Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
Why $1-10M ARR is the Hardest
Most founders think the hardest part of growth is getting to the first $1M. Martin Roth’s story is a reminder that a revenue leader’s job doesn’t get any less challenging as a startup scales—it gets harder in many ways, easier in some, and most importantly, what it takes to win changes radically.
Memory: How Agents Learn
It’s almost 2026. Agents can follow complex instructions, use dozens of tools, and work autonomously for hours. But ask them the same question twice and they start from scratch. They don’t remember what worked, what failed, or what they figured out along the way.
This week on How I AI: How to get your whole team excited about AI
Brian Greenbaum is a product designer at Pendo who accidentally became the company’s AI champion, starting with a single Slack message he sent while on paternity leave. What followed: hands-on workshops, simple demos that changed leadership’s minds, a clear “golden path” for tools and policies, and real adoption across PMs, designers, and engineers. In this episode, Brian breaks down a practical, repeatable playbook for getting your team excited about AI—and actually using it.
The Real Economics of SaaS versus AI Companies – The SaaS CFO
Let’s find out if claim that “AI companies generate more profit per customer” holds up. The point of this post isn’t to slam or debunk this tweet, but to really get us thinking about the economics of what we are building.
The Shape of The Game We Play – Commoncog
There is much in business that can only be learnt by doing. I would never suggest ‘read business biography’ to someone who was just starting out. Getting actual experience is more important the earlier you are.
The Coordination Tax, CodeGood
The economics are brutal for traditional companies. A conventional software business at $40 million ARR employs 200-300 people. The eleven-person competitor operates at roughly 4% of the headcount with equivalent output. That is not a marginal efficiency gain. That is a different cost structure entirely—one that makes competition against it arithmetically impossible at current pricing.
The End of 2025 – Let’s Talk, No Filter
On a personal front I got a reasonable amount of my expectations met for 2025, which mind you, wasn’t a lot considering the changing of the guard and the current state of the tech industry. To which, let’s talk brass talks, not beat around the bush, dispense with formalities, and get to the pending chaos of 2026.
Oregon UAS Accelerator Selects 34 Companies for Largest-Ever Oregon UAS Innovation Challenge Cohort | UAS Magazine
The 34 selected companies span eight major industry verticals, including defense and counter-UAS, logistics and delivery, agriculture and environmental applications, advanced air mobility, public safety and emergency response, infrastructure and construction, maritime and autonomous systems, and manufacturing and components. Collectively, the startups are advancing capabilities related to national security, medical logistics, wildfire response, ecological restoration and industrial inspection.
Drone capital of the world? Seattle could be a big winner in the U.S. crackdown on DJI and others – GeekWire
New federal restrictions on foreign-made drones, announced this week, promise to boost Washington state as a hub for domestic drone manufacturing — adding thousands or even tens of thousands of jobs in the process.
Portland Stories of the Year 2025
Our project is more like a Secret Santa gift exchange: We assigned each reporter to pick two stories by a colleague that stood out in 2025. We then had the recipient of the compliment pass it on—but not before penning an update to the tales.
