Every Day is Earth Day

Submitted by Whitney on April 22, 2011 - 15:52

Earth Day ImageIn 2009, the United Nations designated April 22 International Mother Earth Day to encourage recognition and awareness of the Earth’s natural environment. At Elemental, we strive to live every day like it’s Earth Day by diligently recycling, composting, choosing alternative methods of transportation and volunteering in our community here in Portland.

By providing benefits such as TriMet passes and Zipcar memberships to every employee, as well as offering on-site storage for those who bike to work, Elemental places in the top five of the 112 best Portland employers for low-car commuters in the April 2011 edition of Portland Afoot magazine. Among the top five organizations are the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Trust of Oregon, so we know we're on the right track!

Elementals Rebuilding Together, Lending a Helping Hand

Submitted by Whitney on May 14, 2010 - 08:14

Group Photo at Rebuilding Together

If you work at a startup company then you are probably familiar with strict budgeting of money, time and other resources to stay competitive.  Even with the limited resources of a typical startup, Elemental does its best to stay involved with the community by doing good works for our neighbors here in Portland.  We like to get to know members of our community and play an active role in their lives and hearts.  This strong sense of community extends beyond the fourth floor of 620 SW Alder; it is a belief we enjoy sharing with a large number of Portlanders. 

We recently joined forces with Rebuilding Together, a national nonprofit that rehabilitates homes for low-income homeowners, particularly the elderly and those with disabilities.  Saturday, April 24, nine of us Elementals set out to refurbish the home of an elderly and disabled couple here in Portland (Most of the team is pictured above).  The home, inside and out, has been well cared for in the past, but as you can imagine, some things became unmanageable for them over the past few years. 

Standing Room Only at Lunch 2.0

Submitted by Whitney on October 22, 2009 - 10:39

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

Submitted by Sam on August 17, 2009 - 09:43

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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