Vidoop Leaving

[TulsaSooner]

Remember them?  We hardly knew ye!

Tulsa-based Vidoop Moves Out

The brains behind Vidoop promised to keep their company in Tulsa. But, the Internet up-start is bolting for Portland.

Tulsa loses a promising Internet security company.

"It's going to be a remarkable thing, not only for Tulsa, but even for the State of Oklahoma, as our company rolls out, begins to grow, draws the national attention, and we begin to create, right here in Oklahoma, the Silicon Prairie," said Vidoop's Mitchell Savage.

The brains behind Vidoop promised to keep their company in Tulsa.  But, the Internet up-start is bolting for Portland, Oregon.  The company opened a Portland office in February.

Vidoop's security credentials program has been purchased by several Fortune 500 companies.

[Conan71]

Even though we are in the age of telecommuting, it's still useful for companies to be close to their customer and to like industries, much as the oil business eventually migrated to Houston.  Also, if the Tulsa region isn't producing the sort of college or tech grads they need to staff up, that's a problem as well.

Might just be that the owners like women with hairy armpits and figured it was either Boulder or Portland for their new HQ.

[TulsaSooner]

So is there an industry that we do actually have a snowball's chance in heck of attracting/retaining?  

Aside from call centers, of course.  []

[TURobY]

There are still lots of tech companies in town. In fact, I know one who is working towards a PIPE as we speak.

[Double A]

Calling Queen Kathy, what gives? I thought the Taylor administration would be not only be proactive in preventing these type of business from leaving Tulsa, but also in producing more hi-tech jobs and businesses, turning Tulsa into the silicon prairie? Once again, Da Mare is long on promises and short on solutions. All sizzle, no steak.

[sgrizzle]

Who cares really?

A startup with roughly ten employees who made one product that no-one bought. According to their own press release, one fortune 500 company was considering buying their product.

Wee..

[FOTD]

We have a bingo.

[wordherder]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

Who cares really?

A startup with roughly ten employees who made one product that no-one bought. According to their own press release, one fortune 500 company was considering buying their product.

Wee..

Actually they have 40 employees now, and claim more and more sites are using their image grid.

[cannon_fodder]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

Who cares really?

A startup with roughly ten employees who made one product that no-one bought. According to their own press release, one fortune 500 company was considering buying their product.

Wee..

I care.  Homegrown startup company's are what cities should concentrate on.  Williams, OneOK, Nordam, Quiktrip... were all "Tulsa startups with" just a few employees at one point.  So was Microsoft, Dell, and Google not long ago for that matter.

And for the record:

quote:Tulsa-based tech firm Vidoop LLC plans to move some of its employees and work out West, though founder, president and CEO Joel Norvell denies televised reports that the company is relocating.

"Vidoop will be moving part of its operations to the West Coast but will maintain a presence in Tulsa," Norvell said in a press statement. "A final decision on the Tulsa, Portland and San Francisco offices has not been reached."

http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?articleID=20080621_52_E2_pncase767924

What we need to figure out is how can we keep the bulk of their growth IN Tulsa.  What competitive advantages can we offer to make their life easier.  Not to bribe them, and not just for their sake... but for companies like them - what are we lacking?  If it is population of engineers then why can't they attract them here (do we need more of a vibe?  Are they just not paying enough?  Certainly there are more engineers on the West Coast, there are more people!  But HP gets people to move to south Dakota).

Of course... the above is somewhat contradicted by the company itself:

quote:That's right, we're going to spend the next few months moving the entire company and their families (that's over 40 people) from Tulsa to Portland.

http://blog.vidoop.com/archives/125

So which is it?  Are they committed to Tulsa or are they "moving the entire company and their families from Tulsa to Portland?"  It also seems odd that they were excited about Tulsa in the Urban Tulsa not long ago... what changed?

Seems to be an important distinction.  But the bit about what Tulsa can do to improve our chances of attracting or at least holding on to our companies still stands.

[sgrizzle]

They could be prepping to sell like 99% of the small software companies do.

[perspicuity85]

http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?articleID=20080621_52_E2_pncase767924

Their press announcement doesn't say anything about moving the actual headquarters.  Perhaps this move will prove to be a good move for Tulsa if Vidoop gains more of the national market share and maintains its headquarters in Tulsa.  

On a side note, I think the best way to sustain companies such as Vidoop is to increase the local investment in educational infrastructure.  I have been pleased in recent years with the expansions of OSU-Tulsa, OU-Tulsa, NSU-Broken Arrow, Langston-Tulsa, TCC, and even Tulsa Technology Center.  Particularly, I would like to see more expansion of OSU-Tulsa's presence, because of its proximity to Downtown and hundreds of local companies.  Companies such as Vidoop are greatly assissted by the availability of thousands of nearby college graduates, as well as the research conducted by college professors and staff members.

The best way to increase the establishment of high-tech start-up companies like Vidoop, and increase the available workforce for those companies, is to enhance the local educational infrastructure.

[Hometown]

quote:Originally posted by TulsaSooner

So is there an industry that we do actually have a snowball's chance in heck of attracting/retaining?  

Aside from call centers, of course.  []

Oil/Energy.  There have been some significant expansions of local energy companies recently.  Tulsa still has a critical mass of energy related companies to build on.  We still enjoy good will in the industry.

You build on your strengths.

Diversification has failed Tulsa big time but it's still the unthinking mantra.

[cannon_fodder]

Are you arguing that it shouldn't be HT?

A single industry town is not a safe bet.  Ask Detroit, or Tulsa for that matter from the oil bust.  Tulsa did get amazingly unlucky in having Telecom and Aviation be our diversity and seeing them both collapse... but it was better than a single bet.

Why NOT diversify?

[FOTD]

Agreed .... looks like the car companies are collapsing.....so goes the economy.

[booWorld]

Portland has rail transit.  Tulsa doesn't.

Isn't that reason enough for Vidoop's relocation?