Creative Destruction Lab
Facts
- HQ
- Toronto, Ontario, CA
- Sectors
- Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
- Founded
- 2012
- Employees
- 722
Transforming Science and Technology for Humankind, Emer Dooley, CDL
The Creative Destruction Lab: Connecting Innovation with Impact In this episode, Emer Dooley, site lead for the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) at the Foster School of Business, University of Washington, discusses the CDL's mission to commercialize deep tech startups for the benefit of humankind. She elaborates on CDL’s mentoring program, which pairs high-caliber mentors with promising startups in the fields of computational health and advanced manufacturing, to guide them through critical objectives over a nine-month period. Emer also explains the program's unique funding model, the process of selecting and nurturing startups, and CDL’s significant impact on the Seattle innovation ecosystem…
Uncommon Thinkers 2025: Solar spacecraft, sci-fi biology, destroying PFAS, beyond AI chatbots, and better social media
On this special episode of the GeekWire Podcast, recorded backstage at the GeekWire Gala at the Showbox Sodo, we sit down with five of the inventors, scientists, and entrepreneurs selected as the Seattle region's 2025 Uncommon Thinkers, in partnership with Greater Seattle Partners. Jeff Thornburg spent years building rocket engines for Elon Musk at SpaceX and Paul Allen at Stratolaunch. Now, as CEO of Portal Space Systems, he's moved past chemical rockets to revive a concept NASA studied decades ago but never pursued — a spacecraft powered by focused sunlight. He calls it a "steam engine for space." Read the…
Innovation in Turbulent Times: Voices from the GeekWire Awards
Recorded live at the 2025 GeekWire Awards in Seattle, this episode features industry leaders navigating a shifting tech and political landscape. Amid celebrations of AI breakthroughs, startup milestones, and community-building, guests discuss deeper concerns: capital flight, regulatory headwinds, and what the region needs to retain its innovation edge. Featured on the show: Ambika Singh, founder and CEO of Armoire (Workplace of the Year winner) Joseph Williams, Washington State Department of Commerce (Public Policy Champion for Innovation) Emer Dooley, Creative Destruction Lab, University of Washington (Geeks Give Back honoree) Laura Ruderman, CEO of the Technology Alliance Aviel Ginzburg, co-founder at Foundations…
The founding of OfferUp, a conversation with OfferUp founder Nick Huzar
Send us Fan Mail Today, we have invited Nick Huzar, the co-founder and former CEO of OfferUp for more than a decade. He is currently operating as a board director, brand evangelist, and advising the CEO on strategic projects. Nick's experience lies in building two-sided marketplaces from the ground up. Through this, he has raised over $380M in financing from leading investors including A16Z, TRowe, Tiger, Allen.co, GGV, Coatue, and more. He is currently focused on simplifying the complexity around climate change via my weekly video podcast @ www.stufftv.org. Additionally, he will ride anything with a board (wake surf, skate…
The Evolution of Seattle's Venture Ecosystem with Bill McAleer, Emer Dooley & T.A. McCann
This panel takes the audience on a journey from Seattle's Venture Ecosystem in the 90s to 2023 and beyond, from the lens of highly accomplished investors & operators including Bill McAleer, founding partner at Voyager Capital; Emer Dooley, Site Lead at Creative Destruction Lab Seattle and T.A. McCann, Managing Director at Pioneer Square Labs. The panel was moderated by Ryan McRobert, Partner at Fenwick. Seattle Venture Day was hosted on July 12th, 2023 by OneSixOne Ventures, a preseed VC firm investing in enterprise SaaS and GovTech startups. The event was made possible with support from Fenwick, SVB, WTIA and Madrona…
Nick Huzar
OfferUp’s CEO, Nick Huzar, joins us to talk about the evolution of the largest mobile marketplace in the U.S. OfferUp, which he started in 2011 and has raised $261 million in funding so far. They have a strong focus on safety and live and breathe their product (their 70,000 square foot office is furnished entirely by furniture bought locally on OfferUp)! Nick discusses learning work ethic from his parents at a young age, how he’s raising his kids to have grit and how his “word is everything.” He also shares how he manages the difficult balance of patience and pushing…
Nick Huzar (OfferUp) at Startup Grind Seattle
Nick Huzar is co-founder and CEO of OfferUp with a mission to create the simplest and safest marketplace to buy and sell locally. OfferUp has grown rapidly to become the largest peer to peer mobile marketplace in the country. Previously, Nick was co-founder and CTO of Konnects, Inc, an early social networking startup. There he designed the original platform and directly managed the engineering and design teams in addition to his daily duties as the company’s Chief Technology Officer. With Nick’s leadership, Konnects growth exploded growing from 1,500 members to over 1 million within 18 months. Nick oversaw the hiring…
People
See all 5-
Emer Dooley Site Lead
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Henry Albrecht Mentor, Computational Healthcare
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Jay Bartot Startup Mentor
