This Is A Momentous Year For Early-Stage Unicorns

A total of 47 seed- and early-stage companies joined the unicorn ranks in the first quarter of this year, per Crunchbase data. Barring a major slowdown, that puts 2026 on track to deliver the  largest cohort of young unicorns to date.

Frugal AI helps countries priced out of Big Tech – Rest of World

Amid a widening global divide in AI adoption, low-cost AI models that can deliver sovereignty and efficiency with a smaller environmental footprint are gaining ground.

Your next customer might be an AI agent

AI already recommends which products to buy. It helps buyers negotiate with sellers. If you’re building an app with an AI agent like Claude Code, you’re primed to delegate at least some decision making to a trusted agent. And now AI agents are getting their own credit cards!

Your website still matters. Here’s what to prioritize now.

Your website is a major source of what feeds LLMs, so what’s on your site shapes what those models say about you. And your website, at least for now, is still where prospects go to evaluate and buy. In a world where anyone can vibe code a decent-looking site in an afternoon, your website is your chance to stand out in an increasingly crowded landscape. Don’t vibe code it into undifferentiated chaos!

Elad Gil on the Co-Founder Fallacy

Elad Gil is one of the most respected investors in Silicon Valley — a solo GP with >$1B AUM and an investor in SpaceX, OpenAI, Stripe, and Anduril. In a recent fireside chat, he went after one of the most persistent myths in startups: that you always need a co-founder.

Startup Coffee Meetups, Thu, Apr 9, 2026, 9:00 AM | Meetup

Fuel your morning and ideas with Startup Coffee, a monthly open meetup for entrepreneurs, innovators, students, mentors and community members at the Innovation Hub at 942 Olive. Drop by on the second Thursday of the month at 9 am to connect, share and grow.

TiE University Regional Pitch Competition 2026 – Home

The program culminates with a Regional Pitch Competition. The winner of that competition will have the opportunity to attend and pitch at the Global Pitch Competition at the TiE Global Summit, one of the world’s largest investor conferences in the world.

Public comment extended on future of offshore wind in Oregon, including none at all • Oregon Capital Chronicle

Several years ago, offshore wind energy was seen as key to meeting Oregon’s climate goals but coastal communities and federal disinvestment have stymied plans

Open Models have crossed a threshold

TL;DR: Open models like GLM-5 and MiniMax M2.7 now match closed frontier models on core agent tasks — file operations, tool use, and instruction following — at a fraction of the cost and latency. Here’s what our evals show and how to start using them in Deep Agents.

How to Design for Human-agent Interaction

The capability is impressive when it works, but the experience often feels slippery. I’m not always sure what I’ll get back, or how much I should trust it.

Advocacy Alert: Small Business Tax Relief Win at City Council

This week, Portland City Council passed the amendment to the Business License Law Code to increase the business license tax gross receipts exemption.

From Intel to Entrepreneur: x-Intel Startup Exploration Workshop in Hillsboro – Checkout

Have an idea you’ve been thinking about—or just curious about what’s possible? Join us for the x-Intel Startup Exploration Workshop, a morning designed to inspire, connect, and give you a clear overview of startup opportunities. Even if you don’t have an immediate idea, this event will show you the pathways, resources, and support available—so when the time is right, you’ll be ready.

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And look. The intentions are good. The will and effort appear to be there. The people involved are serious people. That’s all true. And I’m not here to be cynical about yet another downtown recovery effort. Portland needs all the help it can get.

But…

I do want to point something out. And it might be a little harsh. But maybe — just maybe — I’m in my “no fucks left to give” era. Or “bias for action” era. So whatever. Let’s get into the issue.

The Central City Roundtable is a group of civic leaders working to support the recovery and long-term health of Portland’s Central City. The Roundtable — roundtable? Roundtable? RoundTable? — brings together leaders from business, real estate, arts and culture, education, philanthropy, and community institutions to stay aligned on what matters most and where collective action can make a difference.

Real estate. Healthcare. Education. Finance. Restaurants. Sports. Philanthropy. Architecture.

You know what’s missing?

