Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
ATProto 101 + Hangout with your favorite ATmosphere nerds!
Come join your fellow idealists, builders, and shitposters for another meetup about the atmosphere! Together, we’re doing our part to create a more social web so the internet belongs to The People and not the oligarchs.
Tim Cook’s Impeccable Timing – Stratechery by Ben Thompson
It’s the nature of business that the eulogy for a chief executive doesn’t happen when they die, but when they retire, or, in the case of Apple CEO Tim Cook, announce that they will step up to the role of Executive Chairman on September 1. The one morbid exception is when a CEO dies on the job — or quits because they are dying — and the truth of the matter is that that is where any honest recounting of Cook’s incredibly successful tenure as Apple CEO, particularly from a financial perspective, has to begin.
Fewer Oregonians are enrolling in marketplace plans because of federal uncertainty • Oregon Capital Chronicle
Reduced subsidies and tighter eligibility requirements are leading to less Oregonians enrolling in Oregon Health Insurance Marketplace plans
Mayor Wilson focuses on resilience and grit in proposed budget
Facing a record shortfall in the general fund of more than $160 million, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson today proposed an $8.5 billion city budget for fiscal year 2026-27 that makes major cuts, while maintaining critical resources like police officers, fire stations, parks, community centers, and affordable housing.
The New Unicorn Count Reached A 4-Year High In March, Led By Robotics, Frontier Labs And AI Infrastructure
A total of 37 companies joined The Crunchbase Unicorn Board in March, the highest monthly count in close to four years, Crunchbase data shows. The robotics sector led unicorn creation last month, with six new billion-dollar startups, including three from China. Frontier labs added four new unicorns, including two that are building models for robotics.
Data centers don’t have to be a burden on local communities – and can even support them by generating power and repurposing waste heat
Many consumers – and state policymakers and even utility companies – are worried about the possibility of large numbers of data centers raising electricity demand and power prices. Those are real concerns, but our engineering research finds that if designed, constructed and operated carefully, data centers can actually help the communities that host them.
PSU Awarded $1 Million Grant to Expand Semiconductor Career Pathways | Portland State University
The grant supports Portland State’s involvement in Frontiers of Advanced Semiconductor Technology (FAST), a group of 95 organizations including higher education institutions, government agencies, nonprofits and industry partners working to promote innovation and economic growth in the state.
Elad Gil: Random thoughts while gazing at the misty AI Frontier
I was originally going to write a long articulate post for each of the below, with lots of fancy graphic, charts, and detailed analysis. Then realized it is too much work. Instead, here is some human idea slop & random thoughts. Enjoy!
The BCI User Experience: Living With Brain Implants – IEEE Spectrum
More people have gone to space than have received advanced brain-computer interfaces (BCI) like his. But a growing number of companies are now attempting to move the devices out of neuroscience labs and into mainstream medical care, where they could help millions of people with paralysis and other neurological conditions. Some companies even hope that BCIs will eventually become a consumer technology.
Our best event yet… and we barely scratched the surface
Most of the night wasn’t scripted content, it was questions from the room. People dug into data privacy, who gets left behind in AI adoption, physician burnout, the limits of population-level medicine, and what personalized care could actually look like.
Women Entrepreneurs Tell Their Stories: A WSN Launch Evening, Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 3:00 PM | Meetup
WSN is a storytelling platform amplifying the voices and leadership of women across cultures and communities. Professionals, creatives, changemakers — if you believe that whose voices are heard matters, this is your room.
OEN May PubTalk: John Day
OEN’s May PubTalk is taking us to John Day, in partnership with Mid Oregon Credit Union and the Oregon Frontier Innovation Hub. These moments – when we gather outside of Portland and connect with founders across the state – are some of the most important ways we build a truly statewide innovation ecosystem.
7 AI Tools I Use Every Day as an AI-Native Founder (Claude, Codex, Hermes, and More)
So here’s the honest list. Not an evergreen “best AI tools of 2026” post. Just what’s on my machine right now, what I reach for, what’s changed in the last month.
