The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born

From an individual perspective, switching your worldview or mental model on a problem or topic can feel revelatory. “This changes everything!” But the world hasn’t changed. All that changed is how you understand it.

Confidential Draft Recommendations From Kotek’s Prosperity Council Suggest Tax Cuts and Reforms

Oregon Journalism Project has obtained a confidential draft of the 16-member panel’s calls for action, and that draft proposes significant changes to Oregon’s tax system, which the document calls an unbalanced “one-and-a-half legged stool,” overly reliant on income taxes and a distorted property tax system and lacking a sales tax.

From “System of Record” to “System of Intelligence”

In the next decade, you want to own the system of intelligence that pulls from the system of record, becomes the user’s one-stop shop for gaining context and taking action, and turns the SoR into something that’s primarily consumed at the API layer.

Silicon Valley’s Latest Binge-Watch Is a Humanoid Warehouse Worker – Business Insider

When asked about Figure AI’s livestream at an event in San Francisco on Wednesday night, Agility Robotics cofounder Jonathan Hurst replied: “Congratulations. We did that two years ago.” The Oregon-based startup has deployed its humanoid robot, Digit, with customers including Amazon, Schaeffler Group, and GXO, a logistics company.

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Portland, Oregon-based Canopii builds robotic greenhouses that can autonomously run the whole crop-growing process from seeding to harvest without human intervention. These greenhouses can produce up to 40,000 pounds of produce a year while requiring only one spigot of water and taking up the same space as a basketball court.

“Now, five years later, we have hit a major milestone [for] the farm,” cofounder and CEO David Ashton told TechCrunch. “We have an autonomous farm that grows everything from seed to harvest without any human intervention, and we did so with a very small team and very little capital, which I think is very different from what the rest of the industry had experienced.”

The inaugural Startup World Cup Portland Regional featured Lisa Stone (BrainTrust Fund), Josh Carter (Founder First Fund / Upstart Collective), Yalda Moshiri (OEN Angel Oregon), Tony Bash (MacArthur Companies), Chris Magaña (IMS Capital Management), and Dave Barcos (North Bank Innovations) as the judging panel.

For more on Canopii, visit canopii.us. For more on the finale, visit Startup World Cup.

[h/t Josh Carter]

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“AI-Powered” Isn’t a Position

A playbook for building a distinctive brand when too many AI products sound the same, look the same and have the same positioning.

Happy Hour with Tech Professionals, Wed, May 20, 2026, 5:30 PM | Meetup

Whether you’re a tech veteran or just tech-curious, you’re welcome here. Bring a coworker, bring a friend, or show up solo—either way, you’ll leave knowing people worth knowing. No presentations, no sales pitches. Just good people and good conversation.

The past and future of Oregon Startups… Fireside chat with Rick Turoczy, Fri, May 29, 2026, 5:00 PM | Meetup

This event is for anyone who is interested in technology, the startup ecosystem, and how to push Bend and Oregon overall forward with innovation. This is a great opportunity to meet the people driving this innovation, and rub shoulders with the community and founders making this future a reality.

Corvallis startup lands $4M for AI glasses lenses – Portland Business Journal

Phosio Corp., which makes lenses for smart glasses, raised $4 million led by Taiwan-based MESH VC. Other investors in the round include Sierra Ventures; TEL Venture Capital, the investment arm of semiconductor equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron; Willamette Valley Capital and Silicon Catalyst Ventures.

Opinion: Two views of Oregon’s economy — only one looks ahead – oregonlive.com

The state’s future prosperity depends on recognizing that Oregon is now competing for people, businesses, talent and investment in ways unlike any point in our history — and that preserving opportunity will require adapting education, land use, regulatory and tax systems built for a different era.

7 in 10 Americans oppose data centers being built in their communities – The Washington Post

Public opposition to data centers is hardening as overwhelming majorities of Americans now oppose construction of the facilities in their communities, according to a newly released Gallup survey.

Introducing Claude for Small Business

Claude for Small Business is a toggle install that puts Claude to work inside the tools small business owners already use: Intuit Quickbooks, PayPal, HubSpot, Canva, Docusign, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365. From these tools, it can plan payroll, close the month, run a sales campaign, chase invoices, and more.

Ramp AI Index

Ramp AI Index measures the adoption rate of artificial intelligence products and services among American businesses. Our sample includes more than 50,000 American businesses and billions of dollars in corporate spend using data from Ramp’s corporate card and bill pay platform.

Oregon’s Housing Supply Increased Only About 5% Between 2020 and 2025 — Oregon Journalism Project

New census data shows significant housing growth in Central Oregon, but the number of new units overall fell far below state goals.

Nudge theory was all about taking responsibility – but it allowed big business to look the other way

So what if we tried to discourage things like smoking or frequent flying, not with the heavy hand of government, but by appealing directly to the psychology of the individual?

