Meet Sujal Patel: The Newest Member of the Elemental Board

Submitted by MattF on November 13, 2012 - 01:00

Sujal PatelToday, Elemental welcomes Sujal Patel to its board of directors and Elemental leadership team. Sujal is the founder of Isilon Systems, a leader in scale-out storage, where he variously led as president, CEO and chief technology officer since its inception in 2001. Sujal knows rapid business growth in the midst of technological transformation. His vision of network-attached storage (NAS) became the seed of Isilon, which he grew from an innovative startup to a public company and eventually sold to EMC for $2.25 billion. 

Prior to founding Isilon, Sujal acted in various engineering roles at RealNetworks. In addition to serving on the Elemental board, he serves on the board of ExtraHop Networks, a Seattle-based startup that supplies network-based application performance management solutions. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Maryland at College Park. He also knows the value of intellectual property and holds a number of patents and pending patents, including those for the Isilon OneFS™ distributed file system. 

When he is not building start-ups into billion dollar enterprises, Sujal spends his time mentoring other entrepreneurs, speaking about startup experiences, and devoting time to his growing family. Elemental is thrilled to have an individual with Sujal's knowledge and passion taking a seat on our board. 

As we welcome Sujal, it is with deep gratitude that we thank Bob Greenberg for his five years of service on the Elemental board of directors. Elemental’s founding team first got to know Bob in 1999 at Pixelworks, where he was a co-founder. After leaving Pixelworks, Bob led the Oregon Angel Fund’s investment in Elemental, representing the company’s first external investor. From there he played a key role in driving Elemental’s Series A financing with Voyager Capital and General Catalyst Partners, and has provided many thoughtful technical insights as a company Director.  We wish him the very best. 

Portland Mayoral Candidates Boot Up Software Discussion

Submitted by MattF on August 9, 2012 - 11:04

Portland Mayoral Candidates Hales and Smith Join Elemental to Discuss Software, Startups and EntrepreneurialismElemental logo

Elemental Technologies will host a debate between Portland mayoral candidates Charlie Hales and Jefferson Smith on August 13th at its new offices on SW Broadway in downtown Portland. The candidates will come together to discuss how their leadership can nurture the city’s budding software industry and support the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. Roy Kaufmann, a well-known media professional, will moderate the event.

With an unwavering commitment to the health and growth of the software cluster in Portland, Elemental encourages active civic dialogue between business and government leaders and supports public engagement. To this end and to make the discussion between the cities’ mayoral candidates available to the widest possible audience, the company will tap into its core competency and stream the event live, making it available to view in real-time via the Internet and on mobile devices. To view the event live on August 13 at 11am, simply click here and tune in on your PC, tablet or smart phone.

In addition, the public can submit questions to the forum via Twitter using the hashtag #pdxmayor during the debate. Queries will be submitted to the moderator as the debate occurs -- so don’t hesitate to tune in online and pose your pertinent questions to these two compelling candidates! Every voice counts as we move towards the elections in November, and we hope you’ll join us at Elemental HQ or participate in the forum online.

Please join Elemental, the citizens of Portland, and mayoral candidates next Monday to not only learn what the city can do for us, but what we can do for the city:

Who: Candidates for Mayor Charlie Hales and Jefferson Smith; Moderator Roy Kaufmann
What: City of Portland Mayoral Candidate Forum on Software and Entrepreneurialism
When: Monday, August 13th, from 11am to 12:30pm
Where: Elemental Technologies, 225 SW Broadway, Suite 600; Portland, Oregon, 97205
RSVP: http://www.elementaltechnologies.com/lp/RSVP

Can’t attend in person? Join us virtually on your smart phone, computer, or other connected device:
--View the debate at this URL:  http://www.elementaltechnologies.com/mayoralforum

3,000 miles from Wall Street: Why I won't be leaving my startup

Submitted by Sam on March 26, 2012 - 09:22

Reprinted from The Oregonian Op-Ed page, March 25, 2012.

oregon live logoIn his powerful and stunningly public resignation letter ("Why I'm leaving Goldman Sachs"), Greg Smith comprehensively cataloged the rapid decline in his company's corporate culture. His writing struck a chord with me here in Portland, 3,000 miles away from Wall Street. When a company's leadership loses its way and neglects the core values that made it successful in the first place, the inevitably resulting downward spiral is swift and unforgiving. Goldman's fall from grace is just the latest public example of this, and corruption of corporate culture is certainly not limited to the financial industry: Companies such as Enron and WorldCom devolved over time into similarly toxic cultures that led to corporate implosions with enormous costs to employees, shareholders and society. 

Elemental Puts Androids on Your iPhone at FIRST Robotics

Submitted by Don Nelke on March 8, 2012 - 13:12

first robotics logoEvents at the Portland Memorial Coliseum this weekend (March 9-10) will capture the interest of techno-geeks and sports enthusiasts alike. AutoDesk and Oregon FIRST Robotics are hosting a regional tournament in which robots, designed and built by teams of local high school students, will compete in a basketball game dubbed the “Rebound Rumble”. Like many sporting events, it will be played in an arena, involve teams of talented people, result in scoring, and operate under the constraints of a time clock. Elemental is proud to support this event. We’ll be on hand with our Elemental Live encoder to capture all the action from the pit in the Coliseum and stream it live over the Internet. Elemental Live will perform adaptive bit streaming for both Flash and Apple HLS, so you can watch these kids operating robots in a tournament setting on your computer, iPad or iPhone. Check out the live event stream here.

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