Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
Portland Edtech Travels to Boston: LearnLaunch Insights for Startups
From July 22–24, the Metro Region Innovation Hub facilitated a delegation of Portland-based edtech and workforce startups to LearnLaunch in Boston for a three-day business development trip. Three Portland edtech startups traveled to Boston: Life2Launch, Finnegan the Dragon, and Kipup Labs.
Portland Accessibility and User Experience Meetup (PDX A11Y UX) – Learn and share: accessibility office hours and open forum » Calagator: Portland’s Tech Calendar
Come together for an evening of accessibility sharing and learning! We’d like to hear from you, whether you consider yourself a novice or an expert. Bring your questions, projects, or ideas to discuss as a group. Or, just bring yourself to connect with other accessibility-minded folks! We’ll break into small groups if needed to cover different topics. Drop in or leave at any time.
Move fast and don’t break (safety critical) things
XB-1 is the world’s first independently-developed supersonic jet, breaking the sound barrier for the first time in January, 2025. It was designed, built, and flown successfully by a team of just 50 people—compared to the hundreds or even thousands that would have been employed by a traditional big aerospace company. And we did this with roughly a tenth of the budget that would traditionally be required.
Reflections on the React community | Lee Robinson
I’ve been using React professionally for almost 10 years across three different companies. I love React. It’s responsible for much of my own personal growth as a product engineer and has helped me build wonderful things.
Doomprompting Is the New Doomscrolling. – by Anu
Where doomscrolling made us passive consumers, doomprompting makes us passive conversationalists and creators. The shift from consumption to participation makes the illusion far more convincing, and the addiction far more sophisticated. New technology begets new human behaviors, without exception.
The State of AI 2025 – by Janelle Teng – Next Big Teng
We should first state unequivocally that we are extremely confident that AI is driving the biggest wave of technology change we’ve ever seen. Founders are right to wonder how to separate hype from reality any time VCs open their mouths—but in the case of AI, simple numbers tell the tale. If the most straightforward measure of startup reality is revenue growth, we’ve updated our benchmarks and focused on 20 astonishing AI startups to help define what a great AI startup looks like. While these benchmarks will undoubtedly evolve in the coming years, it’s clear that what constituted a great startup in the SaaS era doesn’t quite cut it anymore.
New trend: extreme hours at AI startups – The Pragmatic Engineer
Despite that, more AI startups are adopting something similar to the 996 work pattern, including Cognition, which expects staff to put in 80+ hours per week. Indeed, the CEO, Scott Wu, was unapologetic about the company’s hardcore culture
US government is reportedly in discussions to take stake in Intel | TechCrunch
The U.S. government is reportedly in discussions to take a stake in Intel, according to reporting from Bloomberg. This deal would be structured to help the company expand its U.S. manufacturing efforts, including its much-delayed Ohio chip factory.
More Oregon startups stories
