Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
Why Tech Bros Are Now Obsessed with Taste | The New Yorker
For tech bros, the word seems to have a pragmatic function. By their definition, taste is inherently profitable; it is the ability to discern what will make the most money, whether by choosing your next big software concept or by convincing users that your product is necessary. “The recipe for great work is: very exacting taste, plus the ability to gratify it,” Graham wrote in an essay from 2002, which he referenced in his recent post.
Jeff Bezos reportedly wants $100 billion to buy and transform old manufacturing firms with AI | TechCrunch
Jeff Bezos is reportedly seeking $100 billion for a new fund, the likes of which will be used to buy up companies in major industrial sectors and, ultimately, modernize and automate them with AI, according to sources cited by The Wall Street Journal.
White House releases AI policy blueprint for Congress – POLITICO
The light-touch framework blends the Trump administration’s effort to create a national AI rulebook on issues like political bias within models and reducing barriers to innovation with protections for children and teens online.
Lovable Portland Hackathon for Everyone · Luma
Not just developers. Not just designers. Not just the people who’ve been in tech for years. You. The person reading this right now. You can build a real, working app — today.
P:ear Installation Celebrates the Legacy of Henry Sakamoto
“We essentially wanted to figure out a way to embody what it feels like to re-create a grove of cherry trees,” explains Marianne Copene, director of the Flower Works program at p:ear. “The vision for the event was to honor Henry Sakamoto and his legacy, welcome in the return of spring, and celebrate setting intentions for the new year.”
Rethinking open source mentorship in the AI era – The GitHub Blog
Open source is experiencing its own “Eternal September”: a constant influx of contributions that strains the social systems we rely on to build trust and mentor newcomers.
The Most Active Startup Acquirers Of The Past 3 Years Aren’t Always Who You’d Expect
Some are longstanding blue chip tech and pharmaceutical companies. Others are fast-growing venture-backed unicorns. And still others are more recent public market entrants looking to stay competitive in the age of AI.
The End of Fragmentation – by Dan Hockenmaier
This divergence between value and labor helps to explain why many people got the internet wrong. It did, in fact, enable the creation of many more small businesses in industries like consumer products, retail, media, and services. This was decentralizing in many visible ways: more entrepreneurs, more startups, and greater diversity in the products and media we consume. But over the same period, concentration of value just continued to march upward.
Guillermo Rauch’s 5 Lessons for Founders Building in the AI Era
Guillermo Rauch is the founder and CEO of the web development platform Vercel and the creator of Next.js, one of the most widely used frameworks on the internet.
We Need to Talk about Agents – by Omar El-Ayat
The debate about AI and automation often swings between two extremes: excited claims that AI will replace all knowledge workers by the end of the decade, and anxious concerns that enterprise AI pilots are faltering and failing to provide tangible economic value. Both views miss the mark.
Portland cybersecurity startup Eclypsium raises $25M to secure AI infrastructure – GeekWire
The company plans to use the funds to expand further into AI infrastructure and a growing array of edge devices — including GPU servers, NVIDIA BlueField-based appliances, SASE and SD-WAN edge devices, 5G equipment, and CCTV cameras.
More Oregon startup news
