Facts
- HQ
- United States
- Sectors
- Ridesharing, Mobility, Delivery, Transportation
- Founded
- 2009
- Employees
- 31700
- Stage
- Public
Ep6: Ihar Mahaniok - the Immigrant VC
Summary In this episode of The First Bet, Martin Tobias interviews Ihar Mahaniok, a seasoned investor and managing partner at Geek Ventures. Ihar shares his journey from coding in Belarus to investing in over a hundred startups, including notable successes like Instacart and Pandadoc. The conversation delves into Ihar's evolving decision frameworks, the importance of immigrant founders, and the unique challenges and opportunities in early-stage investing. Ihar emphasizes the significance of tenacity, the role of technical expertise, and the value of authentic connections in the startup ecosystem. Takeaways Investing in startups requires a strong decision framework that evolves over time…
Anthropic acquires Vercept, the AI job crisis scenario, and Microsoft's past Epstein connections
Anthropic acquired Seattle startup Vercept on Wednesday, raising familiar questions about the impact of early exits on the broader Seattle startup ecosystem, and the question of whether AI startups can compete long-term against the giants of the field. We dig into the deal, the public feud between two of the company's early investors on LinkedIn, and why one co-founder's prior departure to Meta may have been worth more than the entire acquisition. Plus, a new research paper envisions a 2028 "global intelligence crisis" driven by AI-fueled white collar job losses, and we're already seeing early signs in the news. Then…
How Chronosphere Solved Observability in Containerized Environments to Build $1.6B Company | Uber spin-out, 5x Cheap & Impact of AI in Observability | CEO Martin Mao | Startup Project #101
Martin Mao is the co-founder and CEO of Chronosphere, an observability platform built for the modern containerized world. Prior to Chronosphere, Martin led the observability team at Uber, tackling the unique challenges of large-scale distributed systems. With a background as a technical lead at AWS, Martin brings unique experience in building scalable and reliable infrastructure. In this episode, he shares the story behind Chronosphere, its approach to cost-efficient observability, and the future of monitoring in the age of AI. What you'll learn: The specific observability challenges that arise when transitioning to containerized environments and microservices architectures, including increased data volume…
Microsoft's quantum breakthrough; WA state targets Uber and Lyft; GeekWire 200; Bezos and Bond
This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we discuss Microsoft's quantum computing breakthrough; a Washington state bill that targets Uber and Lyft surge pricing; the latest update to the GeekWire 200 ranking of Pacific Northwest startups; and Amazon's move to take creative control of the James Bond movie franchise. Related Links Microsoft quantum breakthrough promises to usher in the next era of computing in ‘years, not decades’ GeekWire 200 update: Here are the hot tech startups moving up our list for Q1 2025 Lawmakers take aim at Uber and Lyft with bill targeting surge pricing after big events Amazon MGM Studios…
Uber + Expedia? Ballmer on 60 Minutes; 1980s Silicon Valley revisited; What's next for AI
This week, we imagine the possibility of Uber buying Expedia Group, based on a report by the Financial Times this week that the ride-hailing company has considered a bid for the online travel giant. It would be notable in part because Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was Expedia Group’s CEO from 2005 to 2017 and remains on the company’s board. In the second segment, we enjoy highlights from the "60 Minutes" profile of former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, and a separate appearance by University of Washington historian and author Margaret O'Mara on an episode of the podcast "60 Minutes: A Second…
Amazon's quest to become a startup again; Driverless cars, 6 years later
Amazon's decision to bring its employees back to the office five days a week is a window into the challenges facing the e-commerce and technology giant, and CEO Andy Jassy's larger plan to get the company to operate like "the world's largest startup" again. Plus, GeekWire's John Cook gets into the back seat of a driverless car for the first time since 2018, and has a very different experience. Coverage of Amazon's announcement: Amazon ‘will return to being in the office the way we were’ before the pandemic, CEO tells employees ‘The way we were’: Amazon tries to rekindle its…
