Ray gets the thumbs up at OEN

Our throats are a little sore over here at AboutUs. That’s because we did a lot of yelling last night when Ray King, our CEO and founder, won the Entrepreneurship Award for Individual Achievement at the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network’s annual awards dinner.

Ray gave a very nice acceptance speech, thanking OEN, the AboutUs management team, all the employees, and of course, Tom Holce, the veteran Portland entrepreneur and angel investor for whom the awards are named. Tom was one of the early investors in AboutUs, and he’s one of the smartest, most savvy entrepreneurs in town. He’s also one of the kindest, most gracious and gentlemanly people I’ve ever met.

For those of you who don’t know the organization, OEN is the largest group in Oregon assisting entrepreneurs. Established in 1991, the nonprofit brings together investors, entrepreneurs and advisers who are enthusiastically committed to helping startups grow and thrive.

AboutUs is Ray’s fourth venture, if you count the company he started while still in high school, The Computer Workshop. Ray started his second company, Semaphore Inc., while he was a student at M.I.T., creating accounting software for his father’s architecture firm. That company grew quickly and was acquired in 2000 by Deltek. The next Ray King enterprise was SnapNames Inc., a company that created several novel ways for people to acquire the domain names they want. Oversee.net acquired SnapNames in 2007.

As delightful as it was to see Ray win – and to scream our throats raw – it was equally gratifying to see such great entrepreneurs and companies honored.

Winners in the other categories were:

• Jama Software Inc. for Development Company of the Year. Jama, co-founded and led by Eric Winquist, creates software that helps companies manage development of products that incorporate software, from initial idea through prototyping to production. Like AboutUs, Jama started up three years ago.

• Monsoon Inc. for Working Capital Company of the Year. Monsoon, now seven years old, was co-founded by CEO Kanth Gopalpur and Clark Hale on their credit cards. Monsoon sells software that allows small sellers of books, CDs, DVDs and other goods to accurately price and efficiently sell their wares at websites like eBay or Amazon Marketplace.

• Motorcycle Superstore Inc. for Growth Company of the Year. Motorcycle Superstore, located in Medford, is led by CEO Don Becklin, and sells motorcycle helmets, apparel and accessories from its website.

The competition for the individual award was intense. The other three finalists were:

• Bill Kelly, CEO of Learning.com, a 10-year-old company that creates online learning systems used in more than 3,000 U.S. school districts. Before Learning.com, Bill helped start up Sapient Health Network, which became part of WebMD in 1999.

• Steve Sharp, chairman of TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. TriQuint, which is publicly traded, makes communications chips and modules for all kinds of mobile devices and systems, including your iPhone. During his tenure as CEO, Steve took TriQuint from less than $100 million in revenue to $600 million. He’s an active investor in Portland-area technology companies, and a mentor to entrepreneurs.

• Lynnor Stevenson, a veteran biotech entrepreneur. Lynn heads DesignMedix Inc., which is developing drugs to cure drug-resistant diseases, such as malaria.  DesignMedix was nominated for OEN’s development company award, and is the 10th company Lynn has founded.  Six of her companies have gone public.

And now, please excuse me. I need another cup of chamomile tea to soothe this throat.