Entrepreneurs. Startups. The companies that are actually creating new jobs — and demonstrating the potential to fill those spaces. The community that’s been building in Portland for decades while everyone else was focused on keeping the big logos — like the mayor’s ever present Starbucks cups — downtown. The folks who refurbished food cart pods and kept the lights on while other folks were tearing down food cart pods in favor of luxury skyrises.

I’m not saying that any of us have time to be at the table. Because clearly you don’t. You have bigger fish or okra to fry. All I’m saying is that they need someone from the entrepreneurial — or even tech — community at the table. Because if you’re trying to figure out how to make Portland’s central city vibrant again — and you’re not talking to the people who are actually building new things here — you’re having a bit of a one-sided conversation.

I mean… Josh Carter is tight with both Jeff Swickard (on the panel) and the mayor of Portland. He’s moved UpStart Collective into the heart of downtown. David Barrett of Expensify who has not only planted his company downtown but also paid to rejuvenate the longtime food cart pod on SW 5th as the Midtown Beer Garden. Faris Mubarak who has kept NedSpace downtown. Maybe someone who is looking to represent what a better Portland might look like…? Heck, even pull in — I don’t know — someone from Prosper fucking Portland who has a point of view on small business…

I mean, I’m just spitballing here. But it’s not rocket surgery, my dudes. There are any number of folks I could highlight as potential participants in this discussion. Folks with startup experience. And an understanding of why and how to be downtown.

Argh. I’m sorry. I’m so fucking whiny lately. I just know that we’re better than this. Portland is better than this. And our leadership should be better than this. We just need to figure out more ways to get the right people in the room. And at the table. Whether it is fucking round or not. And we need to start doing things. Rather than talking about them. Which, honestly, is all I’m doing here. So I’ll just shut the fuck up.

For more information, visit the Portland Central City Roundtable.

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Mayor Keith Wilson on improving Portland’s central city – Portland Business Journal

There are some bright spots among ongoing challenges in downtown Portland. Investors are finding deals as distressed office buildings trade hands at steep discounts, tenants are affirming their dedication to leasing office space and foot traffic is on the rise. But there’s still work to be done.

For adults with ADHD – or even those with just some symptoms – using smart strategies to start and complete tasks can make all the difference

I’m a professor and clinical psychologist who has spent my career researching the challenges that adults with ADHD experience and ways to help improve their quality of life. I co-authored a book with Dr. Russell Barkley, a preeminent ADHD expert, published in October 2025 called “Living Well with Adult ADHD: Practical Strategies for Improving Your Daily Life.”

Economists on AI and economic growth and employment – Marginal REVOLUTION

We completed the most comprehensive study of how economists and AI experts think AI will affect the U.S. economy. They predict major AI progress—but no dramatic break from economic trends: GDP growth rates similar to today’s and a moderate decline in labor force participation. However, when asked to consider what would happen in a world with extremely rapid progress in AI capabilities by 2030, they predict significant economic impacts by 2050

The Feedback Loop Is All You Need — Ernie

And now we’re doing the exact same thing with LLMs. “Just write a really good CLAUDE.md.” “Just add more skills.” It’s the same magical thinking, just with fancier technology. We already know how this ends.

The Great Convergence

Over the last year, a strange thing has happened in tech: very different companies have started moving towards the same product shape, and it feels like everyone is building the same thing.

Meet Sheel Tyle, the new local Blazers co-owner intent on keeping the team in Portland – The Athletic

Tyle says one of his motives in investing in the Blazers is ensuring they remain in Portland. And that’s why the friendship between Tyle and Lillard, and how it came about, is worth underscoring, however subtle it may be.

Follow your own Path, Find your Process and Rest!

Our bodies have a yes and no system. Everyone has a different system. Maybe you feel it in your gut. Maybe you know that when your mind starts running looping on the same thing, that its a sign of a “no” or that something isn’t in alignment for or that something needs to be spoken and changed.

Tuesday Town Hall – Level Up Through Community, Tue, Apr 7, 2026, 10:30 AM | Meetup

You know that feeling when you’re working alone and need someone to bounce ideas off? Or when you crush a goal but have no one who really gets it to celebrate with?

