DEVELOPING ENTREPRENEURS
Article by Elon Glucklich
DRIVING GROWTH WITH A CREATIVE CULTURE
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Entrepreneurship is in Sabrina Parsons’ blood. The CEO of one of Eugene’s most successful tech firms, Palo Alto Software, Parsons has grown the business planning software company from 30 employees to roughly 80 in the 12 years she has run it, building clients around the world from Palo Alto’s downtown Eugene office.
“Finding ways to grow a business, and the risks inherent in entrepreneurship, was just part of my upbringing, and it’s something that’s been really critical to Palo Alto Software,” Parsons said. Her success has mirrored the city of Eugene’s in many ways. When Parsons took over Palo Alto from her father, the company operated out of a small commercial space on the edge of downtown. Now it is the anchor tenant of the five-story Broadway Commerce Center building in the heart of the city. Palo Alto is far from the only tech firm flourishing in Eugene thanks to local entrepreneurial energy. A handful to a dozen or more tech firms are launching across the region each year, pushing Eugene’s count of tech companies over 400 and employment up to 5,000, with combined annual payroll of roughly $350 million. That growth has come as Eugene city and business leaders have grown bolder and more creative in how to foster the city’s burgeoning entrepreneurial scene. Initiatives like RAIN Eugene, the regional business accelerator, efforts to develop a downtown-centered innovation district and major investments like the University of Oregon’s Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact are contributing to an entrepreneurial ecosystem that Eugene business backers hope is just a sign of things to come. Initiatives like RAIN Eugene coincide with a roughly five year effort by the city to establish an innovation district. Innovation districts are geographic areas that blend the energy of startups, established companies, mixeduse developments, higher education and financial institutions, connected by public investments in transit and environmental sustainability. |
"Eugene is a city that’s really trying to understand and find its entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem to really emerge into this new Eugene, where economic development is not just finding companies to move to Eugene, but actually fostering and supporting entrepreneurship. I think that has been a really big part of why I love to be in Eugene and have a company located here.”
- Sabrina Parsons, Palo Alto Software
- Sabrina Parsons, Palo Alto Software
The end result is a collaborative innovation ecosystem. And it’s an effort that its backers say has taken on added urgency with the 2021 IAAF World Athletics Championships in track and field approaching.
“A lot of the effort was precipitated by the recognition that, with 2021 on the horizon, we’ll have the world visiting our front porch, and they will learn about Eugene’s story one way or another,” said Andrew Robinson, a local consultant who has worked with Eugene business and civic leaders to publicly communicate the idea of innovation in Eugene. “The goal for the Community Narrative project is, "How can we encourage visitors to take home with them the clearest, most compelling story possible?’”
Storytelling has played a key role in explaining the evolution of Eugene’s culture into a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship. It may be the 21st-century iteration of the city’s reputation as a hotbed for eccentrics, hippies and revolutionaries, who were viewed as outsiders but were pivotal in shaping Eugene’s
culture.
“A lot of the effort was precipitated by the recognition that, with 2021 on the horizon, we’ll have the world visiting our front porch, and they will learn about Eugene’s story one way or another,” said Andrew Robinson, a local consultant who has worked with Eugene business and civic leaders to publicly communicate the idea of innovation in Eugene. “The goal for the Community Narrative project is, "How can we encourage visitors to take home with them the clearest, most compelling story possible?’”
Storytelling has played a key role in explaining the evolution of Eugene’s culture into a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship. It may be the 21st-century iteration of the city’s reputation as a hotbed for eccentrics, hippies and revolutionaries, who were viewed as outsiders but were pivotal in shaping Eugene’s
culture.
“You see a lot of that energy embodied in the innovation work that’s going on in Eugene, the active collaboration and curiosity with which people go about building businesses and growing businesses.”
