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

I wanted to pause for a second and provide a round up of the most popular stories for 2026 — so far — as decided by the readers of Silicon Florist. I never assume anyone has the time to keep up with every single thing I post around here. Consider this your halfway through the year cheat sheet for the most read Silicon Florist stories. That way, none of us has to pretend we caught every last one of them the first time around. And yet, we can still be up to date on all of the stuff.

Ever catch yourself wondering where your people are, which corners of town actually feel like yours, where the third spaces and the good local food and the ways to pitch in even live…? Or worse yet, finding that place or event — only three weeks after the fact…? That’s the gap Our Place is looking to eliminate.

We’ve all got our neighborhoods that we know. With the amazing local businesses that make Portland, well, Portland. But what about those times when you’re looking for something, you’d prefer to buy local, but you’re struggling to find what you’re looking for…? If only there were someway to search local resources first. Now there is. With LocalFirst PDX.

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

America’s Seed Fund Summit – America’s Seed Fund

Join the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for America’s Seed Fund Summit, taking place across the month of July. The Summit includes virtual and in-person events connecting entrepreneurs, innovators, and researchers from across the country to the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, also known as America’s Seed Fund. The programs are the nation’s largest source of early-stage, non-dilutive funding for high-growth technology startups.

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

The Moda Center, Lloyd Center, and Portland’s Generational Need to Think Big

At a time when we need big, catalytic ideas and initiatives that reflect broad, long-term thinking, it seems our civic dialogue is increasingly consumed by political theater, performance, and agreements coming from the fringes, rather than the prioritization of policy and plans that can actually solve our problems.

If you run a small brand or small business in Portland — not a tech startup; an actual small business — the neverending onslaught of AI blah blah must be a challenge. I mean, it’s challenging for me and I’m actually interested and have the luxury of being able to monitor this stuff. I’m not trying to run my own business and figure out what all of this means. That’s why I’m happy to see Bricks Need Mortar and the Portland Office of Small Business teaming up to help.