Startup Stories with Silicon Florist

Rick Turoczy
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Interviews with startup founders and early stage employees in Oregon and Southwest Washington

  1. 4D AGO

    Searching for Human Intelligence Amid AI Slop

    In a world where AI is being shoved into every nook and cranny, one question is getting weirdly hard to answer: is this actually human? In this conversation, Kira Cleveland, cofounder of Human Intelligence, explains why authenticating real people and human creative work is quickly becoming essential—from creators trying to stand out (and protect their work) to kids getting confused about what’s real online. We dig into the ethics gap of AI training, the “AI eating itself” content problem, and why Garrett’s best startup advice is still brutally timeless: take care of your people and your network. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Startup stories cold open00:10 What does your startup do?00:53 What inspired you to work on this problem? 02:24 What’s one piece of advice you’d give to startup founders? 03:23 What’s one resource you can’t live without?04:04 How can we be helpful? https://human.global/ FIND RICK TUROCZY ON THE INTERNET AT…- https://patreon.com/turoczy- https://linkedin.com/in/turoczy- Portland Oregon startup news on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/portland-oregon-startup-news-silicon-florist/id1711294699- Portland Oregon startup news Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2cmLDH8wrPdNMS2qtTnhcy?si=H627wrGOTvStxxKWRlRGLQ- Startup Stories on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1Tk7bbzaNYowGouI9ucKC3- Startup Stories on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/startup-stories-with-silicon-florist/id1849468494- The Long Con on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-long-con/id1810923457- The Long Con on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/48oglyT5JNKxVH5lnWTYKA- https://bsky.app/profile/turoczy.bsky.social- https://siliconflorist.substack.com/- https://pdxslack.comABOUT SILICON FLORIST ----------For nearly two decades, Rick Turoczy has published Silicon Florist, a blog, newsletter, and podcast that covers entrepreneurs, founders, startups, entrepreneurship, tech, news, and events in the Portland, Oregon, startup community. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a startup or tech enthusiast, or simply intrigued by Portland's startup culture, Silicon Florist is your go-to source for the latest news, events, jobs, and opportunities in Portland Oregon's flourishing tech and startup scene. Join us in exploring the innovative world of startups in Portland, where creativity and collaboration meet.ABOUT RICK TUROCZY ----------Rick Turoczy has been working in, on, and around the Portland, Oregon, startup community for nearly 30 years. He has been recognized as one of the “OG”s of startup ecosystem building by the Kauffman Foundation. And he has been humbled by any number of opportunities to speak on stages from SXSW to INBOUND and from Kobe, Japan, to Muscat, Oman, including an opportunity to share his views on community building on the TEDxPortland stage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj98mr_wUA0). All because of a blog. Weird.https://siliconflorist.com#pdx #portland #oregon #startup #entrepreneur

    5 min

  2. FEB 12

    “A Wise Man Learns From Others" — Startup Advice from Airbuild’s David Gory

    “A foolish man waits to make his own mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistake of others.” In this clip, David Gory (cofounder & CEO of Airbuild) shares the personal experiences that inspired his mission—using self-powered microalgae systems to capture carbon and help treat polluted bodies of water, then turning organic waste into biological charcoal (biochar) for long-term carbon storage and biofertilizer for farmers. We also dig into the founder realities—resilience, community, and the hard truth that without customers, it’s a science project—not a business. David will be speaking at the Silicon Forest Tech Summit (https://steamcircuit.com/) this year.https://www.airbuildinc.com/TIMESTAMPS00:00 Startup stories cold open00:16 What does your startup do?00:49 What inspired you to work on this problem? 02:05 What’s one piece of advice you’d give to startup founders? 03:13 What’s one resource you can’t live without?04:45 How can we be helpful? FIND RICK TUROCZY ON THE INTERNET AT…- https://patreon.com/turoczy- https://linkedin.com/in/turoczy- Portland Oregon startup news on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/portland-oregon-startup-news-silicon-florist/id1711294699- Portland Oregon startup news Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2cmLDH8wrPdNMS2qtTnhcy?si=H627wrGOTvStxxKWRlRGLQ- Startup Stories on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1Tk7bbzaNYowGouI9ucKC3- Startup Stories on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/startup-stories-with-silicon-florist/id1849468494- The Long Con on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-long-con/id1810923457- The Long Con on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/48oglyT5JNKxVH5lnWTYKA- https://bsky.app/profile/turoczy.bsky.social- https://siliconflorist.substack.com/- https://pdxslack.comABOUT SILICON FLORIST ----------For nearly two decades, Rick Turoczy has published Silicon Florist, a blog, newsletter, and podcast that covers entrepreneurs, founders, startups, entrepreneurship, tech, news, and events in the Portland, Oregon, startup community. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a startup or tech enthusiast, or simply intrigued by Portland's startup culture, Silicon Florist is your go-to source for the latest news, events, jobs, and opportunities in Portland Oregon's flourishing tech and startup scene. Join us in exploring the innovative world of startups in Portland, where creativity and collaboration meet.ABOUT RICK TUROCZY ----------Rick Turoczy has been working in, on, and around the Portland, Oregon, startup community for nearly 30 years. He has been recognized as one of the “OG”s of startup ecosystem building by the Kauffman Foundation. And he has been humbled by any number of opportunities to speak on stages from SXSW to INBOUND and from Kobe, Japan, to Muscat, Oman, including an opportunity to share his views on community building on the TEDxPortland stage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj98mr_wUA0). All because of a blog. Weird.https://siliconflorist.com#pdx #portland #oregon #startup #entrepreneur