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…
Building Predibase: AI, Open-Source, and Commercialization with Dev Rishi and Travis Addair
Madrona Partner Vivek Ramaswami hosts Dev Rishi and Travis Addair, co-founders of 2023 IA40 Rising Star, Predibase. Predibase is a platform for developers to easily fine-tune and serve any open-source model. They recently released LoRA Land, a collection of 25 highly-performant open-source fine-tuned models, and launched open-source LoRA eXchange, or LoRAX, which allows users to pack hundreds of task-specific models into a single GPU. In this episode, Dev and Travis share their perspective on what it takes to commercialize open-source projects, how to build a product your customers actually want, and how to differentiate in a very noisy AI infrastructure…
Investor Spotlight with Jon Turow
Get to know Madrona Partner Jon Turow. Learn why he got into VC, what he looks for in founders, where the opportunities lay for founders when it comes to generative AI, and what he enjoys doing outside the office. (00:00:00) Introduction (00:00:39) Jon Turow's background (00:01:19) Why venture capital (00:02:27) Why Madrona (00:03:20) Opportunities in generative AI (00:05:35) What Jon looks for in founders (00:07:02) Jon's book recommendations (00:08:58) What Jon does for fun
Microsoft, OpenAI, and startups, with Neo CEO Ali Partovi
This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we're joined by Ali Partovi, a technology investor, entrepreneur, and mentor who is the CEO of Neo, a startup accelerator, mentorship community, and venture firm. Neo's accelerator this week announced a new AI track, working in collaboration with OpenAI and Microsoft to help startups build businesses on newly emerging artificial intelligence capabilities. Partovi, who grew up in Tehran during the Iran-Iraq war, sold his startup LinkExchange to Microsoft in 1998, was an early investor in companies including Airbnb, Dropbox, Facebook, and Uber, and 10 years ago co-founded Code.org with his twin brother Hadi Partovi…
Startups, superheroes, and the economy at a crossroads: Voices from Seattle's tech community
After holding the GeekWire Awards virtually for the past two years, there was a feeling of real catharsis Thursday evening as hundreds of people streamed through the doors of the Showbox Sodo in Seattle for our annual celebration of the Pacific Northwest's top tech startups, leaders, and innovations. For the finalists in the 2022 GeekWire Awards, recognition at the superhero-themed show came with the added bonus of knowing that their companies made it through a period of unprecedented challenge and change. But the week also brought a new sense of uncertainty about what's to come. [Related Post: 2022 GeekWire Awards…
Tech pay, cloud trends, Kraken, and self-driving cars with Qumulo CEO Bill Richter
Everyone is closely monitoring the implications of remote work as we emerge from the pandemic, so it's no surprise that one of the most widely read stories on GeekWire this week — right behind the Titanic's disappearing bathtub and Facebook's potential name change — was a story on trends in tech salaries. Two big trends stood out in the report from jobs site Hired: Average tech salaries in Seattle are up 4.6% from last year, to $158,000, second only to the Bay Area, which saw its average dip slightly to $165,000. Nationwide, the average U.S. tech salary fell 1.1% to…
Uber, Grubhub and Seattle; Amazon's virus-killing robot; Surface Earbuds first take
Here’s what we’re talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast. Word leaked out this week that Uber is considering buying food-delivery service Grubhub, and it turns out there are many Seattle connections behind the possible deal, including links to Expedia and several other companies. Food delivery is a tough market to make a buck in, for companies and their drivers, so what's in the deal for Uber? Uber Eats is #2 and Grubhub is #3 in food delivery services, behind leader DoorDash. DoorDash grew its market share 42% in March while Grubhub stayed flat. Uber Eats grew 20% (it…
Michel Feaster on running toward fear, 7-figure deals, and category creation at Usermind & Apptio
Usermind has raised $50M, created a category, and closed 7-figure deals. But, CEO Michel Feaster, didn't always think of herself as a founder. Hear how she ran toward her biggest fears to make the leap from executive to founder after 15 years, lessons from Apptio's success, and how creating a category lets you "set the price."