PDX Code & Coffee @ DeadStock Beaverton, Mon, Apr 6, 2026, 9:00 AM | Meetup

Code and Coffee is an inclusive, informal co-working session. Drink some coffee, bring your laptop, and have engaging conversations. This is a great opportunity to learn from others, share your knowledge, and possibly collaborate on side projects, online courses, or even your day-to-day work tasks.

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We’ve got the University of Portland. Oregon State. Portland State. University of Oregon. Portland Community College. Lewis and Clark. Reed… All churning out Computer Science and Engineering students. All within driving distance of one another. And yet — somehow — those students almost never end up in the same room.

That changes April 11-12.

A crew at the University of Portland is organizing what might be the very very first Portland large-scale intercollegiate hackathon. It’s a 24-hour build with students and industry folks in the same room, competing for prizes, and actually making things.

HackUP is Portland’s first intercollegiate hackathon: a 24-hour tech innovation marathon where students and industry leaders converge to network, compete for major prizes, and build something meaningful.

All university students. We strongly encourage non-technical backgrounds and first-time hackers to join as well as experienced coders. Whether you code, design, or problem-solve, all skill levels are welcome.

But here’s why this one matters to me. It’s not just a hackathon. It’s college students from different schools choosing to come together and build. In Portland. That’s the kind of cross-pollination this community has been missing. All in the name of hacking together awesome solutions and interesting products.

And they’re not just looking for hackers. They need mentors. People from Portland’s professional tech community who are willing to show up and get connected to the next generation. If you’ve got a few hours and some experience to share, they want you and your experience there. (I’m a poet. And I know it.)

For more information or to register as a hacker, a mentor, or a sponsor, visit HackUP.

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If Fordje sounds familiar, it should. I wrote about their Code Clarifier back in October 2024. They pitched at Bend Venture Conference 2024. And they won the Pre-Revenue Award at the 2025 Oregon Technology Awards. So they’ve been on my radar for a mintue.

What’s this new accelerator adventure in Atlanta amount to…?

The Cox Cleantech Accelerator, a partnership between Cox Enterprises, gener8tor and the Georgia Cleantech Innovation Hub, today announces its third cohort of companies developing innovative solutions for the most pressing sustainability challenges of our time. The 12-week, in-person program now includes an investment of $250,000 per startup. It aims to help early-stage companies scale technologies that address climate change and environmental challenges while strengthening the cleantech ecosystem in Georgia, the Southeast and beyond. Part of Cox Enterprises’ more than $3 billion investment in cleantech solutions, the accelerator reflects the company’s long-term commitment to building the next generation of cleantech leaders and establishing Atlanta as a leading cleantech startup hub.

[Editor: *wistfully remembering when Portland had the potential to be a cleantech startup hub*]

“The Cox Cleantech Accelerator reflects our dedication to building a thriving venture ecosystem in Atlanta and across the Southeast,” said Jack Semrau, Atlanta Venture Ecosystem lead at Cox Enterprises in a press release. “By investing in promising founders from Atlanta and beyond, bringing them together in the city, and connecting them with the resources, expertise and networks they need, we’re accelerating the development of technologies that can benefit both the economy and the environment.”

Fordje is one of five companies in the cohort — alongside WattsUp (EV charger operations, Birmingham), Silvis Materials (bio-based adhesives, Boulder), LCOE.ai (solar asset management, Atlanta), and Buckstop (energy asset benchmarking, DC). Fordje is the only Pacific Northwest company in the mix.

In addition to the $250,000 investment, the program includes 12 weeks of in-person programming in Atlanta, mentorship from Cox leadership, and access to enterprise customers.

For more information or to follow along, visit Fordje or the Cox Cleantech Accelerator.

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Portland Council to take up business license tax exemption – Portland Business Journal

The proposal would raise the exemption to $75,000 for the 2026 tax year and to $100,000 starting in 2027 tax year. The proposal is being brought forward by Mayor Keith Wilson and council member Eric Zimmerman.

