Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
32 signals VCs use to eliminate founders
Signals are small hints that investors use to make a quick decision about your company. No need to sit down with you, no need to listen to your vision… Two minutes with your deck, and your fate is sealed: you get rejected or you get a meeting.
July 31, 2025 Meetup Sponsored by New Relic, Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 5:30 PM | Meetup
There will be a main talk between 30 minutes to 1 hour followed by optional lighting talks. Pizza will be provided by New Relic. Main Talk by Ross McFarland: Unleashing Home Assistant’s Potential: Building Custom Devices and Python Integrations Home Assistant consolidates your smart home devices, enabling powerful automation and simplifying daily routines. But what happens when your device isn’t “smart” or is more esoteric and lacks Home Assistant support? Maybe you can’t find something that does exactly what you want?
Why Seed Rounds Are Growing as Startups Shrink by @ttunguz
Three forces drove this transformation. We can decompose the decline to understand what reduced the small seed round & why it matters for founders today.
Convoy’s tech changes hands again 2 years after sale to Flexport – Portland Business Journal
Beaverton-based DAT Freight & Analytics on Monday announced it is acquiring the logistics platform from Flexport, a San Francisco-based logistics company. Flexport bought Convoy’s technology in 2023 for an undisclosed amount after Convoy, which was based in Seattle and once valued at $3.8 billion, abruptly shut down.
Linear’s Path to Product-Market Fit
“We were always the type of people that we wanted to build something for,” Saarinen says of himself, Lallo and Artman. “We weren’t in management positions — we were in high IC positions because we all loved building things. And it didn’t feel like the incumbent tool was helping ICs actually do the work, which is weird, because the productivity of any company comes from ICs like engineers and designers.”
Awaiting redevelopment, an Oregon mall fills spaces with indie retailers | Chain Store Age
“The big selling point is that the rent was insanely cheap. Like, cheaper than when I first opened my store 16 years ago,” Jason Levian, owner of Floating World Comics, told The Oregonian. “It’s kind of like old Portland, which is independent businesses, weird businesses. The key to old Portland was cheap rent, and that’s harder to find out in various neighborhoods now. The Lloyd Center has it.”
Masking Monday: What Is Masking, Really? – CamiKaos
Masking is what autistic and otherwise neurodivergent people do to survive in a world that wasn’t built with us in mind. It’s the conscious—or unconscious—effort to suppress or camouflage the parts of ourselves that other people find inconvenient.
PDX Code & Coffee @ DeadStock Beaverton, Mon, Aug 4, 2025, 9:00 AM | Meetup
Code and Coffee is an inclusive, informal co-working session. Drink some coffee, bring your laptop, and have engaging conversations. This is a great opportunity to learn from others, share your knowledge, and possibly collaborate on side projects, online courses, or even your day-to-day work tasks.
More Portland startup stories
