Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
Why these startup founders are leaving Seattle for San Francisco – GeekWire
Seattle’s startup ecosystem has its strengths, and the city is a global AI hub. But for some tech entrepreneurs, the gravity of San Francisco is hard to resist — especially in the middle of an AI boom.
AI and the Future of Healthcare (Panel), Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 6:00 PM | Meetup
Bringing together an AI ethicist, a cancer patient innovating with digital tools, and a physician shaping future medical education, the session explores whether artificial intelligence will make the doctor extinct—or challenge clinicians, patients, and technologists to invent a more compassionate, intelligent partnership for tomorrow’s healthcare.
AI Patent Eligibility Has Shifted With One Machine-Learning Case
That shift didn’t happen overnight, but it crystallized through a series of developments centered on the case of Ex parte Desjardins, culminating in new guidance that is reshaping how examiners and applicants alike think about eligibility for AI-related claims.
My AI Adoption Journey – Mitchell Hashimoto
My experience adopting any meaningful tool is that I’ve necessarily gone through three phases: (1) a period of inefficiency (2) a period of adequacy, then finally (3) a period of workflow and life-altering discovery.
DNS Explained – How Domain Names Get Resolved | Manish Bhusal
At its core, DNS is simple: it translates domain names into IP addresses. You type example.com, DNS returns 93.184.216.34, and your browser connects to that IP. Without DNS, you’d need to memorize IP addresses for every website. Nobody wants that. But the how is where it gets interesting.
Y-Bombinator, C your chances of getting in and Y
Want to avoid bombing your application? Get a clear audit from an Agent built by people who’ve fumbled the Orange ball before.
Brain Dumps as a Literary Form – by Dave Griffith
This rhymes with history. Every genuine medium shift feels like obvious convenience to early adopters. Writing was just a memory aid. The printing press was just faster copying. Email was just faster mail. The people living through the transition don’t experience it as historic. They experience it as “well, obviously you’d do it this way.”
Small Late-Stage Rounds Are Fading Away
While total late-stage investment has risen in the past few years, less is going to smaller deals. Funding to late-stage rounds of $30 million and under has been particularly weak, declining for six years in a row, per Crunchbase data.
Onion Theory of Risk for Startup Valuation and Funding
First introduced by Andy Rachleff and popularized by Marc Andreessen, the metaphor reframes startups not as idea machines but as risk machines, with each one built around layers of uncertainty that must be peeled away over time.
Beyond the Hype: How the Paramount+ Design Team Uses (and doesn’t use) AI, Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 6:00 PM | Meetup
We are stoked to partner with Friends of Figma for our March event! 🙌 🎉👏 AI is everywhere, but what are the realities of incorporating it into an existing product design process for a large corporation? Alex Sangeorge, Director of Product Design at Paramount+, shares his real-world experience on using AI in Product Design. This talk will highlight where AI adds genuine value, where it falls short, and what designers should know before relying on it in their workflows.
AI Tinkerers Portland: Building Voice Agents & Conversational AI Stacks, Thu, Mar 5, 2026, 6:30 PM | Meetup
This is the builders’ room for engineers, researchers, and technical founders actively integrating speech-to-text, LLM inference, and text-to-speech into cohesive, production-ready systems. We are focused on the technical ‘how’—the architecture, the trade-offs, and what broke when you deployed.
Opinion: The ‘millionaires tax’ is a threat to Washington’s startup economy — and here’s the math to prove it – GeekWire
There is no stage of a founder’s journey that Olympia isn’t reaching into. You earn income — taxed. Your startup succeeds and you sell — taxed on gains the feds exempted. You die — taxed at a threshold four times lower than the federal exemption. Three years ago Washington was one of the most founder-friendly states in the country. The legislature is dismantling that in real time.
Deschutes Tech Guild – February Meetup, Tue, Feb 10, 2026, 6:00 PM | Meetup
Welcome to the Deschutes Tech Guild! Join us every second Tuesday at Embark for food, drinks, tech talks and the CloudBeers Bend Afterparty.
Startup Happy Hour – Kicking off 2026, Tue, Feb 10, 2026, 5:00 PM | Meetup
Connect with like-minded entrepreneurs, investors, and industry professionals as we continue to celebrate the innovative startup ecosystem in the region. This event is perfect for anyone involved in tech startups in Central Oregon, or those looking to dive into the world of technology entrepreneurship. Don’t miss this opportunity to expand your network, exchange ideas, and spark new partnerships. Whether you are a seasoned entrepreneur or a job seeker interested in technology, this meetup is designed to foster meaningful connections and propel your startup journey forward.
More Oregon startup news
