Portland Oregon startups, tech, news, events, jobs, and community

You know about the Newberry Volcano right…? It’s a unique geothermal asset in the Central Oregon that has been the focus of utilizing the incredibly warm volcanic activity to generate energy. And it’s picking up… steam? I don’t know. This is a pun rich environment. But suffice it to say Mazama Energy has raised $135 million to continue pursuing the effort.

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

Voyager Capital, Access Venture Partners lead $8M Rapta round – Portland Business Journal

Rapta has created an AI platform that uses cameras and computer vision to help manufacturers achieve higher quality assurance results and fewer errors. It does this by watching an assembly and then alerting the human worker to correct or incorrect work.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: Portland’s sweet spot for tech is “engineers building tools for other engineers.” Tektronix, Intel, Airship, AppFog, Cedexis, Elemental, Hydrolix, JanRain, Lytics, Meridian, Puppet, C1 and Tripwire and an untold number of other cybersecurity companies… the list goes on and on. And a close second…? Open source. Which is seeing a bit of a renaissance with things like the growing AT Proto community. And we’re definitely seeing it with the latest news: Antfly is a Portland based open source project that has raised $2M to help commercialize a hosting platform.

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

Sam Altman says Y Combinator taught him how to govern OpenAI | Fortune

Long before Altman made decisions at the helm of OpenAI, he ran Y Combinator, the influential startup accelerator that has backed thousands of young companies. Unlike running a traditional company, however, Altman couldn’t simply tell the startups YC invested in what to do. “At best you can govern—you don’t get to, like, rule,” Altman told Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell in the latest episode of Titans and Disruptors.

You know me. I love an affinity map. It probably has something to do with Platial being one of the first startups I started tracking around here. Or maybe it’s Adam DuVander’s influence. But whatever the case, I do love a good map. So I wanted to share another one I found: Fresh Hop Finder.

One of my biggest pet peeves in the whole “startups being part of popular culture” thing is that the mythology always seems to value raising over revenue — VC rounds over positive EBITDA — even though venture capital is a unique instrument that’s only applicable to a very slim percentage of all of the companies being built around here. That’s why I’m always happy to see folks upending that narrative. Like 90 Days to Cashflow Positive.

If you’ve been around the Portland startup community for any amount of time, Pitch Latino probably needs no introduction. It has become the region’s biggest celebration of Latine entrepreneurs — and branched out to so many locations that the local version is now Pitch Latino Portland. And that’s not the only change. You see, this year, Latino Founders is cranking the show up a notch by bringing the event to a brand new location, the Newmark Theatre.

I absolutely love it when I get the opportunity to collaborate with folks who can bring helpful advice to Portland startups. It’s pretty much why I do what I do. So I’m super happy that we’re getting the opportunity to bring Clarence Bethea to town. But as good as that is… I want to sweeten the offer.