Building for the Next Era of WordPress with the Abilities API, Tue, Apr 14, 2026, 6:30 PM | Meetup

Nik McLaughlin will introduce us to the Abilities API that was added to WordPress in version 6.9 and go beyond the (justifiable) AI hype to show how it lays the foundation for a future of standardized interoperability in WordPress.

Q1 2026 Shatters Venture Funding Records As AI Boom Pushes Startup Investment To Nearly $300B 

Q1’s startup investment largely went to AI startups and disproportionately to a handful of U.S.-based companies in record-setting deals. Four of the five largest venture rounds ever recorded were closed in Q1 2026, with frontier labs OpenAI ($120 billion), Anthropic ($30 billion), xAI ($20 billion) and self-driving company Waymo ($16 billion) collectively raising $186 billion, or 64% of global venture investment in the quarter.

Pacific Power, PGE raise residential electricity rates again for Oregon customers • Oregon Capital Chronicle

The state’s Public Utility Commission — a three-person governor-appointed group charged with regulating the rates of privately owned electric and gas utilities in Oregon — approved both monopoly electric utilities’ requests to raise rates on residential customers at a meeting Tuesday.

Portland Frog Originator Sentenced to Three Months of Probation

Seth Todd, the original Portland protest frog, has been sentenced to three months of probation for a January arrest at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in South Portland. Todd, along with five other protesters, was arrested Jan. 8 for disorderly conduct when they refused to move to the sidewalk to clear the street for traffic.

Oregon Beer Awards

The April 4th Ceremony will be streamed here, starting at 5:45PM.

The Economics of Generative AI: Two Years Later

The bottom line upfront: Semi is a one-player game. Apps is a two-player game. Infra is the only competitive layer. The most profitable strategy in AI is still selling the shovels.

Things I Think I Think – Q1 2026 — Chris Neumann

It’s now very clear that for a certain category of companies (namely, AI-native companies whose revenue tracks usage), the growth trajectory is very different from what has historically been the case in the software world. The extreme compression of time has led to a dramatic acceleration of funding for those companies and a dramatic upswing in round sizes and valuations. And while usage-based revenue won’t last forever, the companies capitalizing on it are running away from the proverbial pack.

Why Iran targeted Amazon data centers and what that does – and doesn’t – change about warfare

This is the first time that a country has deliberately targeted commercial data centers during wartime. Data centers have been targets of espionage and cyberattacks in the past, notably when Ukrainian hackers destroyed data stored in a Russian military-affiliated data center in 2024. This, however, was a physical attack. Drones damaged buildings.

Winter’s alarmingly low snowpack offers a glimpse of the changing rhythm of water in the western US

As a result, even regions that received near- or above-normal precipitation for the season failed to build substantial snowpack. In the northern Rockies and the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, any above-average snow accumulation was largely confined to the highest elevations, while middle and lower elevations had relatively little snowpack.

Product Drift — Outpost

Agents can generate features faster than you can read them. Sometimes they produce whole flows before you’ve decided what comes next. At first, this feels amazing — like the codebase can grow on its own. But quickly you notice something: the product doesn’t just move forward. It starts to drift.

Meet the Startup That Used AI and OpenClaw to Automate Its Own Developers – WSJ

As the OpenClaw craze takes over Silicon Valley, some startups are combining the tech with AI coding tools to fully automate developers’ jobs

The Subprime Technical Debt Crisis | One Happy Fellow – blog

Technical debt is not good or bad on its own, just like financial debt: it’s either worth it or not worth it. Taking a 10% interest loan makes sense if your return is 20%.

It’s not your imagination: AI seed startups are commanding higher valuations | TechCrunch

At the most recent Y Combinator Demo Day held in March, everyone was talking about how high the companies were priced, said Ashley Smith, a general partner at the early-stage fund Vermilion. Many startups had already landed six- to seven-figure customer contracts, including a company that was only eight weeks old; she said there were companies asking for $5 million at a $40 million post money.

