Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
Oregon Startup leaders raise alarm over undoing QSBS exemptions – Portland Business Journal
What has the startup and investor community up in arms is a provision that removes a tax exclusion for gains made on the sale of qualified small business stocks. These stocks are typically those held by founders or early investors in companies and are seen as the potential upside for the risk that entrepreneurs and investors take in starting a business.
Can AI Kill the Venture Capitalist? | WIRED
VCs are betting that artificial intelligence will disrupt nearly every industry in the world. Are they prepared for it to disrupt their own?
No, it doesn’t cost Anthropic $5k per Claude Code user – Martin Alderson
If a heavy Claude Code Max user consumes $5,000 worth of tokens at Anthropic’s retail API prices, and the actual compute cost is roughly 10% of that, Anthropic is looking at approximately $500 in real compute cost for the heaviest users.
Oregon lawmakers proposed hundreds of bills in the short session. Many failed to pass • Oregon Capital Chronicle
Dozens of proposals meant to address issues such as immigration, public health, education and economic issues died in committees lacking support, time or both
Will Features Even Exist? How AI Is Forcing SaaS To Rethink The Product Itself
If customers can increasingly generate narrow workflows, lightweight internal tools or customized interfaces on their own, the role of the traditional feature begins to change. And once that happens, it is worth asking a deeper question: Will features even exist in the way the software industry has historically understood them?
A guide to advanced B2B positioning – by April Dunford
April Dunford is the world’s leading expert on the topic. She is the author of the book on positioning, Obviously Awesome, and has worked with over 300 B2B companies to nail their positioning.
The Pro-Human AI Declaration
A remarkably broad coalition rejects this path, united by a simple conviction: artificial intelligence should serve humanity, not the reverse.
Houston startup incentives – Portland Business Journal
A community outside Houston is introducing a new carrot to keep its startups at home — and to lure new ones — in the age of remote work and corporate relocations.
Serval’s Path to Product-Market Fit — Win Enterprise Buyers by Treating Them Like Consumers
Notes from an AI founder taking a swing at a hundred-billion-dollar incumbent.
Cowork with Oregon Entrepreneurs Network
Oregon Entrepreneurs Network is partnering with our friends at Miller Nash to host Co-Work with OEN on Tuesday, March 31st from 9:00 am – 4:00 pm at Willamette University MBA’s Portland Campus.
PDX Code & Coffee @ DeadStock Beaverton, Mon, Mar 16, 2026, 9:00 AM | Meetup
Code and Coffee is an inclusive, informal co-working session. Drink some coffee, bring your laptop, and have engaging conversations. This is a great opportunity to learn from others, share your knowledge, and possibly collaborate on side projects, online courses, or even your day-to-day work tasks.
Founders Live Build: Portland · Luma
Founders Live is launching an all-new format where 5 chosen people vibecode and build something on site within 2 hours using AI tools, as others network and mingle.
Tim Chen’s Essence VC firm is raising a new fund to back more infrastructure startups – GeekWire
A SEC filing revealed the new fund. Chen confirmed that Essence is aiming to raise about $7 million for the fund, which is separate from the firm’s $41 million fourth fund raised last year. Chen said the new fund will allow Essence to lead bigger pre-seed rounds and gives him more flexibility on deployment timeframes.
$2.5 billion AI robotics startup grows from OSU professor’s work – Lookout Eugene-Springfield
The company, whose flagship robot, “Digit,” is already in experimental use in everything from Amazon warehouses to Toyota manufacturing plants, is one of the best funded startups in the history of Oregon.
Your March dispatch from the Office of Small Business
The Office of Small Business at Prosper Portland works in cooperation with the community and other local government agencies to create an equitable, supportive, vibrant, thriving, and connected small business community.
The Enterprise Context Layer – Andy Chen
How do you solve this? Seems like you’d need a team of people sitting in a room just maintaining some kind of rule to enforce consistency (we and many other companies tried, and always fail).