April’s Most Active US Investors Included Some Usual Suspects, And Some Unusual Ones

These are strange times for startup investment. Standard seed and venture rounds in the millions or tens of millions are still happening at a steady clip. At the same time, AI leaders still young enough to qualify as startups are securing investments and valuations at exponentially higher sums.

How to fix Oregon’s innovation ecosystem – Portland Business Journal

“We really can’t grow here. We’re trying very, very hard. The workforce basically doesn’t exist,” he said. This means hiring elsewhere. Hurst is the only executive based in Oregon and the company is now growing faster in San Jose, California, and in Pittsburgh, two cities with the infrastructure needed.

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Diane moderated the investor panel at the Showcase. (She also serves on the Oregon Governor’s Prosperity Council.) Her take…?

“We have a fragmented ecosystem that we need to bring together to try and figure out how to put the mentors, the money, the talent, the strategic partners all into one place or a few places that basically grow that. We’ve done it. Like, this is not something that we have not done before. … I know we can do it but we got to stop with all these little pieces being broken and we got to start to fight to fix the things on the policy infrastructure that are in our way.”

For more, read “How Oregon’s fragmented tech strategy is holding back startups.”

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• Momentum: SheerID — identity verification
• Most Disruptive: Panthalassa — ocean wave energy and offshore AI compute
• Enterprise Tech Company of the Year: nLIGHT — high-power lasers
• Growth: Valaurum — nanotechnology gold
• Pre-Revenue: Encypher — AI content provenance, co-chairing the C2PA Text Task Force
• Emerging: D8TAOPS — enterprise AI data orchestration
• Rising Star: Prophetic Software — AI for real estate land acquisition
• Accelerate: Overwatch Imaging — aerial imaging and wildfire detection

For more information, visit TAO.

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Because if you stack the plan from 2021 on top of the measurement from 2025 on top of the sentiment from 2026 — three completely different exercises, conducted by completely different teams, drawing from completely different inputs — you get something that looks awfully consistent.

Which could be a problem. Or could be an opportunity.

What we planned to do: Oregon’s 10-Year Innovation Plan (2021)

tl;dr: Released in February 2021, TEConomy’s 96-page innovation plan for Business Oregon, organized around four strategies — foster ideation, strengthen the ecosystem, catalyze risk capital, brand Oregon.

Oregon’s 10-Year Innovation Plan was released in February 2021, commissioned by Business Oregon and shaped by a 31-member Futures Commission of founders, funders, foundations, universities, anchor employers, and state legislators. Ninety-six pages. Four strategies: 1) Foster ideation; 2) Strengthen the innovation ecosystem; 3) Catalyze access to risk capital; 4) Brand Oregon as “The Place for Innovation.”The Foreword closes with a line that has aged in interesting ways:

Oregon’s unique assets and vibrant innovation economy help define our state’s identity… in fields such as semiconductor manufacturing and sustainable technologies, our anchor firms and vibrant industry clusters help foster an innovative and entrepreneurial culture. However, while these assets have guided economic growth for decades, access to opportunities in innovation-oriented fields has been unequal.

What actually happened — Oregon Capital Scan 2025

tl;dr Released in November 2025, ECONorthwest found Oregon captured 0.8% of national mid-stage software deals and 0.02% of the dollars in 2024 — and got less than 0.002% of CHIPS R&D funding while ranking #2 nationally in semiconductor productivity.

The Oregon Capital Scan 2025 is the latest in a recurring series of statewide capital studies — but the Steering Committee, working with ECONorthwest, describes this edition as “a reset for the series,” contracted with a focus on “clarity, reliability, and transparency in how findings are presented.” Which is a polite way of saying: we’re rebuilding the measurement.

Pick almost any data point and the gap shows up in sharp relief. Three that stuck with me:

1. Oregon ranks second in the nation in semiconductor productivity — and received one $250,000 CHIPS R&D grant, less than 0.002% of available R&D funds. Manufacturing awards: $2 billion of $39 billion nationally, mostly to mature companies.
2. Oregon software GDP grew 163% since 2013 — outpacing the national rate of 138% — reaching $8.3 billion by 2023. And in 2024, Oregon captured 0.8% of national mid-stage deal count (33 of 3,973) and 0.02% of national mid-stage dollars ($246M of $104.7B).
3. University semiconductor spinoff activity occurred in 2015 and 2016. And then, per the report, “ceased thereafter.”

The Capital Scan’s anchor case study is Overwatch Imaging out of Hood River — airborne imaging and AI, founded 2016. The founders’ personal savings funded the first six months. Three years of self-funded growth. The inflection point was an out-of-state seed investor in 2019. The report chose this story deliberately, as the illustration of why Oregon founders bootstrap longer than founders elsewhere: because the capital is harder to access here. So much so, it’s like a vicious cycle or something.

And as the state prepares to work with consultants on the halfway assessment of the 2021 plan, the Capital Scan data should definitely play into that analysis. Because the Capital Scan has proven to be a really good guidepost for “Regardless of all of our optimism, what actually happened…?” around here.