Astronauts get set to go around the moon for first time in decades – GeekWire

The 10-day Artemis 2 mission is set to begin today with the liftoff of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket from NASA’s historic Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The two-hour launch window opens at 6:24 p.m. ET (3:24 p.m. PT), and NASA is streaming live mission coverage of the countdown on two different YouTube channels.

Why I’m Launching So Many SaaS Apps Right Now | by Ryan Merket | Apr, 2026 | Medium

I do not think enough people have fully absorbed what that means yet. The minimum viable size of a real software business is collapsing. The amount of leverage available to a focused founder is going up dramatically. The distance between seeing a problem and shipping something useful against it is getting shorter.

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It’s exactly what it sounds like. I dig through the Silicon Florist archive every single day. I find something interesting that happened on a specific date. And share it with the community. FOR NOSTALGIA.

Maybe it’s a funding round from 2012. Maybe it’s a company launch from 2009 that — knowing what we know now — hits different. Maybe it’s a new startup that just launched last year. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s just a consistent reminder that — despite all of the AI stuff you cool kids are doing these days — Portland has been doing this startup thing for a long time.

With varying degrees of success. But still.

If you’re not already on Portland Startups Slack, it’s free. Come hang out with me and nearly 8000 of your soon to be closest startup friends.

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If you need a refresher on what’s what and who’s who, the inaugural cohort includes: Accent Innovations, AHO! Wellness Tech, Akaya, Alerty, AlignICP, Allegory Studios, Caravel Bio, decisio media, Decky, Deviceflow, DockChron, Doctor Notes, Fridie Outdoors, HindSight VIP, Menu Mingle, Nav Surgical, Plentiful.ai, PourUp, RS Works, and StarStack. That’s everything from surgical AI to wine tourism to air traffic control speech training.

They’ve been building. They’ve been learning. They’ve likely been pivoting. And they’re about halfway through their program. (If you’d like to get even more insights into that experience, there’s a newsletter for that.)

And now they’re ready to share the stories of what they’re building. Or at least they will be in a little over a month.

Twenty of the region’s most promising AI startups will take the stage to deliver live pitches and product demos to investors, operators, and the broader innovation community.

​After 15 weeks of intensive building, mentorship, and real-world validation, these founders are stepping forward with companies that are no longer just ideas — but emerging businesses ready for market, funding, and scale.

​Whether you’re an investor looking for your next opportunity, a founder building in AI, or a community member who wants to be part of what’s next, this is your chance to be in the room where Oregon’s AI future is taking shape.

The event will be held at US Bancorp Tower — Big Pink. It is free to attend.

For more information or to RSVP, visit Oregon AI Accelerator: Demo Day.

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So I went back through the entire Silicon Florist archive and pulled every Portland startup or incubator program that I’ve covered since 2007. And it’s a bunch. (Though, it’s highly likely that the bunch is still an incomplete list.) Some still going. Some that had a brief existence. Some that began as one thing but then pivoted into another.

But they’re all important. And they all should serve as examples of what this community can do when it chooses to step up and support the amazing entrepreneurs in our community. So let’s take a walk down memory — and still current — lane, shall we…?

2000-2009: Before anyone called it an “ecosystem”

Starve Ups (2000-present)
Before there was an ecosystem, there was Starve Ups. Founded in October 2000 by John Friess and a group of first-time founders from seven Oregon startups — all of which successfully exited. No equity. No fees. Just founders helping founders scale — for 26 years and counting. The flagship Launch Pad program has run through 250+ member companies across Portland, Eugene, and Bend, with an 81% survival rate and 39 positive exits. Notable alumni include Sightbox (acquired by Johnson & Johnson, 2017), SpaceView (acquired by Atheer, 2017), and Manage My Co-op (acquired 2017). Three acquisitions in one year from a program that never took a dime of equity. Portland’s oldest continuously running startup accelerator — by a wide margin.

PSU Business Accelerator (? – present)
Its founding predates my writing on Silicon Florist. Still going. Jive Software and Jama Software are both alums. Still doing the work to serve “local startups from their early stage through growth by providing facilities, programming, and mentors while activating and engaging relationships with each other, PSU, and the entrepreneur ecosystem.”

