Amazon Web Services
Facts
- Sectors
- Cloud computing, Artificial intelligence, Infrastructure, Marketplace
- Founded
- 2006
- Stage
- Public
AI, tech talent, and regional innovation: A swan song from retiring WTIA CEO Michael Schutzler
Michael Schutzler, the newly retired CEO of the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA), joins us on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast to reflect on his 11 years running the not-for-profit trade association, assess the state of the tech industry in Seattle and Washington state, and discuss what's next for him. Schutzler, who has been succeeded as WTIA's CEO by Kelly Fukai, previously its COO, wrote about the extraordinary history of the state's tech industry in a recent post marking the WTIA's 40th anniversary and his retirement. See more highlights from the episode in this GeekWire post. Related coverage: WTIA…
Seattle Startup Tribute Shuts Down After Eight Years Despite Enterprise Interest and Funding Challenges
Seattle startup Tribute, founded by Sarah Haggard, is shutting down after eight years despite having enterprise interest and existing customers, due to unmaterialized deals and funding challenges. The platform evolved from a mentor-matching app to a workplace knowledge tool but ultimately could not sustain financially.
Jay Choi Named CEO of Typeform; Charley Daitch CEO of Rowan Digital Infrastructure; Allison Arnold Joins VertueLab Board
Jay Choi, former Qualtrics executive, is now CEO of Typeform, while Charley Daitch, ex-AWS director, became CEO of Rowan Digital Infrastructure, and Allison Arnold joined VertueLab's board.
Seattle Startup Momento, Founded by Ex-NASA and AWS Engineer Khawaja Shams, Raises $15M to Reinvent Cloud Caching for Interactive Apps
Khawaja Shams, former AWS and NASA engineer, founded Seattle startup Momento to revolutionize cloud caching for low-latency interactive applications, raising $15 million led by Bain Capital Ventures in 2023.
Seattle Startup Moondream Raises $4.5M Pre-Seed to Develop Edge-Friendly Vision Language Model
Seattle startup Moondream raised $4.5 million in a pre-seed round to develop a 1.6 billion-parameter vision language model capable of running on edge devices. Led by CEO Jay Allen, an AWS veteran, the company aims to integrate vision AI into various industries including transportation, retail, and manufacturing.
Seattle Early-Stage Startups Spotlight: Alice's AI Transcription and Clearly AI's Security Tools Lead Innovation
Six early-stage Seattle startups are highlighted for their innovative technology solutions, including Alice's AI voice transcription for journalists and Clearly AI's cybersecurity compliance tools. These companies, led by experienced executives, represent the vibrant growth of the local tech startup scene.
Former Amazon Exec Dave Clark Launches $100M Startup Auger; UW’s David Baker Wins Nobel, Microsoft Rebrands 343 Industries to Halo Studios
The week of Oct. 6, 2024, featured top stories including former Amazon exec Dave Clark launching a $100M supply-chain startup Auger, AWS VP of AI Matt Wood departing after 15 years, and University of Washington’s David Baker winning a Nobel Prize for protein design. Microsoft also announced rebranding of 343 Industries to Halo Studios with a new direction for the Halo franchise.
Pioneer Square Labs' Greg Gottesman Forecasts Generative AI Will Transform Venture Capital Operations by 2033
Greg Gottesman of Pioneer Square Labs predicts venture capital will fundamentally change in the next 5-10 years, increasingly leveraging generative AI to provide startups with more than just funding, including operational and coding support. Sheila Gulati of Tola Capital adds that early-stage investing is becoming more democratized, with a broader investor pool amid the recent AI-driven revival in venture capital.
Symbl Names Former GE Healthcare CTO Selvan Senthivel as CTO; Nautilus Biotechnology Hires Ken Suzuki as CMO
Symbl, a Seattle-based generative AI startup, appointed Selvan Senthivel, former GE HealthCare CTO, as its new CTO, while Nautilus Biotechnology named Ken Suzuki as its CMO. Additionally, William Canestaro stepped down from the Washington Research Foundation, and Milkana Brace joined the Technology Alliance board.
