This startup wants to replace the golf cart with a skateboard

A Bend company with big-name backers that include surfing legend Laird Hamilton has raised $1 million to ramp up production of oversized skateboards used by golfers.

Golfboard is the brainchild of Hamilton and Bally Total Fitness founder Don Wildman, who have homes in Malibu, California.

The two tinkered with prototype off-road skateboards for a few years before designing one that seemed  ...

Is Marissa Mayer out to eat Google's lunch with search emphasis?

Y ahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer said Tuesday the company is "contemplating" changes to its deal with Microsoft's Bing search engine, technology which Yahoo leases from Microsoft for use on its own sites.

Mayer's comment, during a conference call with analysts streamed on video through Yahoo's website, is an indication that Yahoo may look to modify the deal in the coming years in order to use  ...

Former Moz CEO: Failure is inevitable. Self-awareness is crucial.

M ost startups fail. Even those that succeed go through periods of failure. It's pretty much inevitable. But there can be ways to avoid those failures, or at least deal with them.

Moz co-founder Rand Fishkin shared some of his failures and advice to startup founders this week as part of Seattle Startup Week. Fishkin stepped down as CEO of the Seattle-based search engine marketing company in  ...

With $70M in hand, Minerva Project takes aim at the Ivy League

T he Minerva Project, the tech-driven higher education startup that aims to take on the Ivy League, has launched its first class of students and raised the first tranche of what it says will be a $70 million round of Chinese-led venture capital investment to expand its nascent offerings globally.

"We are now effectively the most selective university in the United States," said Minerva founder,  ...

She created a platform to help emerging designers find retail success

F ashion Week is the biannual event for designers to impress buyers and the press with their dazzling new lines.

But once a model struts down a Fashion Week runway, it takes months for that look to become available to the public — if it even makes it into a retail space. And for lesser-known, emerging designers, it is extremely costly to build up enough inventory to sell and make  ...

Startup (and Gates grant finalist) helps take the sting out of textbook costs

P ortland startup Lumen Learning, which helps universities tap into the world of open educational resources, is starting to gain traction with several statewide higher education deals.

The company hopes to parlay its standing as one of seven finalists for a piece of a $20 million grant from the Gates Foundation into a prominent Oregon education role. The foundation hasn't release the exact amount  ...

Why Sheryl Sandberg is buddies with a four star Marine general

H ow can the U.S. military, particularly the male-dominated Marine Corps, attract more women?

Tap the women shaping the 21st-century women's movement.

That's what U.S. Marine Corps Commandant General James Amos did in the months leading up to his retirement last week — which led to an unlikely friendship between the four-star general and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, leader of the "Lean In"  ...