Innovate Clark County

Vancouver company will rock you

Brothers prepare to make a big noise as electric guitar manufacturers

Marcus Young, 35, plays electric guitar while kid brother Ben, 28, prefers a piano. Together, they’ve created Young Electric Guitars, a startup that combines their musical and business passions and has ties to a family-owned Vancouver music firm.

County PubTalk set for busy new year

Program helps startups promote business, find funding

Clark County PubTalk is entering 2012 on a high note, winning praise on both sides of the Columbia River as a high-energy showcase for local entrepreneurs and small business startups.

Phoenix Industrial rises to success

Vancouver industrial general contractor’s execs share insights

Ken Johnson thought he was getting canned.

Columbia Credit Union gives WSUV $60,000

Gift will support research, development, collaboration with high-tech firms

“By acting now, we are setting the stage for sustainable job creation — in advance of that five-year horizon.”

Startups report progress at PubTalk

Firms that made pitches at earlier meetings return Thursday

Thursday’s Clark County PubTalk offers a forward look at six companies who pitched their business plans at earlier gatherings of the group. Their return offers an optimistic view of an eventual payoff for entrepreneurs who stay the course with their business development.

Sharp Solar adds products, jobs

Business recently relocated to Camas from S. California

Sharp Solar this week announced two new products at the Solar Power International show in Dallas as the company adds new jobs in Clark County. The business recently relocated to Camas from Southern California. Eric Hafter, a Sharp senior vice president who heads the company’s Solar Energy Solutions Group, said from the conference that the solar industry’s boom is reflected in the rise in attendance at the annual event. About 50,000 people are attending this year’s conference, which ends Thursday, and about 1,200 companies are represented, he said. The first Solar Power International Conference held 11 years ago attracted just 40 participating companies, he said.

Google Ideas chief talks about how technology is changing world

Jared Cohen hasn’t yet reached his 30th birthday, but he’s been a policy adviser in the Bush and Obama administrations, written two books, and is head of Google’s technology and policy think tank called Google Ideas. Cohen, based in New York, visited Portland Tuesday as a guest of Portland-based Mercy Corps to share insights about how technology is transforming the world’s security and political dynamics in unpredictable ways, feeding revolutionary fervor in this year’s Arab Spring uprisings and curbing corruption in the delivery of emergency services to refugees.