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

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

The New Economics of Starting Up: How Startups Are Scaling and Spending in 2025 | Mercury

With economic tumult and anxiety seemingly through the roof, how are entrepreneurs actually feeling about their own business’s financial prospects? In an economy that has many people tightening belts, those building early-stage companies are feeling… surprisingly good.

I tend to be a regular listener of Hanselminutes, the podcast from Scott Hanselman. And while he’s inevitably got an interesting guest, every episode, I always perk up when his guest — like Scott — is from the Portland area. Like this conversation with Tyler Bushnell of Polycade.

These days, we’ve all been there. Maybe it was in the middle of a vibe coding project. Maybe it was trying to brainstorm a new idea with your favorite LLM. Or maybe it was just trying to get your fucking home based “assistant” to turn on the fucking light like you fucking asked it to. For fuck sakes. Ahem. But now, instead of taking it out on the bot, you can take it out on Curser. Which will rephrase your fucking tantrum into something more polite, dignified, and digestible.

September is shaping up to be a busy month as folks work to wedge in events before the holiday season starts to impact attendance. If you’re interesting in connecting with Portland startup community folks in person, here are a few opportunities to do so…

We’re about a month out from Bend Venture Conference, so stuff is starting to ramp up. Like picking the actual companies that are going to appear on stage. And while we don’t have the final list, they’re at least making the first cut. By naming the BVC Growth Stage semifinalists for 2025.

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

Building Unicorns with One-and-Done Funding – Shockwave Innovations

Founders will be able to rapidly experiment, and course correct (pivot), without wasting much time or capital. This means the time-to-launch will be greatly accelerated. After launch, AI-assisted and AI-led customer acquisition campaigns mean far less staff and, therefore, much less needed capital.

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

Matching Grant Applications Open for Recipients of Federal SBIR and STTR Program Awards

Business Oregon, through the Oregon Innovation Council (Oregon InC), has opened the application period for eligible businesses to apply for matching grants if they have won a federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) award. Oregon companies that have received federal SBIR/STTR awards after January 1, 2024, can apply for Business Oregon’s SBIR/STTR Matching Grant awards.

For many startup communities, college students — and university research projects — can be a source of both inspiration and innovation that drives startup activity. Now, TiE Oregon is striving to bring more recognition to this important startup pipeline with a new pitch competition, the TiE Collegiate Startup Challenge.

A ways back, I caught wind of a funding announcement from a new Portland startup called Fiveonefour, composed of former Nike folks. Well luckily, we have real journalists in our midst who can tell a more complete story. Malia Spencer over at the Portland Business Journal shares that the total amount raised has actually been $17 million.