Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
Prosper Portland Dodges a Big Cut for Now, but Council Takes Aim at Lack of Agency Oversight
A proposal by two city councilors to eliminate allocation of all general fund dollars to Prosper Portland—a total of $11 million—was struck down after heated debate at Wednesday’s marathon budget session of the Portland City Council.
Instrument to move HQ to Northwest Portland – Portland Business Journal
The agency is moving to 19,500 square feet in the Field Office development on Northwest Front Avenue, just north of the Fremont Bridge. If everything goes to plan, the team should be in the new office in November, said Instrument CEO Laurel Burton.
7 Things I Learned From VCs Who Passed On Me — Chris Neumann
When I was a founder, we ran a high-velocity fundraising process each time we raised capital. That meant a lot of investor meetings. And a lot of VCs who passed on us. I learned a lot from those investors — though some of the lessons didn’t become apparent until I was on the other side of the proverbial table.
Freight company DAT acquires Seattle fintech startup Outgo – GeekWire
DAT Freight & Analytics, a Beaverton, Ore.-based freight company, announced the acquisition of Outgo, a Seattle startup that sells banking services to freight carriers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Nike will sell on Amazon for first time in more than 5 years – oregonlive.com
Nike on Wednesday said it will return to Amazon, the e-commerce platform that it left in 2019, as new CEO Elliott Hill works to spark falling sales.
OpenAI’s Ambitions Just Became Crystal Clear – The Atlantic
The company is partnering with Jony Ive, the longtime head of design at Apple, who did pioneering work on products such as the iMac G3, the iPod, and, most famously, the iPhone. Together, Altman and Ive say they want to create hardware built specifically for AI software. Everyone, Altman suggested in a highly produced announcement video, could soon have access to a “team of geniuses”—presumably, ChatGPT-style assistants—on a “family of devices.” Such technology “deserves something much better” than today’s laptops, he argued. What that will look like, exactly, he didn’t say, and OpenAI declined my request for comment. But the firm will pay roughly $5 billion to acquire Io, Ive’s start-up, to figure that “something much better” out as Ive takes on “deep design and creative responsibilities” across OpenAI.
Wyden: AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon weren’t notifying senators of surveillance requests | TechCrunch
Sen. Ron Wyden sent a letter to fellow senators on Wednesday, revealing that three major U.S. cellphone carriers did not have provisions to notify lawmakers about government surveillance requests, despite a contractual requirement to do so.
Welcome to Portland’s Kitchen – Portland Mercury
The James Beard Public Market (JBPM), which has been in the works for over two decades, is anticipated to open its doors in summer 2026. The market—touted as “Portland’s kitchen” because of its close proximity to “Portland’s living room,” Pioneer Courthouse Square—will feature a cheesemonger, butcher, cookbook shop, teaching kitchen, wine bar, restaurant, rooftop bar/event space, and more.
AT&T will buy CenturyLink’s residential internet business in Oregon, 10 other states – oregonlive.com
AT&T said Wednesday that it plans to buy the CenturyLink fiber-optic business that provides high-speed internet services to homes in 11 states, including thousands of customers in the Portland area.
A Deep Dive Into The Leading Investors In Unicorns Minted Since 2023
Since 2023, 259 new unicorns have joined The Crunchbase Unicorn Board, adding $605 billion in total value and altogether raising $130 billion, Crunchbase data shows. Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners lead in portfolio counts and funding rounds for these new unicorns. Other top investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Accel and Nvidia, the semiconductor giant at the epicenter of the AI surge.
More Portland startup news
