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

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

Q2 Global Venture Funding Climbs In A Blockbuster Quarter For AI And As Capital Concentrates In Larger Companies

Global venture funding ticked up year over year in Q2 2025, with a greater concentration of capital into the largest funding rounds compared to a year ago, Crunchbase data shows.

It’s the middle of the year. But it’s also a time of unfortunate layoffs rippling through the community. So it seemed like a good time to throw out a little refresher on ways to get more connected to the startup community, both in Portland and throughout Oregon. If you’re new to town or have been recently impacted by a layoff — or know someone who has — I sincerely hope this helps.

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

Five Things I Learned Building a Coffee Tasting App (Again) – Needmore Designs

Fast forward to today, and I’m rebuilding it at Cuppin.com. What started as a fun way to use a domain we’d been sitting on became an education in how dramatically coffee culture has evolved. Here’s the thing: we’ve been designing for coffee companies this whole time at Needmore. But working with coffee businesses versus being deep in home brewing culture? Totally different worlds.

As we enter that officially official summer months, we tend to see event calendars thin out a bit. But there are still plenty of people working on programming and gathering and the like. So if you’re looking to get together with folks from the community this week, here are a few options…

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

Flounder Mode – Colossus

Kelly was an editor for the Whole Earth Catalog in the early 1980s, helped start WELL, one of the first online communities, in 1985, and co-founded WIRED magazine in 1993. He’s written a dozen books and published hundreds of essays on topics from art to optimism, travel, religion, creativity, and AI (even before it was a thing). Kelly rode a bicycle across the United States in his 20s. He was Steven Spielberg’s ‘futurist advisor’ on Minority Report, and the inspiration behind the famous ‘Death Clock’ on Futurama, after the show’s creator Matt Groening caught wind of the Life Countdown Clock Kelly keeps on his computer desktop. He organizes tightly curated group walks across Asia and Europe, regularly covering ~100km in a week. He sculpts, draws, paints, and photographs. And he’s a longtime friend and collaborator of Stewart Brand (whose famous line, “Stay hungry, stay foolish,” Steve Jobs quoted in his iconic commencement address at Stanford).

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

Gov. Tina Kotek orders Oregon schools to prohibit students from using cellphones • Oregon Capital Chronicle

Gov. Tina Kotek on Wednesday issued an executive order to Oregon’s 197 school districts, requiring they adopt a policy for banning student cellphone use by Oct. 31, 2025. Those policies must be fully implemented by Jan. 1, 2026, the order reads.

If you’re a Black founder in the Portland area, you’ve no doubt heard of Pitch Black, an annual pitch event that features Black founders building tech companies, consumer products, and more. Well, this year, it’s taking a big step up to fill the house at Portland Center Stage — and you could be part of it.

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

PNW Climate Week, Oregon Coast Shuttle, and Reflections on Impact – Happy July!

Wrapping up the Portland portion of PNW Climate Week, join Climate Curious, our community partners, and your fellow climate professionals and enthusiasts for a happy hour and networking sesh.