Microsoft
Facts
- Sectors
- Technology, Workplace tools, Cloud
- Founded
- 1975
- Employees
- 221000
- Stage
- Public
Ed Petersen
Ed Petersen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wrench, Inc. The company was started with the mission to remove the hassle of vehicle ownership through trust, transparency, and convenience. Wrench operates throughout all 50 states and British Columbia and Ontario, Canada providing maintenance and repair to consumers and enterprises and vehicle inspection services. Ed is a serial entrepreneur, having founded multiple companies, including Intelius, Talentwise, Union-Street.com, LocalMobile, and Pantheon. These companies have provided approximately $1 billion in exits to their collective shareholders. While leading Wrench, he was a 2020 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, and in 2021…
Startup secrets; Windows 11 launch; In defense of the Blue Yeti
A global pandemic might seem like the wrong time to pursue a new startup idea, given all the uncertainties, but in many ways, the timing couldn't be better. That's one of the insights from our GeekWire Podcast conversation this week with Seattle-area entrepreneur and investor Shirish Nadkarni, author of the book From Startup to Exit: An Insider’s Guide to Launching and Scaling your Tech Business. The changes in user behavior and tech platform shifts caused by the pandemic dovetail with one of the lessons Nadkarni is hoping to get across to entrepreneurs. "Look for opportunities where there is either some…
Kirt Debique
Kirt Debique is the CEO & CTO of SyncFloor, a B2B platform providing licensed access to high-quality commercial music for use by businesses and creators. Built around the concept of natural language music search, SyncFloor has created an intuitive and innovative engine for music discovery, and the patented SyncFloor platform connects customer websites, services, and applications to music from the world's best labels and publishers. The company is also the maker of SongsForPodcasters, a modern podcast-specific music licensing experience made for consumers, small businesses, and creative professionals. A twenty year Microsoft veteran with experience as an engineer, architect, technology strategist…
Ben Gilbert of PSL and 'Acquired' on the red-hot market for IPOs, VC and acquisitions
Another day, another deal. Keeping up with the flurry of acquisitions, IPOs, SPACs and venture capital these days is no easy task. In fact, IPO dollar volume for 2021 has already reached $171 billion, surpassing the record totals of last year. Same goes for mergers and acquisitions, with record levels of deal activity tracked for 2021. The money is certainly flowing. Washington state now boasts 11 "unicorns" — privately held companies boasting valuations of $1 billion or more. Many of them — such as Highspot, Zenoti and Outreach — have raised venture capital rounds of $150 million or more in…
Dave Rigotti (Inflection CEO & Co-Founder) on the path from marketer to founder, managing energy, and asking the right questions
After starting his career at Microsoft, Dave was the first marketer at Bizible. As the company grew, Dave scaled to VP and then took on marketing leadership roles at Marketo and Adobe via acquisitions. He's now founder and CEO at Inflection - a new stealth marketing tech startup. Dave operates with a small-town Ohio style and says he cares more about the process than the destination. He talked about managing energy, growing from contributor to manager to executive, and learning through customer development.
Robert Wahbe (Highspot CEO & Co-Founder) on category definition, listening harder, and thinking from first principles
Highspot has reached a $2.3B valuation, 500+ employees, and $397M raised just 9 years since founding. What's made that possible? Robert Wahbe (Co-Founder & CEO) is a strategic thinker who has found many non-obvious strategies and frameworks to scale his business. He went behind the scenes on his story and shared the principles and lessons driving Highspot's growth.
Rebekah Bastian (OwnTrail CEO & Co-Founder) on opening to possibility, assessing risk, and blazing your own trail
OwnTrail is a platform that advances women by helping members share their *real* paths through career and life. With seed funding and an all-star team, OwnTrail is growing fast. CEO and co-founder, Rebekah Bastian, is a role model for staying open to possibility. She didn't have a masterplan and it wasn't a straight line. She joined Zillow as employee 20. Fifteen years at Zillow took her from Product Manager to VP of Product, and then VP of Community and Culture. Then author. And now founder. She goes behind the scenes on her story and OwnTrail's mission.
