Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
AI’s wide (and fast-growing) footprint in people’s lives means that every tweak to a model has the potential for outsized influence. Evaluations and benchmarks guide that influence.
Join us for AI Portland’s inaugural Zero to One Build Challenge in partnership with AI Startup Week! This isn’t just for coders and developers—we’re bringing together thinkers, designers, strategists, builders, marketers, and the AI-curious from all backgrounds to collaborate and create.
In his speech, Wilson pointed to a few early actions he’s proud of, from opening new overnight shelters to lobbying the Legislature for a longshot effort to bring a Major League Baseball team to Portland. He also previewed details of his first proposed budget as mayor, which will be made public Monday.
In today’s competitive senior living landscape, operators are under intense pressure to increase occupancy, improve margins, and deliver high-quality care — all while navigating staffing challenges and managing increasingly complex operations. Many communities are still stuck in the weeds of disconnected systems, manual processes, and inconsistent data, making it difficult to scale or even sustain operations.
ConductorOne, the unified identity governance platform, today announced new capabilities to help companies address the growing risks associated with non-human identities (NHIs) and agentic AI. ConductorOne now discovers, inventories, maps ownership of, and provides risk alerts for NHIs such as service accounts, API keys, tokens, certificates, and AI agents. This allows customers to manage and secure all identities, whether human or machine, across their entire environment from a single platform.
On January 13, 2025, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed bipartisan legislation re-establishing a refundable Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit as part of the Michigan Innovation Fund initiative. Primarily through House Bills 5100 (Public Act 186 of 2024) and 5101 (Public Act 187 of 2024), this aims to foster innovation, stimulate job growth, leverage Michigan universities, and strengthen the state’s technological leadership.
Launching a startup is complicated. We’ve collected key resources to help you stay on top of product messaging, pitching, pricing, legal, sales, and many other top founder concerns.
Portland-based Smarsh is in the eye of a national security storm with reports Sunday its TeleMessage business was hacked and messages — including those of former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz — were stolen.
So let’s flip the script to something that actually compounds: vibe refactoring. Same spontaneous energy, but aimed at shrinking technical debt and sharpening your architecture instead of amping up the commit count.
What’s clear is that OpenAI didn’t think they were going to win the battle to invert the company and become a full for-profit with a non-profit arm. Elon Musk threw a wrench in this plan, but many others held wrenches here too. As it turns out, there’s a lot at stake and a lot of potential stakeholders when you’re talking about a $300B non-profit!
Importantly, Wilson’s proposed budget is only balanced if certain things happen that are mostly out of the mayor‘s control: He’s banking on the City Council to increase parking fees and a host of parks-related fees. Wilson does not have a say in setting fees, so he is relying on the council to achieve his budget aims.
That optimism was on full display at this year’s RSA Conference in San Francisco — where the cybersecurity gathering turned the city back to its pre-COVID days, with thousands of folks walking the streets of SoMa and packing bars and restaurants.
Wilson is proposing layoffs, program cuts, new fees and a heavy reliance on temporary, outside funds from other governments — some of which aren’t guaranteed. Wilson’s proposed budget also protects programs previously on the chopping block.
It turns out, to my surprise, that I don’t use them nearly as often as people think engineers do, but that doesn’t mean LLMs are useless for me. It’s a discussion that requires case-by-case nuance.
On the second Wednesday of every month join the Portland Drupal User Group meetup to talk about Drupal.
“I’ve seen entrepreneurs get stuck for years because they feel they owe it to themselves or their investors… but it’s not likely to shift the direction.”
Over the course of more than 25 years in practice, Keefer has held significant roles where he’s applied his legal expertise to address real-world business challenges. His comprehensive experience includes positions such as in-house counsel for multiple ten-figure product manufacturers, strategic advisor for both publicly-traded and privately-held global corporations, and Professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School. This rich background infuses his work with profound insights into diverse business settings.
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