Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
Business Oregon Opens Applications for Venture Fund Program
Business Oregon is now accepting applications from venture capital fund managers for the Business Oregon Venture (BOV) Fund Program under the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) program. Venture capital fund managers can play an important role in Oregon’s entrepreneurial ecosystem through leveraging fund managers’ expertise, networks, and private capital to develop and maintain a strong pipeline of high-growth opportunities.
Can we Trust AI? No – But Eventually We Must – SecurityWeek
It is impossible to verify what it tells us (because of our own and its inherent biases), it can get things wrong (sometimes absurdly so with what we call ‘hallucinations’); it has a tendency to drift into sycophancy (it wants to tell us what it assumes we want to hear); and its whole edifice is in danger (from what is termed ‘model collapse’). But what it promises is too good to ignore.
UO and OSU could one day anchor an ‘Innovation Corridor’ – Portland Business Journal
The Oregon group hopes to replicate that success, if not with a gigantic office park, then with a concerted and coordinated effort to boost at least four key homegrown industries. Under the auspices of the Oregon Business Council, a steering committee has met regularly for the past year to shape the Southern Willamette Valley Innovation Corridor — imagined as a swath of the valley anchored by Oregon State University in Corvallis to the north and the University of Oregon in Eugene to the south.
Intel 486 CPU announced April 10, 1989 – The Silicon Underground
Intel announced the 486 CPU at Comdex on April 10, 1989. It was an expensive chip, priced at $950 each in quantities of 1,000. I thought it would be fun to look back at what the magazines at the time had to say about Intel’s then-new CPU.
The Captains of the Frog Ferry Seek Public Support
That money, Bladholm says, is enough to get the boat, build the docks, and run the subsidized pilot ferry through its incubation phase for a few years between Southwest Portland’s RiverPlace dock and St. Johns.
Fintech Startups Globally Raise More Money In Far Fewer Deals In Q1 2026
Global venture funding to financial technology startups totaled $12 billion across 751 deals in 2026 as of April 6, per Crunchbase data. That’s a 5% increase in dollars raised compared to the $11.4 billion raised across 1,097 — or 31.5% fewer — deals during the same time period in 2025.
SF is back – and the tech social scene is being run by the terminally online | Andreessen Horowitz
I’ve also noticed an interesting shift that’s happened beneath the surface. SF tech’s social infrastructure is now being entirely run by people who are terminally online – and this is changing everything about how relationships form, how trust gets built, and what happens when people end up in the same room.
Venture Capital Has a Starting Line Problem — Charlie O’Donnell – Coach, Author, VC
Think about how you’d hire a babysitter. If your closest friend’s sitter of five years suddenly became available, you’d jump at the chance to hire that person if you needed one. That’s not bias — that’s sensible risk management. You’re not discriminating against strangers. You’re prioritizing known quantities. Investors do the same thing—and it’s a hard argument to make that they shouldn’t.
How to Use AI Without Losing Your Mind – by Dan Hockenmaier
If the problem is big enough, and if the goal is simply execution, that’s a good candidate for automation. This would include an engineer writing the actual code, an analyst writing SQL, or a marketer generating tons of ad copy to test. Pretty soon, people will be spending very little time on these kinds of problems.
Why Most Investors Waste Time on Bad Ideas – by Adam Mead
Before circle of competence, I start with a simpler question: am I interested in the industry at all?
A Claw-Lite That Runs on Your Claude Code Subscription
This could be a Raspberry Pi or any machine that can run Claude Desktop. The hardware doesn’t matter. What matters is that your files are always there when Claude needs them.
Let’s talk about LLMs
Everybody seems to agree we’re in the middle of something, though what, exactly, seems to be up for debate. It might be an unprecedented revolution in productivity and capabilities, perhaps even the precursor to a technological “singularity” beyond which it’s impossible to guess what the world might look like. It might be just another vaporware hype cycle that will blow over. It might be a dot-com-style bubble that will lead to a big crash but still leave us with something useful (the way the dot-com bubble drove mass adoption of the web). It might be none of those things.
Viewpoint: A call to veto Oregon’s ‘Disconnect Bill’ – Portland Business Journal
I spoke this week with several leaders of professional services firms. Their clients are looking at leaving the state as a direct result of this bill. At the same lunch, someone who works closely with the legislature shared that they have been asked by several legislators who voted for the bill to help craft language for the next session that would soften or reverse elements of it.
The Market for Making AI Better
Academic publishers, documentary archives, game studios, and companies sitting on years of enterprise data have all been courted for the seeds of intelligence needed to train the next generation of models.
Christine Drazan, Chris Dudley decline to participate in Oregonian/KGW Republican gubernatorial debate – oregonlive.com
On Thursday, Drazan’s campaign informed the newsrooms she would not participate in the forum, which had been planned, but not confirmed, for April 30. That prompted ex-Trail Blazer Chris Dudley, who is also seeking his party’s nomination, to opt out as well.
Morgan Armstrong – Portland Business Journal
Armstrong has contributed to the success of several Portland startups, including Jama Software and Puppet, and at Bigleaf has helped overhaul expenditures, saving the company about $30,000 per month. Her contributions extend to the wider Portland community where at De La Salle North Catholic High School and TechTown Portland, she has created professional and financial opportunities for underrepresented communities.
Chris Williams | CreativeMornings/Portland, OR
In this interactive talk, Chris explores how stories spark dormant memories and create unexpected connections between people. Through conversation and a few simple audience activities, he’ll share how storytelling and improv taught him that the moments we almost overlook often hold the most creative power. Together, the room will discover how noticing and sharing those small sparks can turn strangers into collaborators, allies, and everyday moments into meaningful ideas.
PDXWIT
PDX Women in Tech is a Portland community group built around one simple idea: tech is better when everyone has a seat at the table. We bring together people of all backgrounds, experience levels, and identities to connect, learn, and grow together.
Kotek signs SB1507, which businesses strongly opposed – Portland Business Journal
“We appreciate the governor recognizing in her signing letter that the QSBS and bonus depreciation components are problematic for supporting and attracting entrepreneurs, investors, and companies to Oregon,” Newberry said in a statement. “We welcome the opportunity to work with her and the legislature to address these issues in the 2027 session.”
10 Questions to Ask Your VC…Before You Invest — Oregon Venture Fund
Given that so few funds truly succeed, how should you pick one? Start by asking these 10 questions…before you invest.
More Oregon startup news
