Portland Seed Fund manager fills new role at PSU

Angela Jackson is staying busy. With her new role as a part-time manager at the Portland State Business Accelerator (PSBA) she is able to help a growing facility further new business.

The PSBA works within the community to help young businesses and entrepreneurships get their footing. The organization provides space and resources that help to make it possible for some of these companies to succeed that might not otherwise.

Making sure the companies have everything they need to be successful is part of Jackson’s new job.

“Typically, different companies have different paths to success, it’s not just offering blanket services but being able to offer a customized plan,” Jackson said.

Jackson attended Boston University and worked as a journalist for its student newspaper. However, her roots have always been in entrepreneurship.

“It comes down to how you view the world. For me, what gets me out of bed is the potential return on investment. When you work with incredible passion and skill to tackle a problem, the rewards are huge,” Jackson said. “When you can focus on something in an early stage when no one else can see the value, it doesn’t get any better than that.”

Jackson is also one of two managers of the Portland Seed Fund, an organization that looks for investment opportunities in businesses. She and her partner are looking to expand the $500,000 that the Portland Development Commission recently allocated into a $3 million fund that will be able to make investments in companies by the first quarter of 2011.

For now, with the new labs opening, she is heavily invested in the PSBA.

“I’ve been there since early September, and have a desire to listen more than anything else,” she said.

Jackson helps coach start-up companies on how to connect with the customer early and often. She participates in self-proclaimed “tough love,” telling them things the companies don’t want to hear.

“In this environment, poor ideas do not get funded [and] poor execution does not get funded,” Jackson said.  

The PSBA is not a permanent home to young businesses; rather, it is a launching point, a nest in which companies can incubate their ideas.

“We don’t want companies to get too comfortable,” she said. “The accelerator isn’t for everyone. The goal is to make steady progress and grow out of us.”

Jackson’s main goal is to continue to get to know each and every company in order to get them the custom resources they need. She describes the accelerator as continually working to provide more opportunities to PSU faculties and students.

“To play an important role in the economic situation the state is facing today, to collaborate with other universities, to help accelerate promising [technology], growing revenue and the number of people they can hire and the dollars they can bring into the economy, I feel very fortunate to have this honor to work with these people who want to take it to the next level,” Jackson said.  ?