Standing Room Only at Lunch 2.0

Lunch 2.0 at Elemental Panorama

Yesterday, we set a new record at Elemental, thanks to the overwhelming attendance at this month's Lunch 2.0: our conference room's largest meeting to date! There was no need for the HVAC system as 60 or so guests, ranging from software developers to entreprenuers to video industry reps, generated enough heat in our intimate office. Attendees enjoyed a Kettleman's lunch and a demonstration of Elemental's product suite by software engineers Greg and Davy and product manager Lisa. We were thrilled to have such a diverse and interested crowd join us to talk about the opportunities and challenges of online video and video compression. Thanks to all who attended for the interesting conversation and engaging questions both at the event and afterward. Here are some of our favorite tweets:

arih: Thanks @elementaltech for hosting Lunch 2.0! Very cool technology for parallel video processing.

lisacicala: Learning about video compression tools at Lunch 2.0 with @elementaltech.

ike6: Thanks to @siliconflorist for the tip on Lunch 2.0 at@elementaltech! Daily dose of smart folks doing cool stuff in Portland!

We agree. The inventive technology and supportive community is why we love Portland - see you at tech events around town!

Recruiting at Elemental

There’s been a lot written about Portland’s ability to lure talented folks from all over the country. Richard Florida is probably the best known author on this subject, and he’s given our fair city high marks in terms of its ability to attract these innovative people – he dubs them the Creative Class – to the shores of the Willamette River. Portland also happens to have relatively affordable housing, great public transit and delicious local food. These socio-geographical advantages make Portland a great place to start a company.

Along these lines, one of the great aspects of working at a startup (well, a funded startup anyway) is that you get to hire people you like to work with. But, this benefit is a double-edged sword: not only do these colleagues have to be a pleasure to work with in a high-pressure, results-oriented environment, they also need to be far more productive than the average worker. A startup is in the unique position of spending significant investor capital to build a product that competes with well-established firms (with a much lower cost of capital!). The only way that the formula works is if the employee population far out-produces larger companies: making the right decisions faster, anticipating market directions sooner, and executing on product development plans on time. There is not much margin for error and finding these kinds of people takes an extraordinary amount of searching.

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