Month: February 2024

Like the dotcom days and the mobile era, AI has rapidly become the predominant factor in any and all startups — or at the very least, the prevalent buzzword. Still, there are any number of local startups in this yet developing market that we’re lucky to have among the earliest local thinkers in AI, so I wanted to highlight them.

While life seems to be returning to pre-pandemic activities, the economy is still struggling to recover from that worldwide event. In an effort to aid that recovery, the US Economic Development Administration solicited ideas from citizens on how best to facilitate that recovery. Those selected form the new Economic Recovery Corps. And there are three Oregon folks selected as fellows who are doing the work to help with that recovery.

I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention, but we’re seeing a continuing uptick in startup activity in Bend. So it comes as little surprise that folks are looking for ways to help founders and keep that momentum going. Meet Bend Entrepreneur Lab.

Portland has its fair share of pitch competitions. But it’s always nice to see Portland founders getting the attention they deserve outside of the state. Like local startup Gabbi, which will be competing in the Synapse Summit.

The inaugural champ of the Demolicious reboot? They’ve already relinquished the title. That’s right. Kickplan’s belt defense was unsuccessful. Dtocs now holds the Demolicious title.

There was a time where there were two Techstars programs in the Pacific Northwest. And they were both firsts. Techstars Seattle was the first “West Coast” instantiation of the Techstars network — and the third program behind Boulder and Boston — and the first ever “powered by Techstars” program with Nike, here in Portland. Now, there are none. Techstars has made the decision to sunset the Seattle program.

It’s not often that you see an entrepreneur leave the craziness of running their own business for the craziness of local politics. But that’s exactly what’s happening. Reverend Nat West of Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider fame has launched a campaign to take the council seat for District 2.

I always appreciate Y Combinator’s “Request for Startups.” Because it gives founders very specific insights about what types of startups might of interest to the accelerator program. This time is no different. But the categories are more specific than I remember them being in previous years.