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

This day is always so odd for me. It’s August 7. And it’s the year 2026. Making this the 19th birthday of registering the domain for Silicon Florist. As of today, I have been doing this — whatever the fuck this actually is — for 6,940 days. Which is a genuinely strange way to spend a third of your life. ON A HOBBY. What exactly is wrong with me…? I swear. Every single year, it gets weirder and weirder to write this post.

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

OpenAI’s new AI smart speaker will reportedly sell for between $300 and $400 | TechCrunch

Bloomberg now reports that the device will be “donut-shaped,” designed thusly to allow users to carry it around their home and place it in different locations, like a bedside table or a kitchen counter.

We assumed it was going to be an absolutely devastating fire season. Unfortunately, that assumption is rapidly becoming fact. Which means there are hundreds — if not thousands — of rural entrepreneurs who are scrambling to survive. Our friend Brad Attig took the opportunity to round up some ways you can help. (And please, if you’re not in a position to help, please simply consider amplifying Brad’s post. The way you would for a fellow entrepreneur.)

Caught some news from The Information on our favorite bobbing sphere of AI compute, Panthalassa. Apparently — fresh on the heels of their recent raise — they’re raising $225 million more. Which would put their valuation in the realm of $2 billion. So it’s a unicorn. But it’s more like a narwhal.

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

Why I’m leaving OpenAI to build telepathy

On Thursday, July 23rd, I resigned from OpenAI. On the 24th, I started as a Founding Researcher at Conduit. We’re building telepathy: thought-to-text models, trained on non-invasive neural data.

You’ve probably heard of the Cascadia Subduction Zone. And if you haven’t — and you live on the west coast of the United States — it’s probably a topic with which you should familiarize yourself. Because yeah. Sorry. I drifted off there for a second. Anyway, some good news on that front. Now you don’t have to do the prep or figure it out or whatever. Because PDX Quake Prep is here to help.

Remember Ray King…? What about AboutUs…? Yeah. That’s a deep cut. From way back. And while Ray may not be as prevalent in the startup community as he once was, his current startup pursuit is going exceptionally well: Porkbun now manages more than 4 million domain names.

You worked the booth for three days. You had a number of the good conversation — especially the one where that one potential customer tells you exactly what is blocking the deal — and then it evaporates somewhere between teardown and the follow-up. The badge scans land in your CRM with names, maybe titles, and literally nothing else. Your notes are illegible by the flight home. What a waste. If only you had a means of capturing that critical information in real time.