Rose City’s Finest: Celebrating 100 Black Leaders In Portland
When Built Oregon Board Chair Stephen Green and I met in early February to talk about ways we could collaborate to commemorate Black History Month, we landed on an idea pretty quickly.
Startup leaders are asking Congress to preserve a tax law involving equity
The letter, which features a few DC policy agencies, details the importance of Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS). It works like this: Qualified small businesses are C corporations valued at under $50 million, and individuals who acquired stock in the original issue (so, not on the trade market) and own it for at least five years can gain some tax benefits. This can include things like 0% capital gains tax over a certain profit margin and excluding sales gains from federal tax.
Tech Companies Face a Fresh Crisis: Hiring
Recruiters working in technology these days do not receive candy, flowers or thank-yous. The recruiter is lucky if she can get someone on the phone — if she receives so much as an email in response. Technology workers need court no one: Along with microchips, toilet paper and Covid tests, tech workers will be recalled as one of the great, pressing shortages of this pandemic. Estimates of the unemployment rates for tech workers are about 1.7 percent, compared with roughly 4 percent in the general economy; for those with expertise in cybersecurity, it’s more like 0.2 percent.
Building for the 99% Developers
As the founder of a developer tools startup, I’ve talked with hundreds, if not thousands, of software developers over the last few years in the course of routine user research. The common theme in these conversations, even bigger than the need for the product we were building, was an overarching need that is currently underserved: building for real developers, or what I like to call the 99% Developers.
A non-exhaustive list of my favorite things about working at companies with a culture of writing
Have you ever had the feeling you know a thing inside out, but then as soon as it comes time to talk about that thing in a meeting, the words come out all wrong? I have. In those moments it can be hard to tell whether the gap in clarity is in the idea itself or the communication of it. But the truth is, in the work context, it doesn’t matter. When you codify ideas in a piece of writing, you also codify your thinking.
SEC Eyes Big Changes That Could Affect Venture Investors And Growing Unicorn Herd
The commission has started to look into the possibility of requiring large private companies to routinely disclose information about their finances and how they operate, according to reporting in The Wall Street Journal reported in early January. Such a change would likely have the most impact on the growing number of companies that have reached unicorn status.
Seattle companies, charities give $10M to fund effort to decrease homelessness in downtown
Donations from Amazon, Microsoft, Starbucks, the Gates Foundation, the Ballmer Group (which led funding) and others will help fund a new team operated by the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCHRA). The team will aim to dramatically reduce homeless camping, from around 800-to-1,000 people to 30, by getting unsheltered homeless people on a path to permanent housing.
Other funders of the project include Boeing, Costco, Expedia, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Madrona Venture Group, Nordstrom, PATH, REI, T-Mobile, and Zillow Group.
