Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
How Graze Social’s Devin Gaffney wants to build a better internet
Right now, the algorithms that command our attention were built by a handful of now-gargantuan companies, under their terms of use. Graze Social is Gaffney’s attempt to offer an alternative, to help regulate platforms into what he calls “common carrier status.” Gaffney draws a parallel to a utilities company: While a power company may send a specialist to work on your local power lines, their influence stops at the access point. “The specialists do not get to say what lamp you can use, right?” Gaffney says. “[But] we conflate all of that as the same role in the attention economy. We don’t have to do that. It’s just an arbitrary architectural decision that we have been frog-boiled into believing is immutable for the last 20 years.”
Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg Put on ‘Leave of Absence’
“And the biggest news: I won’t be able to make the ELT tomorrow,” Matt wrote in an Announcement Slack. He continued, writing that Mark Davies, current Automattic Chief Financial Officer, has “conspired” with Automattic Board of Directors members Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider, and Sue Decker “behind my back and they voted to put me on a paid leave of absence. I voted against that.”
The AI Researcher Who Just Quit Anthropic Says It’s ‘Crunch Time for Humanity’ | WIRED
Jacob Coxon talks to WIRED about the “mini Manhattan project” inside Anthropic, the problem with alignment, and why AI labs have just a few years left to make their systems safe.
(2009) Experimenting with Silicon Florist reddit: A reddit for the rest of us
In a perfect world, any number of Silicon Forest blogs throughout Oregon and Washington could be running something like this, giving folks more broad exposure to what’s happening and what people choose to highlight.
Contribution of the Week: $50,000
Who gave it? A Lake Oswego startup called Rule42, officially launched just one month ago by former Intel president Renée James. Rule42 has two branches: an investment arm and an online platform powered by artificial intelligence where scouts and recruiters can track the performance of amateur athletes.
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Opinion: It’s time for Seattle to believe in Seattle – GeekWire
We are almost pathologically humble. Our response to notable achievements is often a polite nod before everybody gets back to our regularly scheduled Seattle freeze. That humility is working against us.
This Is the Last Full Year of Demolicious | by Josh Carter | Sep, 2026 | Medium
Starting in 2027, Demolicious becomes a yearly event instead of a monthly one. September, October, and November are your last three shots at the regular format. Then in December we run the final Demolicious: Champion of Champions at the Mission Theater, and from there it becomes an annual tradition, still at the Mission Theater, still at the end of the year.
The Agentic Dispatch: Adopt AI, Fearlessly.
Oktane is the world’s largest identity conference and it starts September 22 at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas. C1 is coming in with a full week of activations. Here is what to put on your calendar…
Anthropic: What will our economic future look like?
As you scroll down, you’ll see an overview of how AI affects the economy. Then, you can plug in your expectations for how capable AI will be, and how extensively it will be used across the economy in the future. The model will show you what the economy in 2030 might look like if your predictions come true—and how your predictions compare to others.
Automattic’s board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence | TechCrunch
A Slack message to the open source WordPress.org community from the project’s executive director, Mary Hubbard, also confirmed Mullenweg’s change of status at the commercial company. However, Hubbard said that WordPress.org was not impacted. “Matt remains the leader of the WordPress project and I remain Executive Director of WordPress. Our teams, priorities, and work continue as planned,” she wrote.
Meet the Candidates For City Council District 3 – Portland Mercury
District 3 is one of two districts in which councilors elected in 2024 started out with two-year terms under Portland’s new city charter, to allow for the new 12-person City Council to have staggered terms. This November, 21 candidates are vying for three seats. The Mercury tracked each candidate to find out who they are, why they’re running, and who’s backing their campaign.
Salem-based Agility Robotics SEC filings reveal 2025 losses, sales – Portland Business Journal
In a regulatory filing late last week, the company reported 2025 revenue of $1.8 million, a jump from $310,000 in 2024. The company reported a net loss of $138 million in 2025. It lost $70 million the year before.
