Month: May 2025

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

How We Shape AI, And How It Shapes Us

AI’s wide (and fast-growing) footprint in people’s lives means that every tweak to a model has the potential for outsized influence. Evaluations and benchmarks guide that influence.

While I’m not a fan of folks announcing things on Fridays, I will always be happy to share news about more investment capital being made accessible to startup founders in the Pacific Northwest. A week ago, it was Fortson. Last Friday, it was Martin Tobias launching Incisive Ventures.

The list of events for Portland Startup Week 2025 continues to grow. But with a wealth of options, what events should you be attending…? Well, that’s up to you. But if you’d like to plan ahead, here’s what’s on the docket for Monday, May 12, 2025.

I’m always a proponent for more people learning more about the Venture Capital industry. And there’s no better way to gain that knowledge — firsthand — than being in the thick of the VC experience as an investor. That’s why I always like to highlight when Rogue Women gives folks the opportunity to participate in a fellowship that gives folks exactly that type of experience.

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

Current Techstars accelerator applications open

Learn more about our 3-month accelerators where founders gain funding, mentorship, and access to the Techstars network. The following accelerator programs are currently accepting applications…

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

Tomasz Tunguz: Secondaries as the new IPO is no passing fad—it’s a VC evolution | Fortune

This evolution in the venture capital market parallels private equity’s history, and VC could benefit from taking a page out of PE’s book—or risk shrinking the asset class. Private equity was a cottage industry in the 1970s, during KKR’s initial leveraged buyout years. It remained so for about a decade until Michael Milken’s junk bond bonanza catapulted the market to considering even larger buyouts.

Sometimes, you have incredibly valuable assets in your ecosystem that run quietly and successfully in the background. So quiet, in fact, that you almost forget that they’re there. Until they’re in need of help. I haven’t written about the Oregon State University Open Source Lab in quite some time. But now, they’re in need of our help.

Some great feedback from previous “Where are they now…?” events — like our one with Black founders and our one with women founders — was that people could use more context for folks taking the stage. I mean, the organizers clearly know who all of the people are, but sometimes the audience doesn’t. So let’s change that for the upcoming event.

I’m a Libra. So I’ll argue with myself on a regular basis. With that in mind, you’ll understand why I’m always thrilled to have competing views cross my desk in rapid succession. Like this week, where it’s been posited that AI is disrupting VC while also offering that VC is the last bastion of humanity’s AI disruption. So who’s right…? Only time will tell.