Month: May 2025

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

From Weird To Boring: A Quick Trip Through The Recent History Of Startup Naming

Now that we’re entrenched in the bland era, we thought it would offer a shot of entertainment value to take a look back at some of the sillier naming trends that have popped up over the past nine years that we’ve been chronicling such matters.

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.

I always love seeing ideas resurface in the world of startups. Like Chewie being a new version of Pets.com. Or Instacart being a new version of Home Grocer. Or DoorDash being a new Kozmo. So imagine my joy when I encountered Otio. Which reminded me of a product from Cuban Council/k10k back in the day called Moodstats. Or a Portland project called Emoome.

This past weekend, as one of the final events of Portland Startup Week 2025, AI Portland hosted a build challenge to encourage folks to bring ideas for applying AI and build solutions over a couple of days. And when it was all said and done, there was one solution chosen as the winner: dBias.

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

Seattle startup community Foundations adds more office space, plans expansion in Bellevue – GeekWire

Foundations, the Seattle-based startup community that launched last year, is doubling its physical space in Capitol Hill and is exploring an expansion in Bellevue, just east of Seattle. This wasn’t the plan when longtime entrepreneur and investor Aviel Ginzburg founded Foundations in a bid to support early stage founders. But that’s part of the point.

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

House Republicans want to stop states from regulating AI. More than 100 organizations are pushing back | CNN Business

Tucked into President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful” agenda bill is a rule that, if passed, would prohibit states from enforcing “any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems” for 10 years.

You always want to keep an eye on startups founded by repeat startup founders. Especially when they’ve had a successful exit. So although it doesn’t tend to make a lot of noise, I’m always keeping an eye on Reperio Health, the in-home health screening company founded by Travis Rush. Reperio Health just raised $14 million.