    5 min

  3. JAN 28

    Ex-Nike Leaders Built AI Orchestration for Small Businesses (No Engineers Required)

    What if AI could act as a real consultant for your business—without hiring engineers, locking into one model, or paying per-seat fees? In this conversation, I talk with startup built by former Nike technology leaders. SWA Technology is a multi-agent AI orchestration platform that brings every major AI model—ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, open-source models, and more—directly into the tools your team already uses, like Slack and Microsoft Teams. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Startup stories cold open00:22 What does your startup do?01:22 What inspired you to work on this problem? 07:20 What’s one piece of advice you’d give to startup founders? 08:40 What’s one resource you can’t live without?11:27 How can we be helpful? https://swa-ai.com/Referral code: siliconflorist FIND RICK TUROCZY ON THE INTERNET AT…- https://patreon.com/turoczy- https://linkedin.com/in/turoczy- Portland Oregon startup news on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/portland-oregon-startup-news-silicon-florist/id1711294699- Portland Oregon startup news Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2cmLDH8wrPdNMS2qtTnhcy?si=H627wrGOTvStxxKWRlRGLQ- Startup Stories on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1Tk7bbzaNYowGouI9ucKC3- Startup Stories on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/startup-stories-with-silicon-florist/id1849468494- The Long Con on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-long-con/id1810923457- The Long Con on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/48oglyT5JNKxVH5lnWTYKA- https://bsky.app/profile/turoczy.bsky.social- https://siliconflorist.substack.com/- https://pdxslack.comABOUT SILICON FLORIST ----------For nearly two decades, Rick Turoczy has published Silicon Florist, a blog, newsletter, and podcast that covers entrepreneurs, founders, startups, entrepreneurship, tech, news, and events in the Portland, Oregon, startup community. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a startup or tech enthusiast, or simply intrigued by Portland's startup culture, Silicon Florist is your go-to source for the latest news, events, jobs, and opportunities in Portland Oregon's flourishing tech and startup scene. Join us in exploring the innovative world of startups in Portland, where creativity and collaboration meet.ABOUT RICK TUROCZY ----------Rick Turoczy has been working in, on, and around the Portland, Oregon, startup community for nearly 30 years. He has been recognized as one of the “OG”s of startup ecosystem building by the Kauffman Foundation. And he has been humbled by any number of opportunities to speak on stages from SXSW to INBOUND and from Kobe, Japan, to Muscat, Oman, including an opportunity to share his views on community building on the TEDxPortland stage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj98mr_wUA0). All because of a blog. Weird.https://siliconflorist.com#pdx #portland #oregon #startup #entrepreneur