Maria Colacurcio
Maria Colacurcio is CEO of Syndio, an analytics platform that ensures workplace fairness in every stage of employment and aims to eliminate pay disparity. She is responsible for the company’s vision, strategy, building talent within the organization, and developing organizational excellence to deliver the highest levels of business value to its customers. Most importantly, she is passionate about issues surrounding equal pay, employee wellness and equity at work. Prior to joining Syndio, Maria co-founded Smartsheet.com, worked in technology and communications at Microsoft, Starbucks, and a variety of tech startups. She has a proven track record of building successful companies, with…
Why this Seattle tech CEO pulled his company out of downtown Seattle, and isn't coming back anytime soon
Veteran tech executive Scott Moore, CEO of Seattle startup AdLightning, joins GeekWire's John Cook and Mike Lewis to discuss the challenges facing downtown Seattle after the pandemic. AdLightning left its headquarters in the Gibraltar building last March and exited the lease in August. The company is currently working remote, and Moore says he’s committed to getting another office at some point. But when he does, Moore says, the office won’t be in downtown Seattle. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
GeekWire at 10 years: Reflections on an extraordinary decade in Seattle tech
This Sunday, March 7, will mark 10 years since GeekWire’s launch. Looking back, we couldn’t have picked a better decade as GeekWire’s first, given our focus on Seattle and Pacific Northwest innovation. This was the moment that Seattle tech came into its own. We’ve covered the rise of the cloud, Amazon’s boom, Microsoft’s rebirth, the arrival of Silicon Valley engineering centers, disputes, mergers, IPOs, and the emergence of thousands of startups. And in the past year, we’ve covered Seattle as a center of the scientific and philanthropic response to a world-changing pandemic. What happens here matters everywhere. This has become…
Worcester Man with Big Ambition - Dan Lewis
Dan Lewis is MD of Worcestershire based estate agents, FreeAgent247. Having followed his passion for property and marketing, he's combined these to form an innovative, customer-focused estate agency, using social media incredibly well take a substantial market share in a short time.In this episode, we talk about Dan's journey to running his own business, how he's followed his passions and worked hard to get to where he is today.https://freeagent247.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/dansellshouseshttps://www.instagram.com/freeagent_247/dan@freeagent247.com<...
Maria Colacurcio (Syndio CEO, Smartsheet Co-Founder) on category creation, leadership lessons from parenting, skills over experience, and the power of focus
Syndio just raised a $17M series B to help companies fix gender and racial pay equity problems. It's a big, complex, and new category. They already have 100+ customers like Nordstrom, Salesforce, and Adobe. Maria was previously co-founder at Smartsheet and a tech veteran. She is all about focus and precision. And she explains how parenting 6 kids, working with veterans, startup marketing, and big companies have all helped her find focus in her mission at Syndio.
2021: What to expect in tech, with Peter Lee of Microsoft
When (and how) will we all return to the office? How can startups position themselves to succeed in 2021? Which innovations will define the coming year? And which technologies will be overhyped? Last week, we recapped the top stories of 2020. This week, we look ahead to anticipate the coming year in technology and innovation. Our guest commentator is computer scientist Peter Lee, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for research and incubations, one of several tech and business leaders based in the Seattle region who responded to a GeekWire survey about what to expect in the year ahead. See omnystudio.com/listener for…
Top Stories of 2020
To say that 2020 unfolded in unexpected ways would be an epic understatement. The changes caused by the pandemic promise to impact tech, business and everything else for years to come. And that's just the start. The influence of Seattle's tech and scientific communities rippled throughout the world. The region's life sciences institutions played a key role in uncovering and battling COVID-19, and Bill Gates emerged as a leading voice for science and equity in the pandemic. Enterprise tech companies provided the bedrock for a massive global acceleration of digital technologies. A national reckoning over race, sparked by the killing…
How this Seattle tech CEO landed in the pro bowling Hall of Fame
Rob Glaser is best known as the founder and CEO of RealNetworks, the Seattle-based company that specializes in digital media, games and computer vision technology. But for about two decades, he was also part of the ownership group for the Professional Bowlers Association, along with his former Microsoft colleagues Chris Peters and Mike Slade. That's how Glaser landed in the PBA Hall of Fame earlier this year, despite never having been a pro bowler himself. It also makes Glaser the answer to what turned out to be a real stumper of a trivia question on the latest episode of the…
Stalking Seattle's unicorns
Seattle's tech community just reached a new milestone: 10 unicorns, privately held companies valued at more than $1 billion. Their characteristics say a lot about the direction and state of the tech industry in the region, both positive and negative. Read more: Seattle area boasts 10 fast-growing unicorns: Can you name the billion-dollar startups? Joining us as a guest commentator this week: Heather Redman, co-founder and managing partner of Flying Fish Partners, a Seattle-based venture capital firm that focuses its investments on machine learning and artificial intelligence. Also up for discussion: the challenges of running a big tech hub like…
'Slackforce,' AWS re:Invent, and Seattle's new $9B tech company
This week on the GeekWire Podcast: Salesforce strikes a deal to acquire Slack for $27.7 billion; Amazon Web Services makes some surprising news at its annual re:Invent cloud conference; and a new tech giant arrives in our backyard. Joining us on this episode is Matt McIlwain, managing director at Seattle-based venture capital firm Madrona Venture Group, offering his commentary on the implications of these developments in the world of cloud and enterprise technology. Special bonus: Listen to the end of the show for a new installment of our GeekWire Podcast trivia contest, with a chance to win a GeekWire mask…
Episode 9: Taking Risks, Experiencing Culture, and Being Naked feat. Dan Lewis
Welcome to this installment of The Storytellers! This is a special episode for two reasons. 1. You get to hear an incredibly inspiring story from my older brother Dan on the biggest risk he ever took in life. 2. Since today is Giving Tuesday, during 5 minutes with the host, I give a special shoutout to some dear friends of mine doing incredible work around the world. This episode is chock full of laughs, good advice, and there is an opportunity to give to an incredible cause!
