Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
OpenAI’s new AI smart speaker will reportedly sell for between $300 and $400 | TechCrunch
Bloomberg now reports that the device will be “donut-shaped,” designed thusly to allow users to carry it around their home and place it in different locations, like a bedside table or a kitchen counter.
Former A16z partner to raise $100m for new venture firm debut
As first reported by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), former partner at Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) Bryan Kim plans to raise roughly $100m for the debut fund of his new venture, Mido Capital.
99% of My Website Traffic Is Bots | PatronView
I’ve spent a year fighting bots on my philanthropy donor database, PatronView. Nobody teaches you this stuff when you’re vibe coding, so I’ll share what I’ve learned.
July jobs report: US economy shed 23,000 jobs, a sudden reversal
The U.S. economy shed 23,000 jobs in July, a sign that the labor market had not stabilized after four months of positive growth.
Taste Is All That’s Left
You had an idea, and between the idea and the working program stood hours— sometimes weeks—of typing, of reading manuals, of misunderstanding an API and slowly grinding the wrong version into a slightly less wrong one. Production was the wall. Everyone hit it. It was the thing that separated the people who could from the people who could only talk about it. That wall is gone.
Christine Drazan releases first TV ad in Oregon general election against Gov. Tina Kotek – oregonlive.com
Neither Kotek nor Drazan, who has served in the Legislature for much of the past seven years, have focused their campaigns on their legislative achievements or policy agenda. Instead, Kotek has sought to portray Drazan as a Trump loyalist, while Drazan has focused on criticizing the state’s lack of progress on education, homelessness and other issues.
16 Democratic Lawmakers Press Treasurer Steiner for a Full Audit of Retirement Fund Risks — Oregon Journalism Project
Sixteen Democratic lawmakers want Oregon State Treasurer Elizabeth Steiner to conduct what they say is a long overdue comprehensive audit of the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund.
Knowing When to Stop: The Art of Making a Loop Converge | Andreessen Horowitz
“Done” is rarely a property of the work itself. It is a judgment produced by the system around the work. Humans do not possess a universal detector for “done”. We rely on a patchwork of signals like tests, specifications, precedent, approval, deadlines, risk, and finding that point of diminishing returns. In each case, completion comes from outside the work itself.
No Summer Doldrums For Active Startup Investors In July
Among lead investors, Khosla Ventures topped the ranks last month, while Y Combinator was by far the busiest backer by deal count. The highest-spending investors for the period, meanwhile, appear to be Coatue and Nvidia.
Should Investors Always Follow On? Here’s the Real Math
This matters because founders waste weeks stressing about investor decisions that have nothing to do with their company’s potential. Worse, some founders avoid great early investors because they heard “you should only work with investors who promise to follow on.”
Agent Plugins
Agent Plugins is an open, vendor-neutral standard for packaging reusable components into portable plugins. Its version 1.0.0 specification defines a shared format for Agent Skills and MCP servers that compatible clients can discover and load consistently.
Why Open-Source Models Haven’t Killed the Big Dogs
If model quality is becoming commoditized, why are OpenAI and Anthropic still making ungodly amounts of money while charging more for their best models?
Startup Spotlight: HitchPiggy wants to turn empty car seats into a new rideshare marketplace – GeekWire
The bootstrapped startup is small, with a little more than 100 registered users signing up for Pacific Northwest trips since its launch on June 1. No rides have been completed through the platform just yet, but Windham is looking to grow college ridership this fall through a partnership with the Portland State Business Accelerator.
Autodesk appears to be moving Portland office to Slabtown – Portland Business Journal
Autodesk is moving into a new space at 2151 N.W. Savier St., according to building permits filed with the city. Its current offices are in the Towne Storage Building on the east side of the Burnside Bridge.
(2019) Adding to the local startup accelerator ledger: Oregon Enterprise Blockchain Venture Studio announces inaugural class
There’s a new class of startups in a new accelerator. The Oregon Enterprise Blockchain Venture Studio housed at R/GA in Portland has announced their first class of companies.
Empowering Main Street by Unlocking Access to Capital
THE COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS will meet in OPEN SESSION, HYBRID FORMAT to conduct a hearing entitled, “Empowering Main Street by Unlocking Access to Capital.” The witnesses will be: Ms. Dalia Blass, Senior Investment Management Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell; The Honorable Kenneth Bentsen, President and CEO, SIFMA; Mr. Mike Flood, Senior Vice President, Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; and Mr. Cantrell Dumas, Senior Researcher for Financial Regulation and Policy, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
How to Support Rural Oregon Businesses Affected by Wildfire
Rural communities are built on the belief that people show up for each other. A business that survives a fire season because its neighbors kept ordering, kept buying gift cards, kept showing up is proof of the resilience that drives rural economic development.
Say goodbye to Lloyd Center at these 8 wild last-day mall events – Here is Oregon – hereisoregon.com
Saturday, Aug. 8, is the official last day of Lloyd Center, and it’s going to be a party.
More Oregon startup news
