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Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:

Founders share VC horror stories, and some are naming names | TechCrunch

Not everyone had bad experiences to report. Some founders said they’ve never had anything but great experiences with VCs, with a few even sharing love stories about specific investors. Yes, most VCs are hardworking, genuinely try to be helpful, and don’t take naps during meetings. But poor experiences are so common that Pincus exclaimed, “I f*cking love this moment, when founders no longer have to be afraid to call out VCs for dumb behavior.”

Now, connecting Expensify to ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, OpenClaw, and any other MCP-compatible client you happen to be using is easy. All thanks to the new Expensify MCP. No CSV exports. No custom scripts. Just ask your AI agent what you spent on travel last month — or which expense reports are waiting for your approval — and get a real-time answer from your actual Expensify account.

Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:

When AI builds itself

Taken far enough, and given enough compute, that trend points to an AI system capable of fully autonomously designing and developing its own successor. This is called recursive self-improvement. We are not there yet, and recursive self-improvement is not inevitable. But it could come sooner than most institutions are prepared for.

If there’s one thing the Portland Business Journal knows, it’s lists. They’ve got a whole book of them. And every single year, they refresh all of those lists. And while some simply perturb me — like the best restaurants list — others are well worth watching. Like who’s growing the fastest. And this year…? It’s Portland startup Hydrolix.

Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:

No, Artificial Intelligence Is Not Conscious – The Atlantic

Generative AI is harmful enough when we understand it as a conventional technology, but if we confuse fluency at generating text with consciousness or moral agency, we’re at risk of assigning responsibility to entirely the wrong parties whenever anyone uses a chatbot. To appreciate the titanic magnitude of this error, we need to begin by understanding how LLMs work.

Portland’s Prophetic — the AI-native land acquisition platform that raised a seed round led by Entrada Ventures last year and landed DR Horton back in November — just notched its second publicly announced national homebuilder. M/I Homes, the publicly traded builder celebrating its 50th year in 2026, has engaged Prophetic for land acquisition support.