Silicon Florist links arrangement for September 7, 2026

Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:

Introducing Photon Marine Pooseiden

If you’d asked me five years ago when we started this adventure that I’d be waking up in the morning excited about pumping poop, well . . . it doesn’t have the same allure as “Motorcycle Race Engineer on the Isle of Man” or “Bultaco e-moto dirt bike lead in Barcelona” or some of the other titles I’ve carried. But opportunity is exciting, and dirty jobs pay well.

Washougal startup Resect AI emerges from stealth – Portland Business Journal

“We’ve spent an extensive amount of time and resources researching how models think and what causes them to choose the answers that they do,” Chief AI Officer Tim Walton said in a written statement. “Through this process, we’ve developed technology that observes exactly when and how models fail and surgically fixes them.”

(2011) Skip Newberry, economic advisor to Portland’s Mayor, named new president of the Software Association of Oregon (SAO)

When it comes to professional organizations that touch the Portland startup scene, one of the more contentious entities has been the Software Association of Oregon (SAO). The organization has gone through a number of leaders in the past few years. This summer, the organization found itself with an open president seat, once again. And that led to a number of discussions about the SAO and its leadership, point and counterpoint.

Research acceleration: The view inside OpenAI | OpenAI

We aim to safely build an automated AI researcher that can work under human supervision to further progress on deep learning and alignment, enabling iterative improvements. According to our measurements, we have now reached the goal, announced⁠(opens in a new window) last fall, of having an automated research intern by September of this year. By “research intern,” we mean a system that can carry out well-defined research tasks under human direction, including tasks that would take a skilled researcher a few days. We are making strong progress toward creating an automated AI researcher by March of 2028.

Five Things to Know About Oregon on Labor Day

Oregon has a rich history of supporting workers and their economic contributions. Here are five things to know about Oregon workers on the eve of their national holiday. Like… Oregon was the first state to make Labor Day an official holiday in 1887.

Concrete, Silicon, & Leverage | Tomasz Tunguz

Hyperscalers & data center operators will issue an estimated $4t in debt over the next five years to finance AI infrastructure. This credit expansion equals 286% of US commercial paper, 143% of global private credit, & 91% of the US municipal bond market, transforming AI infrastructure into a macroeconomic credit cycle.

Fei Fei Li: The Race to Build World Models For AI | The a16z Show

World Labs co-founders Fei-Fei Li, Justin Johnson, and Ben Mildenhall join a16z General Partner Martin Casado to discuss Atlas, their latest world model, and what it reveals about the pursuit of spatial intelligence.

California Is Taxing SaaS and AI Tools and Is About to Make Your Software 8-10% More Expensive. Here’s What SB 122 Does to Buyers and Vendors | SaaStrAI

On June 29, 2026, Gavin Newsom signed SB 122. Effective January 1, 2027, California sales and use tax applies to prewritten software and SaaS, however it’s delivered. Downloaded, streamed, accessed in a browser. All of it.

How to Get Your First Customer (Then Your First 3) – Noah Kagan

The fastest way to get your first customer is to sell to someone who already trusts you. Make three lists (contacts, communities you’re in, anyone who has paid you before), pick the ten most likely buyers, and ask each one directly with a price and a deadline. Deliver the work by hand. Repeat until you have three paying customers. Your first customer is not a stranger.

The loop closes – by Henry Stanley – Aliveness Studies

Now, someone can request a product change in Slack. Claude picks it up, helps spec the change with the user, writes the code, and adds a ticket to the backlog. Again, the only job an engineer has is to click ‘merge’. The code gets deployed, Claude marks the ticket done, and lets the requester know.