Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
Jobs every engineer should automate with agents
Some engineering tasks are too repetitive to be worth prompting every time by hand, but too fuzzy for a script. We’ve been using Scouts at PostHog to do these instead – scheduled agents with long-term memory that run on a cron trigger. Here are 6 chores we’ve automated this way, with prompts you can copy to build your own version of each.
SXSW Pitch
SXSW Pitch highlights startups across selected categories, presenting them to a panel of industry experts, early adopters, and investors.
Energizing Oregon: Highlights from the 2026 Bend Venture Conference – Elevate Capital
From an incredible dinner at Brasada Ranch hosted by Cliff DeGroot, Caitlin Vargas, Cara Turano and Ben Parish, to networking at Broken Top Club and the Technology Association of Oregon reception at Tetherow, the opportunities to build real relationships were endless.
(2009) Need a little more detail on that startup? Try VentureMash
When it comes to definitive resources to house information on startups around here, the options are fairly slim. You can track it yourself, you can read the fluff I write here, you can pay for a subscription to a research service, or you can work to embed the information you’re seeking into existing resources like AboutUs. And that, my friends, is what we in the biz like to call “an opportunity.” Well, leave it to some enterprising entrepreneurs to take that opportunity and run with it. Introducing Portland-based VentureMash.
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Working with academic communities to build scientific understanding | OpenAI
We are announcing three new discoveries in mathematics, computer science, and physics about harmonic analysis, complexity theory, and quantum field theory.
Anthropic’s IPO filing reveals its strategy for keeping enterprise customers hooked | TechCrunch
As of September 30, Anthropic recorded more than 11,900 customers spending at least $100,000; more than 1,900 customers spending upward of $1 million; and about 250 customers spending $10 million or more annually.
The Tokenizer Tax: Why non-english AI users pay more for tokens – Rest of World
A new study published last month by the Coalition for Language Equity in AI Research found AI models require far more tokens for some languages than others. Tokens are the units of text or data that the models process. The researchers have called this a hidden “tokenizer tax,” which can make AI more expensive in languages with smaller online presence. A tokenizer is a tool that breaks down raw text, images, or audio into tokens.
Intel acquires Israeli quantum software company Classiq – Portland Business Journal
The company (NASDAQ: INTC), which employs 16,000 workers in Hillsboro, agreed to acquire Israeli quantum software company Classiq. The strategy will combine its quantum hardware research with Classiq’s software platform.
Introducing a Voluntary Exit Offer – The Official Microsoft Blog
Today, we’re introducing a new Voluntary Exit Offer (VEO) to eligible employees within participating organizations. This offer gives eligible employees who may be considering a future outside the company a new choice to make that transition now with support. It also gives participating organizations another way to adapt their workforce to changing needs.
PHP2Shell: Exploitation Attempts and Remediation Trends
This post summarizes what we have observed in terms of remediation efforts and exploitation attempts across real world environments and in our own honeypot data to date and shares findings from our ongoing investigation into these activities.
AI Promised Less Work. I Have Never Worked More. – Orestis Ioannou
But somewhere this year I noticed that I am working more than I ever have, and that it feels heavier than it used to. Not because any single task is harder. Because there are so many more of them, all at once. This post is me trying to understand that, with some data from my own GitHub history.
Grand Fir Brewing’s the Outpost beer garden and events venue opening in rural Clackamas County — New School Beer + Cider
Among the many features of the location is an 1,100 sq. ft. indoor taproom, and a nearly 13,000 sq. ft. expansive beer garden, and a year-round heated solarium. Around the beer garden is Abel’s Garden Center’s massive nursery and plant selection that adds a lush backdrop that Grand Fir hopes you will eventually be able to browse with a beer in hand. On-site there is plenty of parking out-front and spillover in a tree-lined open field out back.
The Forgotten Industrialist – by Kyle Harrison
First, who George F. was and what he built. Then, the obvious objection: his company is dead, so how good could his ideas have been? And I’ll end with what I think he can teach us about a world where a lot of smart people are convinced AI is about to make most humans economically useless.
The Situationship: When Your LinkedIn Network Isn’t Really a Network – Kristin Luck
Having lots of connections is fine, and breadth has value. Weak ties have a well-earned reputation for surfacing jobs and deals that your inner circle never would. The trouble starts when you mistake the size of your network for its strength, and you find out the difference when you need a warm intro and your list of 12,000 yields three people.
CTA Foundation Pitch Competition Presented by Next50
Be part of the CTA Foundation’s Pitch Competition at CES 2027, with presenting sponsor Ability Central and prize sponsor Next50. This year, we’re spotlighting technology that supports caregiving, whether it helps professional and family caregivers or the people they care for. We want products that ease daily caregiving tasks, reduce burnout, and help people stay independent, connected, and healthy. Selected companies will pitch on stage at CES to industry leaders, investors, and media. If you’re building technology that makes caregiving easier, apply now to show your impact at the world’s most influential technology event.
Exclusive | DoorDash Is in Advanced Talks to Acquire Delivery Rival Instacart – WSJ
A deal could be finalized as soon as this week and could value Instacart at around $17 billion, the people said. There are no guarantees it will come together.
How the Claude Code team does code review
How do you review code at the volume agents produce it? On the Claude Code team, once we had high coverage and deep reviews, we started optimizing for the minimum amount of human review time that doesn’t raise reverts or incidents.
Keeping a software factory stable at 1,000 PRs a week
But human testing alone is not enough. A person can only try a few cases, usually the happy path or the obvious edge cases. That is why, on a production service that one of our three engineers ran before, every change still went through automated tests in the release pipeline after careful manual testing. It shows humans relied on automated testing harnesses to gain high confidence even before AI.
Building Slack: Salesforce – Part Two
The cultural gaps between Slack and our new parent were evident everywhere you looked. At Slack our tight-knit culture informed every aspect of our work; how the product was designed, how we communicated with customers, how we ran the service and sold it, and how we coordinated internally.
PubTalks Fireside Chat: NUWOHM, Wed, Nov 4, 2026, 5:00 PM | Meetup
Pull up a chair with Olivia and Gunnar Vulpin, founders of Nuwohm, for a fireside chat about taking University of Oregon research into the marketplace—and building a manufacturing business right here in Oregon. We’ll talk customers, growing pains, and what it takes to move an invention beyond the lab.
Pitch Polish — TiE Oregon
In partnership with the OSU Advantage Accelerator at Oregon State University, the four-day program combines hands-on training, individualized coaching, and mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs and investors. Participants refine their pitch, business strategy, financial projections, and fundraising approach—preparing them for the conversations that go beyond the pitch.
