Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
You’ve got an idea for a startup. Now what? Apply Nascent methodology. » Calagator: Portland’s Tech Calendar
In this 2-hour hands-on workshop, participants will walk through a case study applying “Nascent Methodology,” a novel, unique approach to identify the earliest signals of opportunity for startups without customers. Through guided exercises, participants will search for People in Pain (an initial indication of potential customers) and will quantify the Pain in dollars ($). By the end of the workshop, founders will be able to evaluate a startup idea in seconds. Participants will come away with a framework for evaluating and iteratively improving their own startup ideas.
Yes, I Texted the Number on the Sign
Since the beginning of the summer, I’ve literally pulled over to take pictures of these colorful, playful, hand-painted signs nailed to a variety of telephone poles around Portland. They advertise roof cleaning, house washing, and gutter clearing—sometimes just “ROOF CLEAN” in big, blocky letters—all in a riot of vibrant colors and lettering styles that feel totally human, wonky, and great.
Can an AI Goliath Help Oregon Stay Competitive in the Tech Industry? – Portland Mercury
As part of the collaboration outlined in a memorandum of understanding, the corporation, Nvidia, will launch an AI ambassador program in the state’s colleges and universities to train students in AI-related work, build education programs and curriculum to meet “evolving industry needs,” and help identify opportunities to bring AI to public sector work.
5 things to know about Oregon PERS’ big bets on private equity, other ‘alternative’ investments – oregonlive.com
Treasury officials remain bullish, saying markets are cyclical and they expect the complex bets they’ve made to pay off and deliver much higher returns than they’d get from a vanilla portfolio of publicly traded stocks and bonds. But other aren’t so sanguine and believe the market has changed in ways that will limit those returns.
Consumer confidence trends in Portland – Portland Business Journal
Portland’s overall MCSI score was 82.3 for the second quarter, down from 83.9 in the first quarter. Scores above 100 indicate positive consumer sentiments. That score was the lowest among the 47 metro areas on Morning Consult’s index and repeats the Portland area’s last-place rank last quarter.
Mass layoffs at Intel will mean less revenue for Oregon, even as the semiconductor industry remains a major economic driver – OPB
Experts studying Oregon employment and the semiconductor industry expect Intel to survive its current troubles, but will emerge a slimmer company with fewer workers in the state.
The Dynamic Context Problem: How Carta’s Internal AI Agents Save Thousands of Hours of Back-and-Forth Work | First Round
Carta built dynamic AI agents to solve complex accounting problems. The most impactful use case turned an 11-minute task into one that’s completed in seconds — normally, there are 20,000 to 25,000 of these tasks per month that need to be reconciled by Carta’s internal teams. That’s a savings of over 3,500 hours per month. This enables a faster, more scalable, differentiated service experience for internal teams and their clients.
More Portland startup news
