Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
Some of the smartest people I know share a bone-deep belief that AI is a fad — the next iteration of NFT mania. I’ve been reluctant to push back on them, because, well, they’re smarter than me. But their arguments are unserious, and worth confronting. Extraordinarily talented people are doing work that LLMs already do better, out of spite.
A Web 2.0-era news aggregation giant, Digg was once valued at $175 million at its height back in 2008 and is now being given new life under the direction of its original founder, Kevin Rose, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. The two recently teamed up to announce a new vision for Digg, which will focus on enabling discovery and community, the way that the early internet once allowed for.
At the Metro Region Innovation Hub, we believe in empowering all entrepreneurs to thrive, and we recognize the unique strengths and experiences that Latino-owned business support in Washington, Clackamas and Multnomah Counties bring to our community. If you’re a Latino entrepreneur in the Metro area looking to launch or grow your business, you’ve come to the right place.
Why does this matter? In Portland and places like Ashland, Bend, Eugene, and Pendleton companies are solving big problems, providing high-quality products, accelerating innovation, building leaders and creating stronger communities. Waterproof and fully recyclable flower vases designed in Southern Oregon are disrupting the flower industry while unmanned autonomous vehicles and software developed in the Gorge are providing critical data to insurance companies following devastating wildfires.
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today announced that he has reintroduced his bill to ensure Americans can more conveniently and securely vote at home. The Vote at Home Act would allow all eligible voters to vote by mail, provide pre-paid envelopes to return ballots, and automatically register citizens to vote at DMVs.
Every year, I produce a big presentation exploring macro and strategic trends in the tech industry. New in May 2025, ‘AI eats the world’.
Cursor’s AI coding assistant is turning heads, and for good reason. It feels like a genuinely helpful pair programmer. But as someone who’s wrestled with system prompts trying to get an AI to just follow the damn instructions, I was very curious as to how Cursor does it.
But there are still plenty of problems in the health care system that Cody hasn’t solved just yet. So the company is holding a “Hack & Back” event on June 21 at Centrl Office in Portland’s Pearl District to bring together software and citizen developers, domain experts and backers to tackle unmet needs in health care.
If you’ve felt left out of the AI conversation and are ready to join it on your own terms, this event is for you.
The current AI boom has drawn frequent comparisons to the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. Both periods have seen rapid technological advancement, soaring valuations, and intense investor enthusiasm. However, beneath these surface similarities lie fundamental differences that suggest the AI revolution may have stronger staying power than its internet predecessor.
You’ve likely seen this legion of fractional CMOs, CTOs, CFOs — leaders in just about every function — pop up on LinkedIn. But on the startup side, this new crop of free-agent execs has created some confusion around what “fractional” really means.
We had a great time at our co-hosted Climate Innovators and Community Celebration as part of PDX Startup Week last month. We’ll keep working to forge stronger bonds and reaffirm our collective commitment to a better climate future. Thank you to our collaborators, community partners, local founders, and in-kind sponsors who helped make this happen!
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