- Andrew Robinson
- Andrew Robinson
Having a huge anchor for innovation is clearly a benefit to the city, too. The University of Oregon creates billions of dollars in economic activity across the state each year, and a growing share of that benefit is driven by the university’s applied sciences. Opening next year, the Phil and Penny Knight Campus will serve as an incubator for high-tech innovation, with limitless opportunities for collaboration between students, faculty and the community, said Andrew Nelson, the university’s Associate Vice President of Entrepreneurship.
“The UO benefits the region, but the region is a tremendous asset to the UO as well,” Nelson said. “When you think about an innovation center, it’s not contained to the Knight Campus. The point of an innovation center is not to be a permanent home for companies. You help them grow into the local community, and that’s the whole vision. It’s something that provides employment in the local community, an enhanced tax base for the local community. It enables us again as a university to partner up with community stakeholders.”
The university may be the largest single contributor to Eugene’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. But local workers spread across the city each bring fresh ideas and energy to challenge the status quo.
They’re people like Lauren Jerome. Jerome is co-founder of Eugene software startup Ascend, and program director of Redefining Women in Tech, a local collective of business professionals seeking to empower women in the local tech workforce. Jerome moved to Eugene in 2010, worked for RAIN Eugene when it launched and served as a mentor-inresidence helping entrepreneurs launch their startups.
She got an inkling that Eugene’s tech scene was moving to the next level in 2017, when Redefining Women in Tech held its first event, centered on leveraging the business social media platform LinkedIn. More than 80 people showed up and many of them have attended more recent events, including the recently completed Women in Tech Week, held in late October.
“To get 80-plus women to show up to a tech event and be more likely to show up for another event, in that regard, is really successful,” Jerome said. Initiatives like RAIN Eugene and the Knight Campus only serve to enhance Eugene’s reputation for innovation. But those efforts wouldn’t be fruitful without a dynamic and organically grown entrepreneurial ecosystem, built on the success of risk-takers willing to take big chances, and banking on Eugene as the place to do it.
“I’ve been seeing more people moving to Eugene for various reasons—more remote work, more entrepreneurial ideas,” Jerome said. “People who are employed but have a great idea, spin off and become a founder. We have a community that’s coming together, and it’s moving the whole ecosystem in the right direction."
“The UO benefits the region, but the region is a tremendous asset to the UO as well,” Nelson said. “When you think about an innovation center, it’s not contained to the Knight Campus. The point of an innovation center is not to be a permanent home for companies. You help them grow into the local community, and that’s the whole vision. It’s something that provides employment in the local community, an enhanced tax base for the local community. It enables us again as a university to partner up with community stakeholders.”
The university may be the largest single contributor to Eugene’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. But local workers spread across the city each bring fresh ideas and energy to challenge the status quo.
They’re people like Lauren Jerome. Jerome is co-founder of Eugene software startup Ascend, and program director of Redefining Women in Tech, a local collective of business professionals seeking to empower women in the local tech workforce. Jerome moved to Eugene in 2010, worked for RAIN Eugene when it launched and served as a mentor-inresidence helping entrepreneurs launch their startups.
She got an inkling that Eugene’s tech scene was moving to the next level in 2017, when Redefining Women in Tech held its first event, centered on leveraging the business social media platform LinkedIn. More than 80 people showed up and many of them have attended more recent events, including the recently completed Women in Tech Week, held in late October.
“To get 80-plus women to show up to a tech event and be more likely to show up for another event, in that regard, is really successful,” Jerome said. Initiatives like RAIN Eugene and the Knight Campus only serve to enhance Eugene’s reputation for innovation. But those efforts wouldn’t be fruitful without a dynamic and organically grown entrepreneurial ecosystem, built on the success of risk-takers willing to take big chances, and banking on Eugene as the place to do it.
“I’ve been seeing more people moving to Eugene for various reasons—more remote work, more entrepreneurial ideas,” Jerome said. “People who are employed but have a great idea, spin off and become a founder. We have a community that’s coming together, and it’s moving the whole ecosystem in the right direction."
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