Nvidia Acquires Seattle AI Startup OctoAI for Over $250 Million, Ending Its Service Offering by October 31
Nvidia has acquired Seattle-based AI startup OctoAI, which helps run generative AI models efficiently, for a price potentially exceeding $250 million including retention incentives. OctoAI is winding down its services by October 31, marking Nvidia's continued expansion in AI amid rising regulatory scrutiny.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy Mandates Full-Time Office Return and Reduces Managers by 15% by Early 2025
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced that starting January 2025, employees will be required to work from the office five days a week, reversing the work-from-home flexibility adopted during the pandemic. Additionally, Amazon plans to reduce the number of managers to increase individual contributors by 15% by the end of Q1 2025 to foster streamlined decision-making and collaboration.
From Dark Matter to Voice AI with Deepgram Founder Scott Stephenson
Today Madrona Managing Director Karan Mahandru and Scott Stephenson, Co-Founder and CEO of Deepgram, a foundational AI company building a voice AI platform providing APIs for speech-to-text and text-to-speech. From medical transcription to autonomous agents, Deepgram is the go-to for developers of voice AI experiences, and they're already working with over 500 companies, including NASA, Spotify, and Twilio. Today, Scott and Karan dive into the realities of building a foundational AI company, meaning they're building models and modalities from scratch. They discuss the challenges of moving from prototype to production, how startups need to out-fox the hyperscalers while also partnering…
Temporal Founders Bet on Open Source and Developers to Enable Invincible Applications
Madrona Managing Director Soma Somasegar hosts Temporal Co-Founders Samar Abbas and Maxim Fateev in studio. Temporal was founded in 2019 based on an open-source microservices orchestration engine project but is the result of a more than decade-long partnership between the two co-founders that spanned their time working on different iterations of the same thing at AWS, Microsoft, and Uber. In this episode, Soma, Samar, and Maxim dive into the challenges of building an open-source ecosystem while also working on a commercial offering and scaling a successful company, how to navigate and adjust a product roadmap in an ever-changing world of…
Seattle Startup Momento Raises $15M Series A Led by Bain Capital Ventures to Accelerate Software Infrastructure
Seattle startup Momento, founded by former AWS engineers, raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Bain Capital Ventures to accelerate software infrastructure tools. Momento's technology supports clients like Wyze Labs and ZigZaGame by enabling faster database access, messaging at scale, and cloud caching integration.
week of may 27: Coral Garnick Ducken - Madrona
Top Stories: 1. Expedia leaders are out Geekwire article/Seattle Times article 2. Synapse bankruptcy affects Seattle startup Geekwire article 3. Amazon AWS CEO change PSBJ article (CEO leaving) PSBJ article (new CEO) 4. OpenAI's new voice product Geekwire article 5. Local VC to launch startup community hub Geekwire article About guest co-host Coral Garnick Ducken - Digital Editor, Madrona: Prior to her current role as Digital Editor for Seattle VC firm Madrona, she was a content writer for Blueprint Technologies. Before that she was the Associate Editor at Puget Sound Business Journal after leaving Seattle Times as a business reporter…
Emily Pesce - CEO at Joon
Emily Pesce is CEO of Joon, whose mission is to make mental healthcare and well-being broadly accessible and effective for 13-24 year olds. Emily has over twenty years of experience across healthcare, e-commerce, grocery, supply chain, technology, mobile, and cloud computing. She has led product, marketing, design, technology, forecasting and replenishment teams, among others. Her primary operating experiences were at Amazon (AmazonFresh, Kindle, Gaming, AWS) and Nerdy (Product). Emily has also been an investor, providing early stage capital, sometimes the first money in, to over 30 companies (Working Lab Capital, Pesce Family Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners). See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy…
GeekWire Week in Review (May 12, 2024): AWS and Google executive moves, Expedia leadership exits, Kyndryl acquires Skytap
A weekly roundup of GeekWire’s most-read technology and startup stories for the week of May 12, 2024, covering major tech moves, executive departures, acquisitions, and new accelerator initiatives in the Seattle area and beyond.
