Portland Oregon startups, tech, news, events, jobs, and community

Well. This is interesting timing. Business Oregon just put out an RFP seeking a consultant to evaluate and update Oregon’s 10-Year Innovation Plan, a plan originally produced by a consultancy out of Ohio — a nearly 100-page document from that was supposed to serve as the statewide roadmap for strengthening innovation-based industries, growing high-wage jobs, and attracting investment.

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

Amazon acquires 1,300 acres for potential data center in Oregon

“Amazon recently purchased land in Boardman, Oregon. Development plans are not final, and Amazon is performing our normal due diligence process as we develop new locations based on customer demand,” a company spokesperson told GeekWire via email.

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

New Census Data Shows Oregon Is Losing Residents in Their Prime Earning Years — Oregon Journalism Project

“A lot of what I’ve seen in terms of the dynamics and population really do have to do with affordability,” says former state economist Mark McMullen, now with the Common Sense Institute Oregon. “The places people are moving to are much less expensive than where they’re moving from.”

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

Thoughts on slowing the fuck down

We have basically given up all discipline and agency for a sort of addiction, where your highest goal is to produce the largest amount of code in the shortest amount of time. Consequences be damned.

It’s always super interesting to discuss AI. So many folks are enamoured of the potential. So many folks are figuring out ways to incorporate it into day-to-day activities. And so many folks are super concerned about the every growing number of virtual vacuums that run roughshod across the Web, tirelessly scraping the Internet for data to train their models.

I know I’ve been asking a lot of you lately. Surveys. Feedback forms. Attending things and stuff. Admittedly, I feel guilty. You’re already overly busy. But sometimes being a founder means figuring out how to effectively carve out time to address critical issues. No matter how busy you are. So that’s why I’m shoving that guilt way down and asking you to take this one: All Raise — led by Portland’s own Paige Hendrix Buckner — is running their annual community survey. And this year, the stakes feel different.

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

Women.Money.Power – Portland Tickets, Thursday, Apr 30 from 8:30 am to 1 pm | Eventbrite

Join us this April in Portland for Women. Money. Power. — a gathering designed to celebrate women’s economic influence and create space to learn, connect, and be inspired.

I complained about the whole QSBS stuff in my own way. And I provided a very subjective perspective to the Oregon Prosperity Council. But someone finally did the math on SB 1507, the Oregon bill that disentangles Qualified Small Business Stock tax shelters from the federal tax law and establishes a 9.9% tax on QSBS returns. And — shocker — the numbers are worse than I thought.