Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
VibeJam, Spring ’26 · Luma
The largest vibe coding community on the web is hosting the third edition of VibeJam, this time with a twist: serious apps only.
Mozilla launches Thunderbolt AI client with focus on self-hosted infrastructure – Ars Technica
Mozilla is the latest legacy tech brand to make a play for the enterprise AI market. But the company behind Firefox and Thunderbird isn’t releasing its own standalone AI model or agentic browser. Instead, the newly announced Thunderbolt is being sold as a front-end client for users and businesses who want to run their own self-hosted AI infrastructure without relying on cloud-based third-party services.
Is Your Site Agent-Ready?
Scan your website to see how ready it is for AI agents. We check multiple emerging standards — from robots.txt and Markdown negotiation to MCP, OAuth, Agent Skills and agentic commerce.
How a Tiny Yellow Handheld Changed How Duke University Teaches Game Design – Playdate News
When Duke University launched its new Masters in Game Design, Development, and Innovation (GDDI) program, the faculty faced a challenge familiar to anyone who has taught creative technical disciplines: how do you get students making real things, fast, when the tools themselves are a challenge to master?
Top Oregon GOP gubernatorial candidates slam Kotek, trade few jabs at first debate • Oregon Capital Chronicle
Four of the state’s leading GOP candidates for governor addressed attendees at the Oregon Republican Party’s debate and sought to capitalize on discontent with the governor’s policies
We’re All Building a Single Digital Assistant | Daniel Miessler
We’ve been talking about agents since 2025, and now we’re talking about harnesses. And I think this is all heading in the exact same direction. I initially talked about this in 2016, which we could talk about later, but I think the direction this is all heading is into a single interface — a single interface for handling everything AI-related.
Oregon venture capital investment drops in Q1 2026 – Portland Business Journal
First-quarter venture capital activity in the Portland metro dropped nearly 65% compared to first quarter activity last year.
Exclusive: GetWhys Raises $5.2M To Help Companies Like Intel And Verizon Better Understand Their Customers
The company described the financing as a “seed II” round. It builds upon a $2.75 million “seed I” round the company raised in February 2025, bringing its total raised to about $8 million. Epic Ventures led its latest financing, which also included participation from CEAS Investments and Portland Seed Fund. Existing backers Next Frontier Capital, Tuesday Capital and Capital Eleven also wrote checks into the round.
