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.

It’s been a quiet few weeks on the startup front. No doubt due to the other newscycle swirling around Portland as of late. But there’s still a bunch of startup activity in our midst. Like Portland startup Knapsack, which just announced that they had raised $10 million in their Series A bringing their total funding to $20.8 million.

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

You can just do things, together – Graze Newsletter

We’re all realizing we can just do things – the reason we can just do things is because we’ve entered the standard gauge era. We’re building our company faster because we can build feeds across multiple platforms simultaneously, and Skylight is building their company faster because they get to focus on the parts that matter most, and lean on the things-doingness of the ATmosphere for the rest. It’s an exciting future, we’re looking forward to continuing to do things, together.

• Monday (Oct 13)
  • PNSQC 2025
  • Dorkbot PDX
  • High Desert Innovation Fest
• Tuesday (Oct 14) Cultivate Live
• Wednesday (Oct 15) Bend Outdoor Worx BreakOut
• Thursday (Oct 16)
  • GIT Together
  • Linux Kernel Meetup
  • The Future of AdTech & MarTech
  • AI Portland
  • Bend Venture Conference
• Friday (Oct 17) PDX Neurodivergent Tech Workers Online Meetup!
• Saturday (Oct 18) Code & Coffee