WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE JANUARY 6, 2015 JANUARY Tribune AS PORTLAND IS HEADING TO VEGAS BY JOSEPH GALLIVAN Business INSIDE AGED TO PERFECTION ARGYLE MAKES ITS MOVE OUTDOORSY TYPES, INDOOR SUPPORT 2 BUSINESS TRIBUNE Tuesday, January 6, 2015 Tuesday, January 6, 2015 BUSINESS TRIBUNE 3 COURTESY: CEA Keep right: Up to 150,000 buyers and sellers will pack the Las Vegas Convention Center this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in search of the next big thing. Plenty of Portlanders will be there. CRAVING LAS VEGAS Portlanders head to the Consumer Electronics Show in search of mainstream success BY JOSEPH GALLIVAN he Consumer Electronics Show is the Superbowl of trade shows, when 150,000 people in the computer, entertainment and gadget industries descend on TLas Vegas. They come to unveil high-end televisions and futuristic appliances, or to peddle cheap knock offs, but they are all looking for trends. Some go home with fat contracts, others with little more than a brick of business cards and a free lip balm. As the multinational cast from sales, marketing and the corner offi ce clamor for attention on the world stage, there TRIBUNE PHOTO: JOSEPH GALLIVAN will be a sprinkling of Portland companies in the mix. This COVER: DADO Labs CEO Tom Worley prepares for CES 2015 in Las Vegas in his fi rm’s offi ce on Southwest Fourth Avenue. ABOVE: Is this is Portland’s traded sector’s chance to shine, to sell some thing on?: Worley checks the coffee beans in a Behmor home roaster, which uses DADO Labs’ controller and software to automate CONTINUED / Page 4 and simplify complex roasting profi les. The appliance launches at CES this week. 4 BUSINESS TRIBUNE Tuesday, January 6, 2015 ■ From page 3 like the New York subway, and that’s good,” he says. Kalmanson is president of Des- goods beyond our cozy corner of ma Tech, Inc. which makes ca- the U.S. bles, Wifi and BlueTooth mod- We talked to a few of them ules, USB hubs and memory about what they want from CES, cards. Much of the design and all why they bother and what’s in it the manufacture is done from his for us, the consumers. team in Taiwan, but he and two DADO Labs was, until recently, workers in Oregon spearhead the known as Tater Tot Designs (af- US mission. ter the offi ce pooch). Now DADO This year he thinks he might has a clearer idea of what it’s sell- have a killer product: a connector, ing — an Internet of Things plat- which is regular USB (Type A) at form for home appliances. one end, and pulls back to reveal Tom Worley, the founder and a micro USB. This makes it easy CEO, says DADO aims to making to use Android’s On-The-Go soft- the brand name appliances — the ware for moving fi les around. Kenwoods, KitchenAids and “People are focusing on their Brevilles — smarter, able to rec- smart phones and tablets, and ognize user profi les, anticipate they want to take data back and uses, and even protect users from forth to their computer without accidents. using the cloud,” he says. They already have a deal with He calls his connector the On- Char-broil/Saber to produce The ToGo, and estimates that if a EDGE grill ($1,899), which uses manufacturer could save 30 cents sensors to not just tell tempera- on every $5 cable it makes, he tures, but to calculate the weight could do well. of the meat being cooked, based The other big show he’s consid- on thermodynamics. ering is the CTIS cell phone show “It can push an alert when it’s in September. But he likes CES, time to turn the meat over. We even though by the end of the day call that out ‘father-in-law’ fea- all he can do is rest his feet in his ture,” jokes Frank D’Andrea, the hotel. VP of software development. “Nothing much has changed at While the chef cooks with the COURTESY CEA CES, everyone is running around help of a smartphone, the data is This much talent: Intel’s presence will be big as usual, with CEO Brian Krz anich set to deliver a keynote about wearable trying to fi nd something new they reported back to the appliance computers and the Internet of Things, like last year. haven’t seen before. And most maker, who can learn things leave without fi nding what they about consumer use and prefer- are looking for.” ences. The old days of sending in It’s not about scattershot net- a postcard when you buy a toast- Dado at Tech Cocktail working. er oven are over. Web: tech.co/event/dado- “I come home with 300 business “We’re trying to amplify connected-consumer-keeping-real cards to be honest, that