Silicon Florist links arrangement for October 8, 2025

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

Tech Sparks with Rose City Techies, Wed, Nov 19, 2025, 5:30 PM | Meetup

Join us for an exciting evening of rapid-fire inspiration with Rose City Techies at the most beautiful co-working space in all of Portland, Kiln. At Tech Sparks, local innovators, developers, designers, founders, and creators will each have 10–15 minutes to share their tech-related stories, ideas, experiments, and insights. No slides required (But, you can if you’d like) — just short, powerful talks designed to spark conversation and connection.

SEC approves Texas Stock Exchange, first new U.S. fully integrated exchange in decades – CBS Texas

The Securities and Exchange Commission approved Tuesday the Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) as a national securities exchange, paving the way for the first new, fully integrated U.S. stock exchange in decades — and the only one based in Texas.

Bending The Curve – by Zvi Mowshowitz

Where the accelerationists and the worried come together to mostly get along and coordinate on the same things, because the rest of the world has gone blind and mad. In some ways technical solutions seem relatively promising, shifting us from ‘might be actually impossible’ levels of impossible to Shut Up And Do The Impossible levels of impossible, all you have to do is beat the game on impossible difficulty level. As a speed run. On your first try. Good luck.

At Intel and beyond, CEOs find success going direct to President Trump | Semafor

Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and tech founder Michael Dell were among the executives who reached out to President Donald Trump or his top aides to talk up Tan’s credentials and patriotism after the president publicly called for him to be fired, according to people familiar with the matter.

AI2 Incubator launches $80M fund as it doubles down on real-world AI applications in Seattle and beyond – GeekWire

The Seattle-based startup organization — known for spinning out companies at the intersection of AI and real-world applications — has closed an $80 million third fund to support about 70 new tech ventures over the next four years.

Oregon Republicans post fake image of protest – using photos of South America | Portland | The Guardian

When a Guardian reporter pointed out on social media that the image was not a genuine photograph of the generally small and tame protests outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Portland, the Oregon Republican Party’s X account replied: “We’re not reporters, just bad memers.”

Generative AI and news report 2025: How people think about AI’s role in journalism and society | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

Our survey in six countries (Argentina, Denmark, France, Japan, the UK, and the US) explored how people use generative AI in their everyday lives, what they think its impact will be on different areas of society, and what they think about its use in news and journalism specifically.

SXSW Pitch 2026

SXSW Pitch is a premier startup showcase spotlighting the most ambitious entrepreneurs and disruptive technologies from around the world. Now in its 18th year, this dynamic event invites startups to apply through an open call process for a chance to be featured as a finalist.

Portland startup Stratesea builds no-code AI map analysis – Portland Business Journal

Stratesea’s product is aimed at customers who deal with huge amounts of data coming from sea floor mapping. These are corporate and government users who are looking for hazards on the ocean floor. This can be everything from unexploded ordnances or mines to natural topography hazards, said Price-Doucet, who is an oceanographer by training. Her scientific research focused on machine learning and computer vision applied to acoustic data, she said.

TiE Collegiate Startup Challenge — TiE Oregon

The TiE Collegiate Startup Challenge is a new, statewide pitch competition for Oregon and SW Washington college and university entrepreneurs—including students, faculty, and alumni—who are ready to showcase their startups and gain exposure.

What the Internet Was Like in 2000 | Cybercultural

Over 2000, “the Net” became an even more colorful, and increasingly social, place to hang out. Animated Flash pages were everywhere, bloggers were discovering and connecting to each other, social news sites like Slashdot and MetaFilter were rising in prominence. So despite the flagging economy, creativity in web design plus community in blogs and social news came to define the year 2000.

Other Oregon startup stories