OTBC (Oregon Technology Business Center) (2007-2021)
Again, already running when I started blogging about the Portland startup community in 2007. Quiet, practical, unglamorous. Ran various startup challenges and support programs for more than a decade before eventually becoming the Oregon Startup Center.

Startup Weekend Portland (2008-?)
Arrived in Portland in January 2008. The brainchild of former Sisters, Oregon, resident Andrew Hyde. Build a startup in 54 hours. It became a gateway for a generation of founders who didn’t know they were founders yet. It still happens globally. But it’s been a minute since anything has happen here.

Portland Ten (2009-2011)
Launched February 2009 with the goal of incubating 10 $1 million startups by 2010. Connected to the coworking movement and NedSpace. Sure. That number sounds a bit quaint now — especially in an era where people are raising billion dollar seed rounds — but at the time, it seemed like a stretch goal.

PIE (Portland Incubator Experiment) (2009-present)
August 2009. Wieden+Kennedy collaborates with the Portland startup community to launch a startup incubator. It evolved from its initial incarnation as a coworking space into an early stage startup accelerator. Worked with SaaS and mobile. Collaborated with Autodesk to form an accelerator for manufactured physical products. Ran accelerator classes through 2020, then evolved into something harder to explain. Considering a couple of new experiments, so it’s still going -ish.

Angel Oregon (2008-present)
OEN’s annual angel investment competition. First covered in 2008. Gained new life through a reboot a few years back. Restructured into vertical pursuits. Now focused on CPG, biotech, and tech. Still running in 2026.

2010-2013: The boom

Portland Seed Fund (2010-present)
Launched October 2010. It was an investment fund that wanted to do more to support their portfolio companies. And in so doing, it because the first modern-day startup accelerator in Portland. Competitive applications. Mentorship. Demo Days. PSF did more to professionalize Portland’s startup funding infrastructure than any single program before or since.

Nike+ Accelerator powered by TechStars (2012-present)
First covered when TechStars Seattle launched — a train ride away for Portland founders. Then they came here directly with the Nike+ Accelerator powered by Techstars in December 2012. Nike. TechStars. Portland. The first corporate partnership for Techstars. It lasted for a class, locally, with 10 companies, June 2013. But became the model for corporate collaboration with startups for the world. And for a minute there, it felt like Portland was on the national accelerator map.

Upstart Labs (2011-2014)
Cofounded by Greg Rau, Kevin Tate, and Jenn Lynch. Portland’s handcrafted startup venture studio that worked with one or two companies at a time instead of running big cohorts. Wound down around 2014 when the team joined Chirpify full-time.

TiE Oregon (2011-present)
TiE launched its Oregon chapter in 2007, but they ramped up startup programs starting in 2011 with an incubator in Hillsboro (with Melvin Mark), then TiE Pearl in the Pearl District in 2013. Their angel group, TiE Oregon Angels, has backed 90+ companies — including GlobeSherpa’s seed round. One of the most quietly prolific startup support orgs in Portland.

2013-2016: Specialization begins

Oregon Bioscience Incubator (OBI) (2013-present)
OTRADI had been doing bioscience research translation since 2007, but the actual incubator — the Oregon Bioscience Incubator — opened in 2013. Home to 31+ startups working on therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices, and digital health. I’ve called it the best incubator in the city, and I meant it. The kind of program that doesn’t generate a lot of social media hype but quietly houses companies that are trying to cure things.

Oregon Story Board (2013-2016)
An accelerator focused on digital storytelling and immersive media — VR, AR, interactive narrative. Portland being Portland. Funded by the state of Oregon. Lots of collaboration with Intel Labs. Produced some genuinely interesting work in augmented reality and served as a the initial support for a number of founders who are still actively part of the community today.