AI that writes your emails; a Seattle tech visionary; and our trivia challenge returns
Here’s what we’re talking about on the GeekWire Podcast this week: OthersideAI thinks it can help you be more productive by using artificial intelligence to write your emails for you. But is that really a good idea? The months-old firm announced a $2.6 million seed round this week. It's one of several startups creating email products based on OpenAI's GPT3 language processing technology. We talk about the long-term implications for the industry and for humanity. Tom Alberg was an internet financial pioneer when he became one of the first investors in Amazon in 1995. He didn't stop there. He was…
Startup CEOs optimistic despite pandemic; Amazon moves into virtual travel
Here’s what we’re talking about on the GeekWire Podcast this week: The results are in from the first-ever GeekWire 200 CEO Insights survey and they may surprise you. Startup CEOs in Seattle are generally optimistic about the state of the economy for the next 18 months. And they have some thoughts on who should be president. Amazon's latest offering is virtual tourism through its new Amazon Explore service. GeekWire's Todd Bishop went for a walk around Quebec City with a local guide and took a cooking lesson in Buenos Aires, all without leaving the office. Ex-Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff jumps…
Matt McIlwain (Madrona) on lessons from 20 years of VC investing, traits of top entrepreneurs, and building a bigger pie
20 years as a VC at Madrona. Headline IPOs like Accolade, Smartsheet, Apptio, Isilon. Invested in cloud before it was cool. 3x Midas list. 3x CB's top 100 VC list. Matt goes behind the scenes on his lessons (from the highs and lows), Madrona's philosophy, and how the best leaders work.
Snowflake, Madrona and a giant IPO; Bill Gates Sr.; Apple, UW and COVID
Here’s what we’re talking about on the GeekWire Podcast this week: Snowflake, the data warehousing company, came out with a bang this week in its public debut, raising $3.4 billion in the largest software IPO ever. It reignited a debate over the the IPO process and inequality in the allocation of shares when a company goes public. Snowflake's IPO was also a successful outcome for Seattle's Madrona Venture Group, resulting from a departure from its normal investing strategy. We'll explain what happened, and what it could mean for the future. When Bill Gates Sr. died this week at age 94…
Leslie Feinzaig (Female Founders Alliance CEO) on the business of FFA, finding market fit, and authenticity as an advantage
2% of venture capital goes to women and non-binary founders. Female Founders Alliance exists to shift that balance. Leslie Feinzaig, Founder & CEO, goes behind the scenes on the mission and the business of FFA, lessons in founder/market fit, and leading with authenticity.
Microsoft (maybe) rescues TikTok; downtown Seattle struggles; micro-schools
Here’s what we’re talking about on the GeekWire Podcast this week. Who would have thought that Microsoft could be the likely white knight to save social video app TikTok from threats by President Trump to ban it in the U.S.? Trump set a hard deadline this week for Microsoft or another entity to buy the company before he'll block all transactions with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. We discuss what might be behind Microsoft's interest in entering the social media sphere. In latest TikTok twist, Microsoft reportedly looking at buying entire social media giant Trump issues executive order banning transactions…
Ambika Singh (Armoire CEO) on pitching friends, building a dream closet, and learning from others
Amoire is 3.5 year into building the "dream closet" for woman, $5M in funding, 50 employees, 1000s of customers, and moving 10s of thousands of garments. Ambika Singh, the founder and Chief Bosslady, goes inside her process, how she learns, and the obstacles and upsides she's found as a woman founder in Seattle.
People
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Ali Farhadi Executive, Former Allen Institute for AI CEO
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Bill Gates Executive, Former CEO, Co-founder
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Dan Lewis Executive, Corporate Vice President