    13 min

  4. JAN 21

    AI Won’t Replace Lawyers — But It Will Save You From Signing Dumb Contracts

    Most people don’t read contracts. They skim, panic a little, and sign — hoping nothing explodes later. In this conversation, Eric Paxton, founder of Resplain, explains why that’s a terrible strategy — and how he built an AI tool that turns legal documents into plain English you can actually act on. Resplain doesn’t replace lawyers. It helps you understand what you might miss if you just skim and sign. 👉 Learn more or try it out at https://resplain.ai TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Startup stories cold open00:10 What does your startup do?01:16 What inspired you to work on this problem? 05:29 What’s one piece of advice you’d give to startup founders? 08:29 What’s one resource you can’t live without?11:10 How can we be helpful? FIND RICK TUROCZY ON THE INTERNET AT…- https://patreon.com/turoczy- https://linkedin.com/in/turoczy- Portland Oregon startup news on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/portland-oregon-startup-news-silicon-florist/id1711294699- Portland Oregon startup news Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2cmLDH8wrPdNMS2qtTnhcy?si=H627wrGOTvStxxKWRlRGLQ- Startup Stories on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1Tk7bbzaNYowGouI9ucKC3- Startup Stories on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/startup-stories-with-silicon-florist/id1849468494- The Long Con on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-long-con/id1810923457- The Long Con on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/48oglyT5JNKxVH5lnWTYKA- https://bsky.app/profile/turoczy.bsky.social- https://siliconflorist.substack.com/- https://pdxslack.comABOUT SILICON FLORIST ----------For nearly two decades, Rick Turoczy has published Silicon Florist, a blog, newsletter, and podcast that covers entrepreneurs, founders, startups, entrepreneurship, tech, news, and events in the Portland, Oregon, startup community. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a startup or tech enthusiast, or simply intrigued by Portland's startup culture, Silicon Florist is your go-to source for the latest news, events, jobs, and opportunities in Portland Oregon's flourishing tech and startup scene. Join us in exploring the innovative world of startups in Portland, where creativity and collaboration meet.ABOUT RICK TUROCZY ----------Rick Turoczy has been working in, on, and around the Portland, Oregon, startup community for nearly 30 years. He has been recognized as one of the “OG”s of startup ecosystem building by the Kauffman Foundation. And he has been humbled by any number of opportunities to speak on stages from SXSW to INBOUND and from Kobe, Japan, to Muscat, Oman, including an opportunity to share his views on community building on the TEDxPortland stage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj98mr_wUA0). All because of a blog. Weird.https://siliconflorist.com#pdx #portland #oregon #startup #entrepreneur

    12 min

  5. JAN 14

    No Coders. No VC. Just AI — How To Build an "Uninvestable" SaaS Startup

    In this conversation, Austin Buell, cofounder of Topsail, breaks down how his team built legitimate, enterprise-grade SaaS — without a traditional engineering team. Instead of raising venture capital or hiring developers, Austin used OpenAI tools like ChatGPT to prototype, build, and iterate fast — collapsing the entire top of the sales funnel into a single button click. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Startup stories cold open00:15 What does your startup do?00:37 What inspired you to work on this problem?01:12 [BONUS] How has AI enabled this product?04:23 What’s one piece of advice you’d give to startup founders? 07:29 What’s one resource you can’t live without?10:15 How can we be helpful? https://topsail.app/ WANT TO SHARE YOUR STARTUP STORY? https://sflo.me/prep FIND RICK TUROCZY ON THE INTERNET AT…- https://patreon.com/turoczy- https://linkedin.com/in/turoczy- Portland Oregon startup news on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/portland-oregon-startup-news-silicon-florist/id1711294699- Portland Oregon startup news Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2cmLDH8wrPdNMS2qtTnhcy?si=H627wrGOTvStxxKWRlRGLQ- Startup Stories on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1Tk7bbzaNYowGouI9ucKC3- Startup Stories on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/startup-stories-with-silicon-florist/id1849468494- The Long Con on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-long-con/id1810923457- The Long Con on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/48oglyT5JNKxVH5lnWTYKA- https://bsky.app/profile/turoczy.bsky.social- https://siliconflorist.substack.com/- https://pdxslack.comABOUT SILICON FLORIST ----------For nearly two decades, Rick Turoczy has published Silicon Florist, a blog, newsletter, and podcast that covers entrepreneurs, founders, startups, entrepreneurship, tech, news, and events in the Portland, Oregon, startup community. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a startup or tech enthusiast, or simply intrigued by Portland's startup culture, Silicon Florist is your go-to source for the latest news, events, jobs, and opportunities in Portland Oregon's flourishing tech and startup scene. Join us in exploring the innovative world of startups in Portland, where creativity and collaboration meet.ABOUT RICK TUROCZY ----------Rick Turoczy has been working in, on, and around the Portland, Oregon, startup community for nearly 30 years. He has been recognized as one of the “OG”s of startup ecosystem building by the Kauffman Foundation. And he has been humbled by any number of opportunities to speak on stages from SXSW to INBOUND and from Kobe, Japan, to Muscat, Oman, including an opportunity to share his views on community building on the TEDxPortland stage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj98mr_wUA0). All because of a blog. Weird.https://siliconflorist.com#pdx #portland #oregon #startup #entrepreneur

