Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
Investment for the People – Portland Mercury
The 1803 Fund—an investment fund created by and for Black Portlanders, that seeks rooted, prosperous life for Black folks in the city—has three program areas that guide its investment practice, both into community partnerships and real assets…
BlackOut: A Five-Year Retrospective on Portland’s Racial Justice Movement – Portland Mercury
Editor’s Note: BlackOut: A Five-Year Retrospective on Portland’s Racial Justice Movement is a joint production from Donovan Scribes and the Portland Mercury, written exclusively by Black Portlanders, to remember and reflect on the May 25, 2020 murder of George Floyd at the hands of police, and the 100+ days of protests in Portland that same year.
Stack overflow is almost dead – The Pragmatic Engineer
I’ll certainly miss having a space on the internet to ask questions and receive help – not from an AI, but from fellow, human developers. While Stack Overflow’s days are likely numbered: I’m sure we’ll see spaces where developers hang out and help each other continue to be popular – whether they are in the form of Discord servers, WhatsApp or Telegram groups, or something else.
Oregonians Meet the Moment — Oregon Venture Fund
Wednesday, September 15, 2021, marked a culminating experience of his career when he took Dutch Bros Coffee public with co-founder and current chairman Travis Boersma at $23/share and raised about $484M. It was the largest public offering in Oregon’s history and is trading today on NYSE (BROS) at $69.61. He was inspired by Travis and his late brother Dane’s grit to start a coffee cart in Grants Pass and infuse every customer interaction with kindness and positive vibes. After seeing the potential, he and Travis were convinced that significant growth could be possible, even in the middle of a pandemic. Joth believed it was possible to have an IPO, and they precisely followed their plan to arrive on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to ring the bell on the exact date they were to go public.
AI-Powered Startups: How the Game Has Changed
Artificial intelligence is the new AWS. It’s a foundational shift, not a feature. The result? Building software is now faster and cheaper than ever. But this shift comes with a paradox: software itself is no longer a durable competitive advantage. Features can be replicated overnight. That clever tool you spent three months perfecting? Ten others are launching it next week. The barrier to entry has collapsed—and competition has exploded.
Why Are There So Many ‘Alternative Devices’ All of a Sudden? – The Atlantic
It was with this tension in mind that I rode a train last week to the town of Westport, Connecticut. There, a parent-led group called OK to Delay had organized an “Alternative Device Fair” for families who wanted to learn about different kinds of phones that were intentionally limited in their functionality. (There would be no frowning at X with these devices, because most of them block social media.) Similar bazaars have been popping up here and there over the past year, often in the more affluent suburbs of the tristate area.
How Silicon Valley’s influence in Washington benefits the tech elite | TechCrunch
Companies owned, founded, or invested in by Musk, Thiel, Andreessen, and Luckey have collected more than a dozen federal contracts totaling about $6 billion since Trump’s inauguration in January, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. And they’re actively pursuing billions more.
Reclaim.ai grows after Dropbox deal, launches Microsoft Outlook tool – Portland Business Journal
Portland’s Reclaim.ai’s release is the first big update since the company was acquired nine months ago by San Francisco-based Dropbox.
State of Private Markets: Q1 2025
As we enter the second half of the 2020s, venture investors are being increasingly selective about which companies they choose to back. The bar that a startup must clear in order to successfully raise VC funding may be as high as it’s ever been.
Y Combinator startup Firecrawl is ready to pay $1M to hire three AI agents as employees | TechCrunch
Y Combinator-backed startup Firecrawl is back on the hunt for AI agent employees. As we reported back in February, its first attempt didn’t yield an AI worth hiring. But it’s now placed three new ads on YC’s job board for “AI agents only” and has set aside a $1 million budget total to make it happen.
Portland parents weigh in on plan to ban cell phones in schools
Both parents and some teachers were divided on whether to keep cellphones in Portland schools or prohibit them entirely.
A Guide to Bootstrapping for Oregon Entrepreneurs
Whether you’re navigating Oregon small business tax requirements or searching for small business help in Washington, Clackamas, or Multnomah counties, bootstrapping provides a pathway that prioritizes resilience over rapid expansion.
More Portland startup news