Car2go exits, Vicis crumbles
John and Todd make it through the rain and into the studio to discuss some of the biggest stories of the week: Car2go's exit from North America, which will leave Seattle without a free-floating car-sharing service for the first time in many years; and the sudden downfall of Vicis, the high-tech football helmet maker backed by some of the NFL's biggest names. Plus the answer to last week's Name that Tech Tune challenge. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
IPOs without profits
What do Pinterest, Lyft, Uber and Slack have in common? Yes, they're all newly public or about to make their initial public offerings. But they also share a common characteristic on the bottom line -- proceeding with their IPOs with lots of revenue and growth but, so far at least, without the consistent profits to show for it. And they're part of a trend. Eighty-three percent of IPOs in the first three quarters of 2018 were made by companies that hadn't posted profits in the prior 12 months. So what's the future of these companies? On this episode of the…
Unicorns, IPOs and the next tech giants
Seattle has a new unicorn, Outreach, the sales and marketing automation company that raised a $114 million funding round this week, pushing its valuation to $1.1 billion. The news sends John and Todd on a startup odyssey, exploring the hidden connections among the new wave of public companies and tech behemoths in Silicon Valley and Seattle, including Uber, Lyft, Convoy and others. Plus, Amazon and Microsoft are preparing to challenge Apple's AirPods,. And on the Random Channel, Melinda Gates has a message for the tech industry, and John is determined to be a "Never Throner." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Interview: Uber Chief Legal Officer Tony West
Uber has run into more than a few legal troubles in the last two years. Tony West is the man who has to deal with them. We're sharing Tony's full interview with GeekWire Civic Innovation Editor Monica Nickelsburg on this episode, including his take on Uber's data breach cover-up and how the company can regain the trust of its customers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Google's Nest bids on digital health
Last year, Google secretly acquired a digital health startup spun out of the University of Washington. After requesting documents related to the acquisition, GeekWire learned there's actually a surprising twist to the story, all to do with smart home device maker Nest. Plus, we discuss Jeff Bezos' plan to give away $2 billion to tackle homelessness and early childhood education and we take a look at the upcoming GeekWire Summit, our biggest event of the year. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Week in Geek with Chairman Mom's Sarah Lacy
Sarah Lacy is the founder and CEO of Chairman Mom, a subscription-based online community for working moms. She joins us to talk about the venture and sticks around to discuss the news of the week on this special Week in Geek episode. Other stories on the show: Lime's $335 million funding round and new scooter deal with Uber and the parallels between San Francisco and Seattle are becoming even more pronounced. Plus, on the Random Channel, the topic you've all been waiting for: The Incredibles 2. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Epic week for startup funding
Seattle startups raked in hundreds of millions of dollars this week. What's behind the flurry of big-dollar deals? Plus, a new service that lets you rent your car out, Airbnb-style, and Seattle's iconic Space Needle gets a makeover See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Amazon: Savior or villain?
Is Amazon good for Seattle? That's the question a community forum asked this week, and the results point to the complex relationship Amazon has with the communities around it. Plus, Uber and Lyft are the latest tech companies to dive into healthcare and Amazon's Alexa voice assistant gives us a reason to laugh... or not. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Our ping-pong robot overlords
We check in with GeekWire reporter Kurt Schlosser live from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. His highlight so far? Beating a ping-pong robot. In other news, one of Seattle's biggest private tech companies, Avvo, was acquired this week and tech startup funding reaches levels higher than the dot com boom. Plus, we don't talk about Oprah. Follow all our coverage and read this week's stories at GeekWire.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Week in Geek: The Uber of dating
Tired of the dating scene? Exclusive dating app League is hoping so, and it’s bringing its Uber of dating to Seattle. Plus, a ride-along with Seattle Police as they enforce the new Washington state distracted driving law and what truck drivers think of startup Convoy and the emergence of automated vehicles. Follow all our coverage and read the stories we talked about this week at GeekWire.com Thank you to this week's sponsors: The University of Washington's Human Centered Design and Engineering department. Learn more: www.hcde.washington.edu. And Hughes Marino, the commercial real estate company now expanding to Seattle. Learn more: hughesmarino.com…
Big changes at Uber: Tipping is in, CEO is out
This week, Uber finally did what drivers have been asking it to do for years: allow customers to tip. The next day, it’s CEO and founder Travis Kalanick resigned. On this episode of the Week In Geek, we discuss how Uber’s many controversies have changed how we and others see the company. Plus, Amazon rolls out a new fashion service and a few updates on big Amazon news from last week. On the Random Channel: how we vacation. Follow all our coverage and read the stories we talked about this week at GeekWire.com Thank you to this week’s sponsor: GoDaddy…
