Month: October 2026

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

AI Portland goes to Oregon State | AI Portland

Thank you to everyone at OSU. Every single person made us feel welcome. We felt special, we learned a ton, and we had a great time. Thank you to Burt, Rachel, and Shelly for making this happen and wrangling our groups all day, and to Kagan Tumer; Forrest Masters, Kearney Dean of Engineering; Shawn Donkin, Associate Dean for Research in the College of Agricultural Sciences; our panelists; and every researcher who walked us through their work.

You already met the 17 startups in the Oregon UAS Accelerator’s Fall 2026 cohort back in August. Nine are from Oregon. The rest are from Washington, Texas, Oklahoma, Virginia, and South Korea. And now it’s time to watch them pitch. But recognizing that the jaunt out to Pendleton can be a bit of a haul, they’re hosting this one in Portland. (It’s by invitation though. So you’ll have to get permission to attend.)

It’s always a good sign when out of town VCs swing by Portland. That’s why I was happy to see that Andrew Chan, founder and managing partner of Atas VC, is bringing “The Road Show” to Portland on Friday, October 23, from 9:00 to 11:00 AM PT. You can request to join. But you can’t just show up.

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

Partisan split emerges in Oregon over data centers, poll finds – oregonlive.com

A new poll commissioned by The Oregonian/OregonLive finds Democrats and nonaffiliated voters are broadly supportive of a statewide moratorium on data centers. Republicans are split on the issue, but more oppose a moratorium than support it.

With this whole Silicon Forest renaissance, Mueon is one of those Silicon Forest stories I’ve been keeping an eye on. Modular compute. Stackable building blocks. That sort of thing. Now the Portland startup has announced a $65 million Series A. The round was led by Maverick Silicon. Other participants included Intel Capital, Geodesic Alliances Fund, local money from Oregon Venture Fund, M-Ventures, Wellington Capital, IQT, and Defined. Add in the $15.5 million seed it raised coming out of stealth in 2025, and Mueon has raised more than $80 million raised to date. The Information broke the news.

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

What Makes a Compelling Investment Thesis? — Oregon Venture Fund

As early-stage venture investors, often when evaluating a company there is hardly any revenue to underwrite, no retention metrics, and little data to base decisions on. Oftentimes, there is a team going after an opportunity and it is up to us to make an argument for why we believe that there is a clear, falsifiable case for why that very company could become large relatively quickly, why this is the time for that to happen, and why this is the team to pull it off. That argument is our thesis.

In the modern day world of proprietary home contraptions like Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple HomePod, it’s difficult to find solutions that do exactly what you want them to do. Which is why I’m glad that there’s the Open Home Foundation and Home Assistant, an open source approach to the robots that run our connected devices within our abodes. And in November, Portland will have a day to compare notes, share insights, and celebrate the more open approach. All as part of Home Assistant Community Day PDX.

If you’ve been anywhere near Portland as of late, you’ve likely heard about the potential shuttering of multiple schools. Due to dropping enrollment numbers. Salem-Keizer is having similar discussions. And while this whole thing can be heated and uncomfortable, it’s really nice to have the ability to assess the actual data. Which we can. Thanks to Right Size Portland.