What people want to happen — Prosperity Council survey

tl;dr 1,000+ Oregonians converging on the same diagnosis: capital and coordination are difficult to come by. Worse yet, predictability is even more difficult to find.

Looking forward, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek’s Prosperity Council took the opportunity to solicit the current pulse of the community. The Council’s statewide survey is our most recent feedback on where Oregon currently is. And it pulled in more than 1,000 responses from 35 of Oregon’s 36 counties. (Preliminary findings were released April 7. Final recommendations should be release on or around June 30, 2026.)

The most striking thing to me…? People who do not work in startups described the problems in startuppy sort of language. Without coordination.

• A gas utility executive on permitting and predictability: “disincentivizes entrepreneurs from launching.”
• A Lower Columbia River watershed council director cautioned that the existing capital structure could: “raise the cost of capital for early-stage companies.”
• A Central Oregon hospital system CFO asking for: “locally-driven accelerator programming, seed funding, and tech entrepreneurship programming in rural communities.”

That language — very similar language to the startup community language — showed up unprompted from a gas utility, a watershed, and a rural hospital.

That’s not a coincidence. That’s an opportunity.

Now, we wait

We have the original plan. We have the regular measurement. We have the public sentiment. And soon, we’ll have both the halfway report on the Innovation Plan and the guidance from the Prosperity Council.

But even with all of that, what we still won’t have is the actual coordination that turns all of these converging conversations into one shared move — with shared and collaborative momentum. We’ll just have more words.

But maybe — just maybe — that next part is still ours to write.

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Enduringly Quirky Portland, Oregon Is Better Than Ever | Condé Nast Traveler

From its food-cart scene to its role in pioneering farm-to-table eating, Portland has always been a food lover’s dream. A new wave of young talent is keeping diners on the edge of their seat. Here are the spots everyone is talking about.

The US Is Winning the AI Race

The decisive layer is cloud infrastructure and data. The US owns the global hyperscalers. AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud give American firms the main channels through which models reach the world. It also owns platforms that generate and organize the data of the AI age. YouTube is a video corpus. Google Drive and Microsoft 365 sit inside daily office work. GitHub sits inside software development. These are distribution systems and data platforms. New models can be pushed into products people already use every day.

Most people don’t know what they don’t know, but think they do – correcting your metaknowledge can make you a better teacher and learner

If people are systematically overconfident about how well they understand things, why don’t they notice when they don’t understand something? And what can people do to better recognize the limits of their own knowledge?

Why Building with AI is Like Mowing Lawns — Chris Neumann

Right now, there is a massive opportunity for founders who are willing to simply knock on doors and metaphorically ask, “do you need your lawn cut?”

How AI changes software P&L | GPTomics

Because traditional software can reuse experiences across common behavior patterns and find multi-tenancy optimizations, for these companies the COGS per user decreases as adoption increases, allowing them to reach high margins compared to other industries. I expect that AI-based capabilities will break from this pattern.

What Is Code?

With modern LLMs we no longer need to type every word to produce code. Large amounts of executable code can now be generated from high-level descriptions. This forces a deeper question: If producing code becomes cheaper, what remains valuable about code?

40%-plus of Portland residents are considering moving. Here’s why. – oregonlive.com

Most of the respondents considering moving said they’re likely to leave Oregon, with 58% of respondents in the metro area and 49% in Portland saying they’d move to a different state.

Founders Live Portland · Luma

Founders Live Portland returns as part of Cursor Summer Cafe! We are excited to present our unforgettable networking experience and pitch competition within Cursor’s big event.

Community Broadband PDX Meetup » Calagator: Portland’s Tech Calendar

Come join Community Broadband PDX to talk about building a publicly owned broadband network here in Portland.

Thinking Machines wants to build an AI that actually listens while it talks | TechCrunch

Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup founded last year by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, on Monday announced something called interaction models, which, at its essence, sounds like AI that can interrupt you.

Oregon is making data centers pay more for the grid they need – Startup Fortune

According to Portland General Electric, the Oregon Public Utility Commission approved key elements of its plan on May 8, including a new customer class for large-load data centers, growth-based cost allocation, exit fees, minimum charges, and room for special contracts tied to clean energy development. The point is simple enough: if a data center forces the utility to expand the system, the data center should be tied more directly to the cost of that growth.

CytoDyn Announces First Patient Dosed in Expanded Access Program for Leronlimab in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer :: CytoDyn Inc. (CYDY)

CytoDyn Inc. (OTCQB: CYDY) (“CytoDyn” or the “Company”), a clinical-stage oncology company advancing leronlimab, a first-in-class humanized monoclonal antibody targeting the CCR5 receptor with therapeutic potential across multiple indications, including metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (“mTNBC”) and colorectal cancer (“mCRC”), today announced the successful enrollment and initial dosing of the first participant in its Expanded Access Program (EAP) for patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

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