Built Oregon Accelerator (2014-present)
Launched September 2014 — a deliberate bet on consumer products, not software. Oregon is the Silicon Valley of consumer products (Columbia, Nike, adidas, Leatherman, Stumptown, Benchmade, Danner, Keen, Tillamook, Reser’s, Dutch Bros… the list goes on and on). Mitch Daugherty recognized that the consumer startups he was constantly meeting needed a more effective way to learn glean knowledge and expertise from a region that was the undisputed epicenter of consumer products. So he — ahem — built it.

Cascadia Cleantech Accelerator (2016-?)
Oregon and Washington partnered on a cleantech accelerator in 2016. Not sure if they’re still running cohorts. Most recent efforts seem to be around 2024, when they selected Portland’s Ranger EV and HumanKind Homes for the annual class.

Leap Venture Studio (2018-?)
R/GA Ventures, Mars Petcare, and Michelson Found Animals Foundation teamed up to create a pet care-focused startup accelerator housed at R/GA’s Portland office. The inaugural cohort of six companies arrived in August 2018, working on everything from pet microbiome supplements to cultured protein pet food. Another example of the corporate-powered accelerator model that Dylan Boyd pioneered — alongside the Nike+ Accelerator, LA Dodgers, Disney, and Snap programs.

WeWork Labs Portland (2018-2020)
WeWork’s no-equity accelerator arm landed in Portland in December 2018. The pitch was simple: mentorship, programming, and a global network — and you didn’t give up a single point of equity. Startups paid $380/month. Then, of course, the pandemic. And it didn’t really reboot from there.

Oregon Enterprise Blockchain Venture Studio (2019-?)
A public-private venture studio backed by Business Oregon, Moda, Portland State, R/GA, Smith + Crown, and Umpqua Bank — with the ambitious goal of making Oregon the hub of blockchain innovation. The inaugural class of six startups included Brave, Chronicled, and Patientory, alongside Portland’s own Concord. Another Dylan Boyd effort.

2023-now: The new landscape

Oregon Startup Center (2007-present)
Evolved from OTBC. Running the Beaverton Startup Challenge. This program changed leadership recently. But it remains focused on helping westside startups with the support they need.

XXcelerate Fund / Xcelerate Women (2017-present)
Founded in 2017 to accelerate and fund women entrepreneurs in Oregon. Ran XXcelerator cohorts. Partnered with VIDA on grants for women-owned businesses. Rebranded to Xcelerate Women, broadening the mission to support “business owners who embody or share traits of womanhood, within or beyond the gender binary.” One of the few programs in Portland built specifically to address the funding gap for women founders.

Latino Founders Accelerator (2023-present)
The consolidation of nine years of work. Juan Barraza had been building the infrastructure since 2015 —Startup Weekend Latino, Pitch Latino events across Portland, Bend, and Seattle. In 2023, all of that became the Latino Founders Accelerator, as part of the nonprofit Latino Founders. Industry agnostic. 32 companies in the 2024 cohort. In 2025, they landed a Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund grant for a climate-focused accelerator track targeting cleantech, energy, and transportation. Plus the coworking space. Plus Pitch Latino, which keeps expanding.

Oregon UAS Accelerator (2024-present)
Drones. Pendleton. One of the FAA’s designated UAS test sites. Went from 7 companies in spring 2024 to 34 in winter 2025. Counter-drone defense tech. The fastest-growing program on this list by a mile.

North Bank Innovations (2025-present)
Founded in 2017 by Dave Barcos as a 501(c)(6) to grow the startup community in Southwest Washington. Landed a home for its tech startup incubator at the Vancouver Innovation Center (The VIC) in August 2025. Coworking for founders, EIRs, and programming that serves both sides of the river. The Columbia River has always been an unintentional border for our startup community. North Bank is bridging the gap.

Oregon AI Accelerator (2025-present)
The newest. Inaugural cohort of 20 companies announced February 2026. Backed by PSU, OHSU, and OSU. Demo Day at Big Pink on May 14. (More on that later.)

That’s a lot of programs. If you’ve been part of any of these — as a founder, mentor, organizer, or just someone who showed up — you know how much work goes into each one. And if you know of a program I’m missing, tell me. I’ll add it. Like Dylan Boyd and Josh Carter who have kindly offered a few programs that I had spaced.

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