    11 min

  6. JAN 7

    Nature's Impact Finally Has a Number - NatureQuant's Jared Hanley

    Nature's impact finally has a number thanks to NatureQuant. Led by CEO and co‑founder Jared Hanley, NatureQuant is focused on “quantifying nature” so its impacts on human health, real estate, and society can be measured and acted on. They’ve built two main products: Nature Score, a “Google Earth for nature” that analyzes the mix of built and natural elements around any location to quantify health-related benefits at scale, and Nature Dose, a mobile app that tracks an individual’s time and quality of exposure to nature (e.g., parking lot vs. biodiverse forest) and links it to health outcomes like sleep and activity. Drawing on large location-intelligence datasets and AI/machine learning, they model complex relationships between environment and health, enabling insights such as how specific trees influence asthma or how 120 minutes in nature per week improves sleep. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Startup stories cold open00:25 What does your startup do?00:47 What inspired you to work on this problem?03:15 What’s one piece of advice you’d give to startup founders? 04:18 What’s one resource you can’t live without?06:34 [BONUS] How has AI enabled this solution?08:42 How can we be helpful? https://www.naturequant.com/ FIND RICK TUROCZY ON THE INTERNET AT…- https://patreon.com/turoczy- https://linkedin.com/in/turoczy- Portland Oregon startup news on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/portland-oregon-startup-news-silicon-florist/id1711294699- Portland Oregon startup news Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2cmLDH8wrPdNMS2qtTnhcy?si=H627wrGOTvStxxKWRlRGLQ- Startup Stories on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1Tk7bbzaNYowGouI9ucKC3- Startup Stories on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/startup-stories-with-silicon-florist/id1849468494- The Long Con on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-long-con/id1810923457- The Long Con on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/48oglyT5JNKxVH5lnWTYKA- https://bsky.app/profile/turoczy.bsky.social- https://siliconflorist.substack.com/- https://pdxslack.comABOUT SILICON FLORIST ----------For nearly two decades, Rick Turoczy has published Silicon Florist, a blog, newsletter, and podcast that covers entrepreneurs, founders, startups, entrepreneurship, tech, news, and events in the Portland, Oregon, startup community. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a startup or tech enthusiast, or simply intrigued by Portland's startup culture, Silicon Florist is your go-to source for the latest news, events, jobs, and opportunities in Portland Oregon's flourishing tech and startup scene. Join us in exploring the innovative world of startups in Portland, where creativity and collaboration meet.ABOUT RICK TUROCZY ----------Rick Turoczy has been working in, on, and around the Portland, Oregon, startup community for nearly 30 years. He has been recognized as one of the “OG”s of startup ecosystem building by the Kauffman Foundation. And he has been humbled by any number of opportunities to speak on stages from SXSW to INBOUND and from Kobe, Japan, to Muscat, Oman, including an opportunity to share his views on community building on the TEDxPortland stage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj98mr_wUA0). All because of a blog. Weird.https://siliconflorist.com#pdx #portland #oregon #startup #entrepreneur

