Month: July 2025

As we enter that officially official summer months, we tend to see event calendars thin out a bit. But there are still plenty of people working on programming and gathering and the like. So if you’re looking to get together with folks from the community this week, here are a few options…

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

Flounder Mode – Colossus

Kelly was an editor for the Whole Earth Catalog in the early 1980s, helped start WELL, one of the first online communities, in 1985, and co-founded WIRED magazine in 1993. He’s written a dozen books and published hundreds of essays on topics from art to optimism, travel, religion, creativity, and AI (even before it was a thing). Kelly rode a bicycle across the United States in his 20s. He was Steven Spielberg’s ‘futurist advisor’ on Minority Report, and the inspiration behind the famous ‘Death Clock’ on Futurama, after the show’s creator Matt Groening caught wind of the Life Countdown Clock Kelly keeps on his computer desktop. He organizes tightly curated group walks across Asia and Europe, regularly covering ~100km in a week. He sculpts, draws, paints, and photographs. And he’s a longtime friend and collaborator of Stewart Brand (whose famous line, “Stay hungry, stay foolish,” Steve Jobs quoted in his iconic commencement address at Stanford).

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

Gov. Tina Kotek orders Oregon schools to prohibit students from using cellphones • Oregon Capital Chronicle

Gov. Tina Kotek on Wednesday issued an executive order to Oregon’s 197 school districts, requiring they adopt a policy for banning student cellphone use by Oct. 31, 2025. Those policies must be fully implemented by Jan. 1, 2026, the order reads.

If you’re a Black founder in the Portland area, you’ve no doubt heard of Pitch Black, an annual pitch event that features Black founders building tech companies, consumer products, and more. Well, this year, it’s taking a big step up to fill the house at Portland Center Stage — and you could be part of it.

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

PNW Climate Week, Oregon Coast Shuttle, and Reflections on Impact – Happy July!

Wrapping up the Portland portion of PNW Climate Week, join Climate Curious, our community partners, and your fellow climate professionals and enthusiasts for a happy hour and networking sesh.

While it’s always heartening to see folks getting more deeply involved in supporting the Portland startup community, it’s even more inspiring when those folks boomerang back into the startup world. Because that’s just a win-win for everyone.

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

US Senate removes controversial ‘AI moratorium’ from budget bill | TechCrunch

The provision to the reconciliation bill was introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Many prominent Silicon Valley executives — including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anduril’s Palmer Luckey, and a16z’s Marc Andreessen — were in favor of the so-called “AI moratorium,” which they said would prevent states from forming an unworkable patchwork of regulation that could stifle AI innovation.

Like many folks in the startup world, I’m often in conversations with frustrated founders who are driven to endless consternation — that’s right I said “consternation” — by the fact that they can’t seem to raise capital for their startup. No doubt, there are a variety of reasons for this, but more often than not, this frustration stems from a misunderstanding — or outright ignorance — of how the business of venture capital works. Now, I’ve got a great piece by Steve Blank that I can share with them.