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

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

Statement by President and Mrs. Obama on the 25th Anniversary of 9/11 | by Barack Obama | Sep, 2026 | Medium

If you were young in 2001, or weren’t even born yet, it can be hard to imagine what 9/11 felt like. The shock of that beautiful, cloudless morning. The heartbreak of the families whose loved ones were taken with such swiftness and cruelty. The realization that the forces of malevolence and violence were closer, and the future less certain, than we knew.

I think I first encountered Clarence Bethea on Clubhouse during the pandemic. Remember Clubhouse…? This was a regular scheduled “pitch practice” sort of thing. Where folks would take the opportunity to practice their pitch in front of a rotating group of VCs and mentors. And one of those folks was Clarence.

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

How Graze Social’s Devin Gaffney wants to build a better internet

Right now, the algorithms that command our attention were built by a handful of now-gargantuan companies, under their terms of use. Graze Social is Gaffney’s attempt to offer an alternative, to help regulate platforms into what he calls “common carrier status.” Gaffney draws a parallel to a utilities company: While a power company may send a specialist to work on your local power lines, their influence stops at the access point. “The specialists do not get to say what lamp you can use, right?” Gaffney says. “[But] we conflate all of that as the same role in the attention economy. We don’t have to do that. It’s just an arbitrary architectural decision that we have been frog-boiled into believing is immutable for the last 20 years.”

Fun fact: I started my startup journey in digital healthcare. So I’ll always have a soft spot for healthcare startups. Because the entire US system is a mess. That’s why I was happy to hear that Dr. Andy Barnett — a Portland ER doc who has spent years as a medical malpractice expert witness — has a new startup designed to solve a piece of the entire mess. Meet Experitas.

You know me. I absolutely love people starting new things. But a close second…? People sharing the actual impact of the things that they started. Because showing progress and challenges helps all of us. Both from an informational front as well as an inspirational front. That’s why I’m glad to see the Portland Office of Small Business reporting on its first year of impact.

If I’ve echoed it once, I’ve echoed it a million times: “Oregon is the Silicon Valley of consumer products.” Food and beverage. Footwear. Apparel. Knives. The list goes on and on. And if you’re one of the people building a CPG company — or you just want to spend a day around all of the amazing folks who are — Built Oregon‘s annual festival is a sure fire way of running into your peers and heroes in one room. Built Festival is back for another year.