Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
How Venture Capitalists Can Become Strong Board Members
A board member’s core responsibility is to surface reality clearly and at the right moment.
Yann LeCun’s new venture is a contrarian bet against large language models | MIT Technology Review
Instead, he thinks we should be betting on world models—a different type of AI that accurately reflects the dynamics of the real world. He is also a staunch advocate for open-source AI and criticizes the closed approach of frontier labs like OpenAI and Anthropic.
Design Thinking Books You Must Read (updated)
Each of these books explores design from a specific perspective. Learning about these design aspects is essential for both designers and non-designers before jumping to learn design thinking.
No More Multnomah? An Activist Aims to Fold the County Into Portland.
Mattt Zmuda, a software engineer, started his organization, MultNoMo, to seek enough signatures to initiate consolidation under a state law that allows it. Zmuda says folding Multnomah County government into Portland’s is the best way to drag the city out of its economic malaise.
What the Team Behind Cursor Knows About the Future of Code
Cursor team members share their thoughts on building software with AI and why model selection beats prompting tricks
Agility Robotics mega round leads OR 2025 venture capital activity – Portland Business Journal
Investors pumped $948 million into 140 deals across the state, according to the fourth-quarter report from research firm Pitchbook and the National Venture Capital Association. That’s up from $524 million invested last year and $573 million invested in 2023.
See the top states Oregonians moved to and from last year – oregonlive.com
State-to-state migration data shows a net 5,600 people moved to Oregon from other states in 2024. That’s well within a margin of error and could be statistically insignificant, but 2023 data had shown the reverse: some 6,200 more people moved from Oregon than moved into the state the prior year.
Humanoid Robot Mega-Deal Rockets Oregon VC Haul Toward $1 Billion
Founders and investors are happy to see a headline number that starts with a “b,” but many are quick to note that Oregon still needs a stronger early-stage pipeline if it wants to turn splashy late-stage rounds into durable ecosystem growth.
The For You page is killing Social – by Nic Carter
The important thing to understand is that you can’t serve two masters. Either creators and users are tightly linked, or the platform algorithmically serves users an array of compelling content. You can’t have both, and this is why X feels like it’s achieving neither right now.
A Podcast Interview with Rick Turoczy on The Intersection
Rick Turoczy is a well-known startup community leader and trusted advisor in Portland, Oregon. He is the creator and producer of Silicon Florist, PIE (Portland Incubator Experiment), among other projects. In this episode, Rick shares the origin story of Silicon Florist, the make-and-pause of PIE, his observation of Portland’s startup community and his advice to founders. Rick also talks about the power of curiosity and the abundance mindset in the startup world.
Vantechy & Applied AI Happy Hour · Luma
We drop anchor at 5:30 PM. Within minutes you’ll hear animated debates about frameworks, fundraising, and whether AI will eventually code itself out of a job. Grab a drink, slide into any conversation, or spark your own—our only rule is “help more than you hype.” Seasoned engineers share debugging hacks, designers sketch on napkins, investors trade trend insights, and recruiters quietly scout unicorns.
Portland-based chip startup AheadComputing raises $30M for CPU tech – GeekWire
GPUs may dominate headlines, but CPU performance remains critical to how efficiently AI applications run at scale. CPUs manage data movement, run core software, and handle tasks that can’t easily be split up across multiple cores.
Satya Nadella’s new metaphor for the AI Age: We are becoming ‘managers of infinite minds’ – GeekWire
“All of us are going to be managers of infinite minds,” Nadella said. “And so if we have that as the theory, then the question is, what can we do with it?”
Knapsack Newsletter | January 2026
This month, we’re sharing a few standout updates, including a new chapter for our podcast, a lineup of thoughtful interviews featuring our CEO, and what’s coming up next in our Patterns Summit events. Whether you’re here for the stories, the insights, or the community moments, there’s something in this issue for you. Read on for the highlights.
More Oregon startup news
