By Alisa Bondurant, Klowd
Reputation is one of the most valuable assets a community can develop. That’s why the ITC’s Software Alliance needs your help growing Idaho’s reputation through the Software Pulse, a website space intended to promote Idaho’s thriving community. Just as a beating pulse establishes the healthy state of an individual, the Software Pulse demonstrates the vibrancy of Idaho’s software community.
The need to grow Idaho’s reputation is clear. It’s common for many Idahoans to travel outside our state and meet people who are skeptical when they hear about a thriving software community in Idaho. During the ITC’s Venture Capitalists Unplugged event last year, many financers commented that they didn’t know what was going on in Idaho. This comment was echoed by David Cohen, founder and CEO of TechStars, when he came to Boise a few months ago to speak to our community at a special event hosted by the Idaho Technology Council. It’s clear that many people still associate Idaho with potato chips, not microchips—and this perception diminishes Idaho’s future opportunities.
For example, Idaho has an urgent need to bring new sources of capital to our state to fund startups and new Idaho businesses. For this to take place, venture capitalists and other financial backers need to realize that Idaho is a place where we grow ideas and build high-potential companies. Likewise, in order for us to attract new companies to our state, we need to demonstrate why Idaho is a viable place to do business. As we increase awareness of Idaho’s thriving software community, we also increase our ability to attract new talent, which is needed to meet demand from growing Idaho companies.
Idaho has a lot to be proud of and we need to help the rest of the world understand what sets our state apart as a thriving—and growing—software community. We do a great job talking to each other about Idaho’s robust software industry. But we need to communicate our success stories beyond Idaho. That’s why the ITC Software Alliance recognized the important need to aggregate content that would showcase our thriving software community to people outside our state.
Matt Rissell, Chairman of the ITC Software Alliance, explained, “The Software Pulse is one of the ITC Software Alliance’s initiatives to support and promote Idaho software companies. Our industry is impacted by Idaho’s reputation and the Software Pulse is a great way to market our success stories outside Idaho.”
We want to collect breaking news and success stories about Idaho software companies and we need the support of Idaho’s community to be successful. We need individuals to submit articles on topics such as the following:
- Advantages of doing business in Idaho, such as tech-experienced talent, business/tax incentives and a good ratio of income/cost of living
- Awards/accomplishments to companies and employees
- Creation of local software companies, offices, and startups
- Recent hires or expansions
- Resources available to software-related entrepreneurs and startups
- Trends in Idaho’s software industry
Aside from aggregating content, we also need your help to share content with your extended network through outlets such as email and social media. If every techie in Idaho helped promote the Software Pulse, just think of the impact it would make in growing Idaho’s reputation and helping create new business opportunities for our state. You can follow the Software Pulse at http://software.idahotechcouncil.org
In a crowded marketplace with many competing voices, we can’t afford to let others tell our story for us. We need to take the initiative and let people outside Idaho know why our state is a great place for technology companies. If you want Idaho to be famous for something other than our iconic potatoes, please contact me at alisa.bondurant@klowd.com.
Source: Idaho Statesman, Business Insider, July 18, 2012