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

I’m sure you already have your ticket for the Silicon Forest Tech Summit. I mean, it’s rapidly becoming the “must attend” annual event around these parts. (And if you haven’t, lighten up, Francis. There’s still time to grab a seat. And tickets are a-ford-able at $24 or a pay what you want sliding scale.) Let’s take a look at all of the awesome people taking the stage on March 14, 2026.

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

Oregon film star Bruce Campbell diagnosed with incurable cancer – oregonlive.com

“I’m not trying to enlist sympathy — or advice — I just want to get ahead of this information,” he said in his announcement. “Fear not, I’m a tough old son-of-a-bitch and I have great support, so I expect to be around a while.”

When I first started working in local startups — like last century — so much of the activity occurred out in Hillsboro and Beaverton. With the advent of cloud infrastructure and the declining need for significant office space, the momentum of the startup community moved into Portland proper. These days? The energy is everywhere. And so are the support organizations.

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

The State of Consumer AI. Part 1 – Usage

In consumer markets, once one product owns both the installed base and the flow of new users, the default outcome is further consolidation. ChatGPT has both. The question now is whether that usage is deepening into genuine habit or still behaving like a utility people visit briefly and leave. That’s the real battleground from here.

Every February, Stephen Green celebrates a series of amazing folks for Black History Month by posting one post a day for the entire month. This year, he focused his efforts on folks who participated in Pitch Black — the Portland-born movement that celebrates Black founders across the country. Then, it’s my turn to grab every single daily post and throw together a recap so that you can find them all in one place. It’s tradition.

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

The stranger secret: how to talk to anyone – and why you should | Social etiquette | The Guardian

A lot of people have given up taking a chance on other people: that they might want to listen, that they might want to talk. But they have also given up taking a chance on themselves: that they might be able to navigate a conversation with someone new, cope with knockbacks and steer a path through any misunderstandings.

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

Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War

Regardless, these threats do not change our position: we cannot in good conscience accede to their request.

If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you can’t escape the news cycles about downtown Portland. Sometimes, you can’t even escape the news cycles nationally — depending on who is carping about the Rose City. But it’s not all doom loops, my friend. Any number of folks are hard at work, reinvigorating Portland’s city core. Like Jeff Swickard. Who snapped up the iconic Big Pink. And the building next door. In a big vote of confidence for downtown Portland. (And spending about $125 million to do so.) And now, thanks to those efforts, he’s landed a very startuppy UpStart tenant for his property.