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

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

How to become a great conversationalist – Big Think

Most of us seem to believe we’re facing a trade-off: You can be liked, or you can be interesting. It’s the logic behind the popular advice, “It is better to be interested than interesting.” Somewhere along the way, “be a good listener” turned into “don’t say too much.”

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

Some final words on Foursquare. – by Dennis Crowley

Translation: The Foursquare acquisition was a $0 outcome for equity holders – $0 for preferred, $0 for common. It’s bittersweet to see these details surface publicly – at least now there’s an opportunity to comment on them.

In two weeks, we’ll be on Election Day for the 2026 midterms. All of which will decide governors, city councilors, and the balance of power at the federal level. There’s a lot on the line. And a lot to track. Which is why I’m really happy that our friends at Graze have built a way to monitor the Bluesky chatter. Meet Election Night 2026.

Last week was a tragic week in Bend, Oregon. And that tragedy will have lasting impact on the community and the folks that call Bend home. At the same time, many of your peers happened to be in town for the annual Bend Venture Conference, the largest and longest running early stage funding conference in the Pacific Northwest. The event continued as best as it could. And several founders walked away with funding.

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

Z School is (back) in session! – by Dr. Astrid J. Scholz

“Capitalizing Your (Social) Business” addresses some key underlying issues across all these questions, and provides entrepreneurs with reliable, easy to digest information about how to think about capital, how to get their business ready for it, how to find investors, and how to structure an investment.

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

Oregon startup funding drops to $640.9M in first nine months – Portland Business Journal

For the first three quarters, $537.4 million was invested in the Portland metro across 63 deals. That compares to $660 million invested in the same time frame last year, across 84 deals.

Looking to connect with community…? There are a wealth of options to connect with startup and tech type, this week. And every other week. But I’m only going to list this week.