As reported by Malia Spencer, Portland Business Journal
Fast-growing Jama Software is adding fuel to its fire with a $20 million series C funding round aimed at building out more product capabilities.
As part of this round, the company is also bringing on a new investor in Updata Partners. The Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm is no stranger to Portland: it invested in Viewpoint Construction Software and recently purchased Ruby Receptionists.
Also included in the round were existing investors Trinity Ventures, Madrona Ventures and members of Oregon Angel Fund.
The round puts Jama’s total funding at $33 million.
CEO Eric Winquist said the round will help the company add capabilities to its collaboration software, especially for customers that are in highly regulated areas such as medical devices, financial services and consumer electronics.
“This allows us to double down on the success we have been having,” he said.
Jama’s product helps customers through their own product design process. The software allows the right people to collaborate at the right time in the development cycle.
Initially, the company worked with clients who build highly complex products in markets such as medical and aerospace.
However, as the Internet of things and wearables have taken off, complexity has come to more markets.
“When we started eight years ago IoT was just starting,” Winquist said, noting that the iPhone had just hit the market and devices like Fitbit were brand new. “Our sweet spot was hardware and software systems and that has taken off in the last 18 months. We have seen the market shift and all companies are becoming systems engineering companies.”
This year the company moved into a new office at 135 S.W. Taylor St. that allows all 140 employees to work under one roof (click through the photos to get a glimpse inside the space).
Winquist expects Jama will add another 50 employees this year.
As part of the funding round, Jon Seeber from Updata and Tim Porter from Madrona will join Jama’s board of directors.

Bend, OR – March 3, 2015 – kidRunner, the world’s first high performance, all-terrain, lightweight, kid jogger, announces its 2015 Ambassador Team. The Ambassador Team, which consists of a mix of elite runners, adventure athletes, every day running parents, retail partners, and event sponsors, is led by long-time kidRunner Ambassador and World Champion runner, Max King. Other members include Ryan and Natalie Bak, Stephanie and Ben Bruce, Amy Golumbia, Scott and Lauren Jones, Noel Paine, Gray Skinner, John Tribbia, and Jake Woolley.
“We identified and assembled a team of elite and every day parent runners, adventurers and entrepreneurs who shared our goal to reinvent running, biking, skiing and exploring with kids,” said Will Warne, kidRunner partner, based in Bend, OR. “We wanted athletes motivated to reinvent running and exploring with kids because today’s kid joggers are heavy, awkward and injury prone. We looked for a team who runs on roads, trails, beaches, and tracks and who can share their experiences with the world. And, we’ve found them!”
Following a Spring 2015 crowdfunding campaign, each ambassador will be given their own state of the art kidRunner to run, explore and for some, to train for the 2016 Olympic Trials in their sports. kidRunner will be taking pre-orders in the summer for their 2015 go-to-market launch.
About the 2015 Ambassador Team:
• Max King (Bend, OR):
o 2014 World 100k Champion (American Record 6:27); 2012 World Mountain Running Champion; 2008 and 2012 Olympic Trials Qualifier; 4 X US XC Team Member; 4 X World Xterra Trail Run Champion; 8 X USATF National Champion; winner of BigFoot 10k with daughter in kidRunner
• Ryan and Natalie Bak (Bend, OR):
o NCAA National Champions and runners up; Academic All Americans; Olympic Trialists; winner of 2013 PHX marathon and more
• Stephanie and Ben Bruce (Flagstaff, AZ):
o Elite marathon and half marathon and Steeplechase champs with several top 10 national finishes; Olympic Trialists; USA Track/Field Championships; owners “Running with the Bruces” coaching business
• Amy Golumbia (Calgary, CAN):
o Canadian mountain running champion; raced World Mountain Running Championships in Turkey and Italy; owner of 5 Peaks Trail Running
• Scott and Lauren Jones (Denver, CO):
o Owners/Entrepreneurs and Runners; Athlete on Fire and Running with Kids
• Noel Paine (Quebec, CAN):
o ’11 Boston Marathon; 100K Trail Ultra races in Italy and Ireland; Solo rim2rim2rim of Grand Canyon; blogger and writer for Canadian Running magazine
• Gray Skinner (Austin, TX):
o Runner and Triathlete; ’14 Iron Man World Championship qualifier; 1st Place New Orleans 70.3 (Amateur); USA Cycling Certified Coach
• John Tribbia (Salt Lake City, UT):
o Vertical Kilometer Series Champion; fastest runner up Mt. Olympus; developed “Strollerval” training regime with a kid jogger
• Jake Wooley (Ashland, OR):
o Marathoner, cyclist and marketing/product specialist in sports performance textiles and applications
“I’ve been involved with running and testing each kidRunner prototype because I believe the future of running with kids is about performance, freedom and design rather than pushing something that is awkward, heavy and prone to injury,” said Max King, elite runner and kidRunner Ambassador. “kidRunner solves all of that. They are also committed to regional economic development and I wanted to be a part of that, too.”