Building a Modern Database: Nikita Shamgunov on Postgres and Beyond
In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Investor Paul Goel and Neon Co-founder & CEO Nikita Shamgunov dive into the database market and the importance of creating a killer developer experience while balancing that experience with performance and reliability. Nikita also shares just how bullish he is on AI, his excitement for AI agents like Devin, and advises founders to not wait on an idea they're passionate about. Full transcript here: (00:00) Introduction (00:46) Nikita's Background and the Genesis of Neon (02:50) The Right Time to Build Neon and Database Market Insights (05:17) Neon's Differentiation in the Database Market…
#73 Brian Bell - From Product Manager to Full Time Investor
Brian Bell is the Managing Partner at Team Ignite. Bell has experience in product development in AI at Microsoft, AWS, and startups. Full conversation includes: 🔸Transition from Product Management to full time investing 🔸Investing in YC 🔸Operating an investing Syndicate 🔸Growth hacks to grow your syndicate 🔸Is AngelList loosing its advantage? 🔸Red flags in pitch decks 🔸If money was not an object, what would you be doing? & more. Listen now 👇 Follow Brain on twitter here - https://twitter.com/brianrbell Follow Nataraj on twitter here - https://twitter.com/natarajsindam Follow 100 Days of AI here - https://thestartupproject.io/100-days-of-ai/ Subscribe now 👇 🔸Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/3Cx7Q5r9Ow9eikxQjsJjjq…
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy Highlights 'Primitives' Strategy, Prime Video Growth, and Project Kuiper Revenue in 2024 Shareholder Letter
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy released his annual shareholder letter emphasizing Amazon's strategy centered on 'primitives'—basic building blocks like AWS services and fulfillment components—to drive innovation and growth. He highlighted Prime Video's profit potential and Project Kuiper's revenue opportunities as key areas of momentum.
Munil Shah Joins Talkdesk as CTO; Ajay Nair Hired by Elastic; Libretto Raises $3.7M Led by Ex-Redfin Leaders
Munil Shah, former UiPath CTO with 23 years at Microsoft, joined Talkdesk as CTO amid growth in conversational AI; Ajay Nair, ex-Microsoft and AWS leader, joined Elastic as VP, while LLM startup Libretto, led by former Redfin executives, secured $3.7 million funding.
GeekWire Highlights: Amazon Protests, Tesla Cybertruck Test Drive, Veeam's $1.5B Revenue, OpenPipe's $6.7M Funding, and Washington's Fusion Power Support
GeekWire's most popular technology stories for the week of March 24, 2024, covered topics including Amazon protesters opposing fossil fuel use, Tesla Cybertruck test drives in Seattle, Veeam's headquarters move and revenue milestone, OpenPipe's $6.7M funding round, and Washington state's support for fusion power development.
Veeam Software Moves HQ to Kirkland, WA, Hits $1.5B+ Annual Recurring Revenue Amid Microsoft AI Partnership
Veeam Software relocated its headquarters from Ohio to Kirkland, Washington, to leverage the local cloud ecosystem and technical talent, following its acquisition by Insight Partners. The company, a leader in data protection and ransomware recovery with over $1.5 billion in annual recurring revenue, also extended its strategic AI partnership with Microsoft.
2024 GeekWire Awards CEO of the Year Finalists Include Leaders from Lexion, Common Room, Edge Delta, Statsig, and Mason
The 2024 GeekWire Awards CEO of the Year finalists are software veterans leading startups focused on enterprise solutions such as AI-powered contract management, data analysis, and A/B testing. These finalists include Gaurav Oberoi of Lexion, Linda Lian of Common Room, Ozan Unlu of Edge Delta, Vijaye Raji of Statsig, and Nancy Xiao of Mason.
Seattle-Based OpenTug Raises $3.1M Seed Round Led by Entrada Ventures to Expand Maritime Logistics Platform
Seattle-based marine transportation software platform OpenTug raised $3.1 million in seed funding led by Entrada Ventures. The funds will enhance OpenTug’s maritime marketplace and software to expand its network and support maritime logistics operations across U.S. waterways.
