Portland Oregon Mayoral Candidate Eileen Brady Announces Plan for Entrepreneurs | StartupReport.com (press release)

Eileen Brady Unveils Plan to Promote Entrepreneurs; Gains Endorsement of Portland’s Tech Leaders

Eileen Brady announced a new initiative on Wednesday that will cut away the red tape that too often slows down Portland’s entrepreneurs, promising as Mayor to streamline the city’s cumbersome permitting process, make short-term leases more available for start-ups and create educational partnerships with local colleges that promote the job skills the Tech and Bioscience communities require.

“Our entrepreneurs have shown that we can build great products that create jobs here in Portland,” said Brady. “But as Jim Johnson, the CEO of Tripwire told me recently, ‘Government doesn’t create the seeds to grow, but it must provide the fertile soil.’

“As mayor, I plan on making sure City Hall is doing just that.”

In addition, four of Portland's most prominent high-tech leaders on Wednesday endorsed Brady as Portland’s next Mayor, citing her entrepreneurial success as a businesswoman and her drive to bring that same energy and creativity to a fresh start at City Hall.

The four - Scott Kveton, CEO of Urban Airship Inc; Josh Friedman, COO and Director at Rumblefish; Nitin Khanna, CEO at MergerTech; and Chris Logan, CEO SweetSpot Diabetes Care, Inc. – represent some of the fastest growing and innovative companies in the Silicon Forest

“Eileen's creative ideas on job creation and community safety underscore that she understands what the next Mayor of Portland is going to need to be laser focused on,” said Nitin Khanna, an Oregon entrepreneur who runs the investment bank MergerTech and sold his fast-growing Portland software company Saber Corp. for $420 million in 2007.

“Eileen’s experience clearly demonstrates that she has the skills and the leadership to make a real difference for Portland.”

Scott Kveton is co-founder and chief executive of Urban Airship, a Portland mobile software developer creating unique "push notification" technologies for smartphones whose business is quickly growing good-paying family wage jobs. He says,

“For the first time, a candidate for city office took the time to sit down and listen to Portland's tech leaders. We are a thriving community of growing businesses who want to help build a stronger local economy here in Portland. We believe Eileen Brady's entrepreneurial approach and understanding of our needs is what we need in the Mayor's office. That is why we are taking the extraordinary step of Eileen Brady for Mayor.”

Brady will bring 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur and businesswoman to the Mayor’s office. Before helping co-found New Seasons Market, she was an executive in the high tech sector, where she led a team of software engineers, database administrators, instructional designers and graphic artists creating products for the nation’s largest provider of online training programs for Microsoft Windows. Her company was so successful that it was sold 6 times in 5 years during the height of the dot com boom.

"Eileen understands that a healthy city relies on a thriving, diverse and healthy economy,” said Chris Logan, the CEO of SweetSpot Diabetes Care, Inc., a health data company that has developed a system to remotely monitor blood glucose levels in veterans with diabetes, allowing them to stay at home and reduce complications.

“We need to help companies thrive who can provide high paying, stable jobs. Eileen has a unique mix of business experience and personal values that matter to Portlanders and will help rebuild the economy."

Wednesday’s endorsements are the latest in a long string of endorsements from business, civic and political leaders. More important is Brady’s broad-based, grassroots support – more than 1,000 Portlanders have now contributed to her campaign, most making contributions of less than $100.

"Wherever I go, whether it's a neighborhood meeting in Southeast Portland or a meeting with business leaders downtown, I'm told the issue of building a vibrant economy is the top priority," Brady said. “I've spent the last 25 years creating good jobs with full-family health benefits, and there's nothing that says you can't have a progressive city and a vibrant economy.

“That means not only creating an environment for our high tech entrepreneurs to flourish, but also revitalize our manufacturing base and working waterfront. Portland is a city that likes to make things, and we need to do that and put people back to work.”

For more information, go to Eileen Brady’s website www.eileenformayor.com. Stay tuned on Twitter, @EileenBrady and Facebook, Eileen Brady for Mayor.

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Contact: Natalie Sept, [email protected], 503-201-1928