About kidRunner
Founded in Bend, Oregon, kidRunner is the world’s first high performance, all-terrain, lightweight, pull-style kid jogger. It is designed to enable runners with kids to run and explore, while retaining the efficiency and form of natural running. It is 50% lighter than traditional joggers. The company has plans to follow their running solution with Nordic ski and bike options. The composite frame and innovative, flexible “bow” that connects to the runner decouples the up and down motion, providing a smooth, safe, high performance ride for both runner and kid. kidRunner will be available for pre-order beginning summer 2015. For more information, visit www.kidrunners.com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

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Media Contact
Natalie Dent
PR for kidRunner
[email protected]
(206) 605-1802

ONE DAY A FEW years ago, entrepreneur Kirk Thornby and restaurateur Peter Bro — owner of Portland venues Café Broder, Broder Nord and Savoy Tavern — got together to talk about how hard it was to nd good employees on Craigslist and other generic job sites. e problem?Email accounts flooded with unqualified applicants. “People would post an ad for $25, and you never knew what you were going to get,” Thornby says. “We thought there was room for something new.” at something is Poached Jobs, an employment website focused on the food-service industry. For a fee, restaurants and hotels post ads; in return they get access to a “back office,” in which hiring managers can flip through résumés “like they would through photographs in iPhoto,” says ornby. Managers can also sort and rank applicants and add notes to profiles for future reference. “It gives them a hiring platform, which is valuable because 85% of our clients are small-or medium-size businesses that don’t have anyone dedicated to HR,” says Thornby. Launching in a foodie town like Portland helped jump start business. e challenge now is becoming a recognizable brand in major metropolitan areas outside of the Northwest. Not that Poached Jobs hasn’t thrived; since launching in 2012, the company has expanded to 11 cities — including Austin, Seattle and New York.

Still, growth hasn’t come easy. “We bootstrapped this thing, so growing and scaling on a limited budget has been the hardest thing we’ve had to do so far,” Thornby says. “Trying to spread your message as far as you can — you have to get pretty crafty how you spend your marketing dollars.”

Money trail

Poached Jobs was one of the winners at the 2014 Bend Venture Conference and in 2015 received an additional $42,000 from the Cascade Angels Fund. The startup also secured $50,000 from the Portland Seed Fund. “[Raising money is] the hardest thing I’ve done in my career, and I’ve owned businesses since I was 22,” says Thornby, now 53.

Insider’s game
Bro’s experience as a restaurateur gives Poached a competitive advantage. “That’s one of our secret sauces,” Thornby says. “We know exactly how the industry works. [The industry is] held together by duct tape. We know what processes are like, where the weak points are and what they need.”

Poached Jobs streamlines the hiring process for business owners. Other companies aim to improve the selection process for consumers looking for professional services.

“They’re everywhere — these marketplaces that are popping up to make our lives easier,” says Matt Ehrlichman, CEO of Porch, a Seattle-based online indexing site that helps people choose, schedule and review home-improvement contractors. “The cool thing is there’s so much pain around working on your home,” Ehrlichman says. “But now you can push a button and get anything in your home done by a professional. The trend for most industries is going to be working to make its processes as easy and simple as possible.” New York-based ZocDoc takes a similar approach to booking healthcare professionals. The website allows consumers to shop for doctors and access their schedule in real time. Patients can leave reviews of doctors and fill out paperwork ordinarily completed in the waiting room. Closer to home, Financial Friend— a Portland-based startup that launched last month — connects potential clients with financial professionals. Hoping to recreate ZocDoc’s model, Financial Friend verifies the credentials of CPAs, retirement planners, insurance brokers and lenders, and customers can schedule appointments directly. “We noticed other industries moving toward a consolidated online directory with appointment booking, and we realized that there isn’t one for financial services,” CEO Brandon Rigoni says. “We want to make things convenient for consumers while we sell to businesses the transparency and trust building they can exhibit through the customer-review process.”