Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
Dorkbot PDX: June Edition, Mon, Jun 8, 2026, 6:30 PM | Meetup
Most of Dorkbot is a freewheeling hangout, but each month we feature a short talk about a cool project or teaching some esoteric wizardry. This month, Helen Leigh will share some of the musical instruments she’s made over the years and share some of the technologies behind them. Helen’s projects include: spider harp, purring tentacle, golden disco ball theremin, robotic midi drum machine, and an embroidered kraakdoos.
Is this sustainable?
We don’t yet know what this means for engineering as a discipline, or for the people doing it. The honest version of what it feels like, from inside it, is paddling harder to stay ahead of an ever-increasing current. It works for now. It won’t last forever.
‘We are home today’: Grand Ronde breaks ground on tumwata village at Willamette Falls – oregonlive.com
The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde held a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for the first phase of work at tumwata village, a massive, 23-acre project that will reshape the Oregon City side of Willamette Falls at the site of a former paper mill.
Your New Traditions as a Portland Fire Fan
“Portland has always been a basketball city,” writes general manager Vanja Černivec in a pamphlet for prospective season ticketholders. “Now, we’re a WNBA city again. And with your support, we’re going to build something powerful, inclusive and uniquely ours.”
How far behind are open models? — LessWrong
Open models, AI models where you can download the weights online, are generally not as capable as the best closed models (models only available through an API), but how large is the gap, and how does it change over time? We try to answer this question by using data from 17 selected benchmarks (8 private, 9 public, ~110 datapoints) measuring various capabilities. All the data and code needed to reproduce this can be found on github.
When ICE ramped up enforcement, US-born workers didn’t see any economic gains
We’re scholars of labor markets, immigration and public environmental policy who have examined how these economic trends can be traced to the mass deportation campaign of Trump’s second term. Notably, while areas with heavier ICE enforcement saw a drop in employment among immigrants, there was no increase in either employment or wages among U.S. citizens.
Dan Schade talks On, thriving in the apparel sector – Portland Business Journal
The Portland Business Journal sat down with Schade to discuss how he went from aspiring Silicon Valley entrepreneur to working for an apparel company, the city of Portland, the company’s growth and thriving amid a moment of global economic uncertainty.
They Saw Women Shut Out Of VC, So A PayPal Veteran And Former Navy Officer Built An Alternative
The platform, also called AQi, gives women-led businesses — those that are at least 50% women-owned — a way to raise capital through Regulation Crowdfunding, a securities framework aimed at opening up startup investing.
24 tips for giving S-tier demos – by Jina Yoon
A good demo can be the difference between a project shipping or shutting down, and a startup getting funded or going nowhere.
Introducing dynamic workflows | Claude
Today we’re introducing dynamic workflows in Claude Code, helping Claude take on the most challenging tasks end-to-end. Work you’d normally plan in quarters now finishes in days. Claude dynamically writes orchestration scripts that run tens to hundreds of parallel subagents in a single session, checking its work before anything reaches you.
The Fallacy of “Defensibility” – by George Matelich
The argument about moat and defensibility for 9.9 out of 10 early-stage startups is ridiculous because almost no company starts with a moat. Most great businesses grow into defensible positions.
How AWS used random graph theory to build more efficient data centers
How a Slack shout-out, a dusted-off academic theory, and a spaghetti monster led an AWS team to crack an elusive code—and deliver greater reliability and performance for customers.
On this day in Portland startup history: Taking our place among Startup Cities: Portland, Oregon
You know I’m a sucker for a good video. Especially when it’s on the Portland startup scene. And if you ignore the minor chunk that features my ugly mug, this is a pretty damn good take on what’s happening around here. Grab a cup of coffee and take a few minutes to enjoy Startup Cities: Portland, Oregon.