat Parker. Parker founded Globesherpa, the startup that built TriMet one of the nation's first mobile ticketing applications. Now he has a new job: CEO of Moovel North America. The Daimler subsidiary aims to transform the way we navigate Portland and other US cities through mobility services software. We talk second grade Parker's experience on transit, pitching mobile payment to a crooked city official, and adjusting to Daimler's corporate structure.

Two of our reporters noticed that Oregon business and political leaders are infatuated with the word "blockchain." What is blockchain, exactly? And why is it getting so much attention here in Oregon? We asked venture capitalists and technology experts: Jeff Gaus, CEO of Prolifiq Software; Amy Sample Ward, director of the nonprofit technology network; Matt Abrams, partner at Seven Peaks Ventures, Julianne Brands, researcher at Oregon Angel Fund, and Matthew Gregory, founder of the blockchain-based security startup Ockam.

Bus ridership in Oregon and around the country has plummeted. We wanted to know why, so we sent a reporter to ride buses around the state. He shares lessons learned about how to design a bus people actually want to ride.