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

As always, it pains me to share this kind of thing. Especially if you’re hearing it from me first. (And if that’s the case, I deeply apologize to be sharing this awful news.) But in the interest of ensuring that folks are aware… I’m incredibly sad to report the passing of Joshua Baer, often recognized as the “godfather” of the Austin, Texas, startup community and a consistent example — both inspirational and aspirational — for those of us who do startup community work.

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

Joshua Baer, Capital Factory Founder, Dies in Laredo Plane Crash – RuntimeWire

Joshua Baer, founder and CEO of Capital Factory, died in a Laredo plane crash, KXAN reported. He was a central figure in Austin and Texas startup investing.

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

Merchant Cash Advances: What Small Business Owners Should Know – Business Impact NW

At first glance, MCAs can feel convenient. They often come with fast approval, minimal paperwork, and quick access to funds. For business owners facing urgent needs, this speed can be appealing, especially when other financing options like SBA loans or community lender loans will take more time.

Engine — the DC-based tech policy and advocacy nonprofit — just published a new report on what it takes to build a startup ecosystem from scratch. It’s called “The Foundations of an Innovation Flywheel.” And if you happen to live in a metro that is decidedly not Silicon Valley, you’re going to want to read it. So Portland likely has a lot to glean from this guidance. Especially in light of Dwayne Johnson’s recent insights.

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

Anthropic Blindsides Its Business Partners — The Information

It’s far too soon to call a winner in the race, but fears that Anthropic was ramping up its efforts to compete with business customers intensified this week when it released a version of its long-awaited Mythos AI model but said it would silently degrade the model’s performance when customers try to use it for tasks related to developing their own advanced AI software or hardware. (Following public criticism, Anthropic on Wednesday backtracked slightly, saying it would start alerting customers when it uses a weaker AI model to handle those tasks.)

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

Claude Corps: Anthropic launches team to teach nonprofits to embrace AI | AP News

Claude Corps, named for the company’s popular AI chatbot, will hire and embed 1,000 fellows trained in the use of Claude at a wide range of organizations for a year. Anthropic President Daniela Amodei told The Associated Press the company hopes the program will expand and become a pillar of its strategy to help humankind realize the benefits of AI while also managing its risks.

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

RIP software hackathons. Long live the hardware hackathon.

For this reason, the focus of hackathons has completely shifted away from typing code with aching fingers and zero sleep, to thinking of the system as a whole (not a very unique opinion now, I know) and iterating on intricacies of implementation with radical refactors has become a trivial task. This leaves free mental RAM to actually faff with hardware and how it interfaces with the physical world.

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

It Takes a Valley by Anika Horn — Kickstarter

It Takes a Valley tells these practitioners’ stories and documents the patterns underneath them. It’s written for people who are already doing the work; by centering over 50 stories of individual ecosystem builders, it’s also written by practitioners in a way – not as an outsider’s analysis of what ecosystem builders should do differently, but as a grassroots perspective from those who have been building ecosystems for years – from Puerto Rico to Nebraska, from Ecuador to Australia.