Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
Accelerator Program | Oregon AI Accelerator
An 11-week intensive hybrid program designed to give 12–15 high-conviction AI startups the traction, mentorship, and regional ecosystem leverage to scale.
Social Beer: Sept Gathering, Thu, Sep 24, 2026, 6:00 PM | Meetup
Heading to the west side for this one. An IRL gathering of the Portland Startups Slack community. Whether you’re already part of the Portland Startups Slack community or not, please feel free to swing by, have a beverage, and connect with other startup and tech folks here in Portland.
(2013) Portland’s CPUsage takes the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt to reveal new product direction (and they have nearly $1 million in funding)
It’s always nice to see Portland companies taking the big stage. And today, CPUsage will be unveiling their new direction—and announcing nearly $1 million in funding—at one of the biggest startup events around, TechCrunch Disrupt.
States Curb Data Center Tax Breaks After AI Boom Raises Costs – WSJ
A similar dynamic is playing out across the country, as legislators or governors in more than 10 states, including Illinois, New Jersey and Washington, have slammed the brakes on the tax breaks. The reversals underscore how state leaders who once welcomed the facilities powering the AI boom as an economic engine suddenly treat them like a political liability.
Every Startup Idea Sounds Great When You Skip the Most Important Part | by Aaron Dinin, PhD | Sep, 2026 | Entrepreneurship Handbook
It was almost like my friend had just asked whether I thought he should open a restaurant so long as he guaranteed the food would be delicious, the location would be perfect, customers would love the concept, the economics would work, and the dining room would be full every night for the next decade.
Read Warns Oregon Voters to Drop Off Ballots, Not Mail Them
As a battle over a presidential order targeting mail-in voting plays out in the courts, Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read made an extraordinary recommendation Sept. 8: Voters should submit their ballots at authorized drop boxes this midterm election rather than using the mail.
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Portland, OR – Investor Ready Workshop · Luma
Join Clarence Bethea for a five-hour, hands-on workshop designed to help founders master the room, the pitch, and the psychology of fundraising.
Oregon lawmakers preview Kotek’s prosperity council findings amid economic ‘inflection point’ • Oregon Capital Chronicle
“If I could just step back from it, tax is emotional for everybody, but it really is a bipartisan or nonpartisan topic in this state,” Renée James, founder of semiconductor company Ampere Computing and council co-chair, told lawmakers. “We’re at this inflection point where we’re not competitive with our neighbors who largely are ideologically aligned with us.”
Hitting Once, Hitting Often: The Anatomy of a Great VC Career
In this post, I will be diving not into what you are called, but what you actually backed. I will be answering the following questions: Over an entire career, how many genuinely successful investments does a venture capitalist make? Who makes many of them? And can we tell in advance who will?
The Best Way to Monetize Is to Not Monetize at All
Yep, Lovable is a PLG company. Most of our revenue comes in self-serve. We also have an amazing sales team, but our main motion is still very bottom-up. Prosumers, founders, people building personal projects, and a surprisingly large number of people using Lovable inside companies are still just swiping their credit card.
Growth Is a System. Start There. – by Adam Fishman
A growth system does not require an elaborate spreadsheet in the beginning. Even the simplified growth model might be overkill when you’re starting out. What you need is something that is explicit enough that a team can test its assumptions. The system is a qualitative description of what happens in reality. The Growth model is your current explanation of that system.
Should VCs Always Follow-on? – by Ruben Dominguez
None of that is a verdict on your company. It is what the numbers do once a valuation moves. And once founders see the arithmetic laid out, most of the panic goes with it.
40 startups to exhibit at Deep Tech Week Washington crawl
In addition to companies headquartered in Virginia, Maryland and DC, the crawl lineup includes startups from California, Oregon, New York and Tennessee. Visiting founders are making the most of the trip, from scheduling engagements on the Hill to attending events like the Army Demand Signal Forum, Billington Cybersecurity Summit and other Deep Tech Week Washington happenings.
Your September dispatch from the Office of Small Business
Join Office of Small Business on Tuesday, September 29, for Building Your Business Team, an online panel designed to help small business owners build a solid support system by surrounding yourself with the right experts.
The Billion Dollar Blindspot
The next book (manuscript finished!) shows how a small but growing group of leaders and companies are building uncopyable, generational companies in this age of rampant sameness by embracing the hard but human path to aliveness.
