Last week, I got some early reports on a couple of winners at Bend Venture Conference 2025. Now, I have the complete list from the organizers. So I’m going to share it with you. Because you deserve it. Or something. And stuff.

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

Meet Caravel: Pioneering a New Era of Biotechnology with the First Unified Platform for Protein Discovery and Delivery

Caravel Bio, the first joint platform for protein discovery and delivery that enables new applications of synthetic biology, today announces its selection for a $7.8 million award from the U.S. National Science Foundation Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (NSF TIP). The award assembles a team of world-class engineers to create tools for building proteins with novel chemistries, train more advanced machine learning models on the resulting datasets, and develop new, innovative products across industries.

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

Portland General Electric invests in AI-powered flexibility to speed data center connection | Utility Dive

The utility is working with startup GridCARE to help data centers plug into transmission-constrained grids without waiting for new infrastructure, executives said.

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

🧠 When the Founder Is the Moat

In startups, especially deep-tech and AI, the moat often isn’t data or models. It’s the founder(s).

I’ve written about Senator Ron Wyden any number of times. Not just because he’s our senior senator for Oregon, but because he’s one of the few people at the federal level with a deep and long standing commitment to the Internet and its use. Without puffery, he’s one of the reasons you’re even able to read this right now. So when he digs into something like Ring camera footage being used by ICE through Flock, I pay attention.

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

Portland metro VC investment up, deal volume down in Q3 2025 – Portland Business Journal

Locally, year to date, $585.1 million has been invested across 87 deals in the Portland area, which includes Southwest Washington. That compares to $365.2 million invested across 95 deals in the metro by the same time last year.

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

No Kings, No Pants, No Problem – by JoJoFromJerz

Because that is what Portland does. It fights fear with absurdity. It meets authoritarianism with art. It takes propaganda and turns it into parody. It looks power dead in the eye and says, ‘look, if you’re gonna call us anarchists, we might as well give you a fucking show.’

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

What Oregonians need to know about the pros and cons of artificial intelligence in local schools – OPB

Students and teachers already use a variety of AI tools on a regular basis. It can quicken tasks and serve as a helpful study tool, but it can also be used to bully and harass peers.