means brands you already have in your nothing. I go to CES to get one home that you know and love. Re- good lead. If one brand is going to ally what you’re doing is buying tine Robins, formerly of wear- order 10,000 or 20,000 units a the next generation of these ap- ables company Jawbone. They month, that’s good. The $10,000 I pliances,” says Worley. will show off the DADO connect- spend on going to the show is His desk in their SW Fourth Av- ed Behmor Coffee Roaster ($599) worth it.” enue offi ce is a real workdesk, and the Behmor Coffee Brewer Portland is sending some spe- with screwdrivers, tape, X-Acto ($349, both available in March cialty companies. Wilsonville’s knife, circuit boards and a Red 2015). FLIR Systems is. FLIR makes Sox pint glass. In one corner, a It’s going to be tough collaring COURTESY DESM A TECH OF WEST LINN thermal imaging cameras, while coffee roaster churns and crack- the folks who make decisions at Type- A dude: This new dual USB/micro- USB connector could make moving fi les LED Lenser makes very bright les. The DADO promise is that giant, international brands and from phone to PC a lot easier. Desma Tech Inc’s Alex Kalmanson will be there for LED fl ashlights. LED Lenser is pour-over coffee afi cionados can asking them to build the DADO the 15th year in a row, looking for one big lead. owned by Leatherman Tools. automate the complex routines controller into their rice cooker/ It’s no surprise that a few local they use in turning green beans vacuum/baby car seat. ship with the customer. He calls or plastic,” he says, not running chip companies are going. into black gold without leaving Worley notes that it took Hon- what they do Platform as a Ser- predictive software algorithms. Mentor Graphics will be pre- the offi ce. eywell 18 months to recover from vice (PaaS). In West Linn, Alex Kalmanson, senting its latest embedded soft- In Vegas, DADO is going off- the disruptive arrival of the Nest “Most brands fi gure out how is all ready for his fi fteenth-con- ware solutions for Driver Info- Strip to the trendier Downtown thermostat. people are using their products secutive CES. He gets fi rst dibs on tainment, Digital Instrument region. On Wednesday January He sells companies on the idea by watching them though glass, a 10-by-10 feet booth very near to clusters, Advanced Driver Assis- 7th it is teaming with Tech Cock- of not handing over all data to or by fi lling out surveys. And the big brands, such as HP, Canon tance Systems (ADAS), all based tail for an event with a keynote by Google and Apple but keeping it most appliance makers are in the and Verizon. on the latest semiconductor plat- Char-Broil’s go-getter CEO Chris- as part of a continued relation- business of exporting sheet metal “Sometimes the foot traffi c is forms integrated with Mentor PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENT CIRCULATION REPORTER PHOTOGRAPHERS J. Mark Garber Brian Monihan M ANAGER Joseph Gallivan Jonathan House, Jaime Valdez PortlandTribune Business Kim Stephens WEB SITE OFFICES Tribune EDITOR AND ADVERTISING DIRECTOR DESIGN portlandtribune.com 6605 S.E. Lake Road ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Christine Moore CREATIVE Keith Sheffi eld Portland, OR 97222 Vance W. Tong SERVICES M ANAGER CONTACT 503-226-6397 (NEWS) Cheryl DuVal [email protected] Tuesday, January 6, 2015 BUSINESS TRIBUNE 5 Graphics embedded software. Odd one out: Zero, just because it was weird, for sale. It’s a good story, and it’s Hopefully they will be translat- DADO’s lead and weirdly French. green, so Portland wins. Not to ing this from their website: Portland’s Ultra Inc is bringing mention they use a non-profi t software “(XSE makes) optimal use of Violet, a wearable fob that tracks which employs disabled adults to developer Gary the latest multi-core and hetero- ultraviolet light. It’s simple, but it deconstruct and clean the repur- Foubister points geneous SoCs to deliver reliable takes up valuable real estate on posed material. safe and secure systems that in- out how the user’s body. The company is The company founder Scott corporate rich graphics and con- designing apps simultaneously going back to the Hamlin, and biz dev worker Jen- nectivity with a customizable j ust got trickier Kickstarter trough for a second nifer Nolfi , will be working the iL- Linux solution, the low power ca- with the iPhone try (It worked for the Coolest ounge in Vegas. They always have pable Nucleus RTOS, and a high 6 , whose screen Cooler).