Portland photo via StuSeeger

Portland, Oregon: Shortly after arriving at the Angel Oregon investment forum in Portland, I bumped into veteran investor Gerry Langeler of OVP Venture Partners.

Over lunch, Langeler, along with economic development guru John Sechrest, shared insights about the Portland area startup scene and how it differs from Seattle's entrepreneurial community. Portland is certainly smaller in the number of people participating in startups, with Langeler noting that the six degrees of separation phenomenon is more like one or two degrees in Oregon. Furthermore, the state simply doesn't attract the investment dollars of its much larger neighbor to the north. ($101 million invested in 18 deals in Oregon in 2009, versus $574 million invested in 108 deals in Washington).

But one of the things they noted about the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network -- which hosts Angel Oregon and serves as a unifying force within the investment and startup communities -- was the diversity of companies which come through the pipeline every year. And that diversity was certainly reflected in the presentations on Friday as startups in a number of sectors -- from biotech (Gamma Therapeutics) to software (ActiveTrak) to the maker of sleep aid devices (Coherence Resources) -- competed for $200,000 in startup capital.

The winners of the investment competition also reflected the diversity. Portland-based DeltaPoint, an Oregon Health & Science University spinout which is developing software to help doctors better pinpoint cancer cells, won the top $175,000 prize. Meanwhile, in the seed-stage category, Enjoy Life won $25,000 to help bring to market a premium sangria wine called Divina Sangria. (Interestingly, there were two other wine-related startups on display among the more than dozen presenting companies).

In my chat with Langeler and Sechrest, they noted how the startup and investment communities really work together in Oregon, more so than in Seattle where various angel groups host competing investment forums and venture capitalists (while cordial) don't always share deals. Langeler contrasted that with Oregon, noting

Langeler

Oregon's technology community also is shaped by a different set of companies, hardware and semiconductor companies such as H-P, Intel and Tektronix. And its makeup also is influenced by a strong open source ecosystem, which Langeler noted contrasts with Seattle which has one very large software company which is "closed source." (Also worth noting that Linux creator Linus Torvalds moved to Portland in 2004)

Mike Rogoway, the longtime technology reporter for The Oregonian, who has spent time in both Seattle and Portland, said after about 10 years there finally feels like there's a buzz or energy going on in Portland's startup scene. He's not sure yet if that's simply because people now are more vocal, spreading the message on blogs and social networking sites. Or if there's a real transformation happening.

Rogoway, who spends a good portion of his time now tracking the startup beat, said Oregon is somewhat hampered by the fact that the region's largest tech employer, Intel, doesn't really spawn entrepreneurial activity.

"You don't see people leave Intel to start companies, it is very rare," he said.

That contrasts with Seattle where networking events like Lunch 2.0 or Hops & Chops often have former (or current) Amazon.com, RealNetworks or Microsoft developers hanging out.

Portland does have some interesting startups which are emerging, some of which were on display at Friday's conference. Others, such as heavily-funded Jive Software, have pulled in financing from some of the top names in the venture business. And we've been noticing a recent pick-up in activity recently in Portland.

Earlier this week, we reported on Madrona Venture Group's backing of Portland e-commerce upstart ShopIgniter. That followed an investment by Founder's Co-op in Portland mobile app startup Urban Airship

Portland may not be as big as Seattle. But venture capitalists -- especially those from Seattle -- are certainly paying attention to what's going on.

[Flickr photo via StuSeeger]