    9 min

  7. 12/18/2025

    Know the problem your startup is solving - Marty Kagan of Hydrolix

    Know the problem your startup is solving. That way, your startup won't waste time chasing the wrong thing. That's advice from Marty Kagan, cofounder and CEO of  ⁨@HydrolixInc⁩  a Portland startup that offers the world's first "streaming data lake" for applications requiring massive amounts of data — like AI. STARTUP STORIES: HYDROLIX 00:00 Startup stories cold open00:21 What does your startup do?01:35 [BONUS] What is a streaming data lake?02:19 What inspired you to work on this problem?03:10 [BONUS] How has the AI era impacted your startup05:12 What’s one piece of advice you’d give to startup founders? 07:05 What’s one resource you can’t live without?09:28 How can we be helpful? LINKS - https://hydrolix.io/ - https://www.justworks.com/ - https://www.oysterhr.com/ - https://carta.com/ Hydrolix is a streaming data lake optimized for log-intensive use cases that offers both real-time and historical analytics at scale. Hydrolix combines the flexibility and cost benefits of a data lake with low-latency query performance, even on trillion-row datasets.Instead of worrying about day-to-day operations, you can build real-time analytics applications, collect training data for machine learning models, or build dashboards to monitor and secure the infrastructure crucial to your business.FIND RICK TUROCZY ON THE INTERNET AT…- https://patreon.com/turoczy- https://linkedin.com/in/turoczy- Portland Oregon startup news on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/portland-oregon-startup-news-silicon-florist/id1711294699- Portland Oregon startup news Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2cmLDH8wrPdNMS2qtTnhcy?si=H627wrGOTvStxxKWRlRGLQ- Startup Stories on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1Tk7bbzaNYowGouI9ucKC3- Startup Stories on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/startup-stories-with-silicon-florist/id1849468494- The Long Con on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-long-con/id1810923457- The Long Con on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/48oglyT5JNKxVH5lnWTYKA- https://bsky.app/profile/turoczy.bsky.social- https://siliconflorist.substack.com/- https://pdxslack.comABOUT SILICON FLORIST ----------For nearly two decades, Rick Turoczy has published Silicon Florist, a blog, newsletter, and podcast that covers entrepreneurs, founders, startups, entrepreneurship, tech, news, and events in the Portland, Oregon, startup community. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a startup or tech enthusiast, or simply intrigued by Portland's startup culture, Silicon Florist is your go-to source for the latest news, events, jobs, and opportunities in Portland Oregon's flourishing tech and startup scene. Join us in exploring the innovative world of startups in Portland, where creativity and collaboration meet.ABOUT RICK TUROCZY ----------Rick Turoczy has been working in, on, and around the Portland, Oregon, startup community for nearly 30 years. He has been recognized as one of the “OG”s of startup ecosystem building by the Kauffman Foundation. And he has been humbled by any number of opportunities to speak on stages from SXSW to INBOUND and from Kobe, Japan, to Muscat, Oman, including an opportunity to share his views on community building on the TEDxPortland stage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj98mr_wUA0). All because of a blog. Weird.https://siliconflorist.com#pdx #portland #oregon #startup #entrepreneur

    10 min

  8. 12/16/2025

    Don't give up too early on your startup - Colin Nederkoorn, Customer.io

    It's a startup mistake that Colin Nederkoorn, cofounder and CEO of Customer.io cautions startup founders against. Instead of focusing on gaining momentum as a startup, founders often pivot away to a new startup idea too soon. STARTUP STORIES: CUSTOMER.IO 00:00 Startup stories cold open00:17 What does your startup do?00:58 What inspired you to work on this problem?02:51 [BONUS] How has the AI era impacted your startup?09:13 What’s one piece of advice you’d give to startup founders? 11:39 What’s one resource you can’t live without?13:34 How can we be helpful? LINKS - https://www.foundersnotes.com/ - https://customer.io FIND RICK TUROCZY ON THE INTERNET AT…- https://patreon.com/turoczy- https://linkedin.com/in/turoczy- Portland Oregon startup news on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/portland-oregon-startup-news-silicon-florist/id1711294699- Portland Oregon startup news Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2cmLDH8wrPdNMS2qtTnhcy?si=H627wrGOTvStxxKWRlRGLQ- Startup Stories on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1Tk7bbzaNYowGouI9ucKC3- Startup Stories on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/startup-stories-with-silicon-florist/id1849468494- The Long Con on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-long-con/id1810923457- The Long Con on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/48oglyT5JNKxVH5lnWTYKA- https://bsky.app/profile/turoczy.bsky.social- https://siliconflorist.substack.com/- https://pdxslack.comABOUT SILICON FLORIST ----------For nearly two decades, Rick Turoczy has published Silicon Florist, a blog, newsletter, and podcast that covers entrepreneurs, founders, startups, entrepreneurship, tech, news, and events in the Portland, Oregon, startup community. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a startup or tech enthusiast, or simply intrigued by Portland's startup culture, Silicon Florist is your go-to source for the latest news, events, jobs, and opportunities in Portland Oregon's flourishing tech and startup scene. Join us in exploring the innovative world of startups in Portland, where creativity and collaboration meet.ABOUT RICK TUROCZY ----------Rick Turoczy has been working in, on, and around the Portland, Oregon, startup community for nearly 30 years. He has been recognized as one of the “OG”s of startup ecosystem building by the Kauffman Foundation. And he has been humbled by any number of opportunities to speak on stages from SXSW to INBOUND and from Kobe, Japan, to Muscat, Oman, including an opportunity to share his views on community building on the TEDxPortland stage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj98mr_wUA0). All because of a blog. Weird.https://siliconflorist.com#pdx #portland #oregon #startup #entrepreneur

    15 min
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Interviews with startup founders and early stage employees in Oregon and Southwest Washington

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