Thousands of chefs, food writers and culinary enthusiasts in general are set to land locally this week for the seventh rendition of Feast Portland. The festivities, launched by Mike Thelin and Carrie Welch in 2012, gathers gourmet and locavore food champions in an array of locales, including restaurants, private homes and public spots, and shines a spotlight on quality eats and beverages. It regularly attracts noted national chefs. The festival has donated nearly $400,000 to hunger-fighting groups…

And then there were 15. Two Bay Area biotech companies — one that started its first clinical trial in eye diseases in July, the other a pioneer in the fledgling field of hunting down cancer via a simple blood draw — seek to raise $100 million each in the region’s 14th and 15th life sciences initial public offerings this year. It is the most life sciences IPOs in the Bay Area in a calendar year since 19 were filed in 2014. Guardant Health Inc. of Redwood City and Kodiak Sciences Inc. of Palo…

Redwood City-based deep-linking startup Branch is raising $129 million in a Series D funding round, which would value the company at roughly $1 billion, TechCrunch reports, citing unnamed sources. The four-year-old startup has raised $113 million to date from an impressive roster of investors, notably Andy Rubin’s Playground Ventures, Founders Fund, NEA, Greylock Partners and others. It says it powers deep links for more than 30,000 apps and 6 billion monthly users. Deep links are capable of…

The Portland Thorns are marching in to the playoffs on a nice season-ending roll. The NWSL’s defending champions solidly defeated their Seattle Reign rivals 3-1 Friday, clinching, effectively, home field advantage for the playoffs. Midfielder Lindsey Horan, in capping a breakout regular season, scored two goals (she scored a team record 13 during the 2018 campaign) while fellow star midfielder Tobin Heath tallied an impressive unassisted score after a crafty steal. The team, honored at the PBJ’s…

Mark Bley became Dome’s CEO in 2008 and the company has become known for its work as a general contractor on biotech projects. In addition to Genentech, Dome clients include Facebook and Google.

Whether one believes the value of Nike’s Colin Kaepernick ads will help or hurt the company appears, like the country itself, to be split down the middle. In a poll among Portland Business Journal readers, respondents were split evenly as to whether the ads will benefit or hurt the Oregon apparel giant. To wit: 44 percent believe the ads will help the company, 43 percent believe the ads will harm it. Another 13 percent said the ads will have no effect on Nike’s image. The poll continues through…