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University of Washington

The University of Washington is a public research university in Seattle operating in higher education, research, and computer science; it...

Facts

HQ
University of Washington
Sectors
Higher Education, Research, Healthcare, Arts
Founded
1861
Registered name
University of Washington Seattle business license
Stage
Public

Grin Lord

Dr. Grin Lord is a clinical psychologist and AI empathy innovator. She is the founder/CEO of mpathic.ai - AI empathy at scale - and of Therapists in Tech, a collaborative of 3k+ digital mental health experts who are defining the digital mental health revolution together. Grin was previously the Chief Clinical Officer of Lyssn.io, a Clinical Product Psychologist at Youper.ai, and a Research Scientist at the University of Washington where she studied the key ingredients in conversation that make therapy effective and promote change. Her areas of expertise include conversational design, using machine learning to augment human connection, evidence-based therapy…

Robotics Expert Sidd Srinivasa on Trends and What's Ripe for Innovation

In this episode of Founded and Funded Madrona Investors Aseem Datar and Sabrina Wu sit down with robotics expert and University of Washington Professor Sidd Srinivasa to talk about the technology and sociological trends that are leading to innovation in the robotics space, where Sidd sees opportunities for founders, and why now it is a time to pay attention to what's happening in the space. Sidd also shares why he is what he calls an "accidental roboticist" and some of the hard-learned lessons from throughout his extensive career.

#20 Mike Fridgen: Seattle based Startup Incubator Madrona Venture Labs

In this Episode of Startup Project, Nataraj talked to Mike Fridgen, Managing Director at Madrona Venture Labs a Seattle based tech startup incubator. Some of the companies incubated include Style Genome (Acq by Wayfair), Chatitive (Acq by MailChimp), Message Yes (Acq by Nordstrom) & more. Before joining Madrona Venture Labs Mike was part of founding teams at Farecast (Acq by Microsoft) & Decide (Acq by Ebay) where he led product and growth strategies. Full Conversation includes: Farecast.com (Predicting prices) - Acquired by Microsoft Decide.com (next gen consumer reports) - Acquired by Ebay Through line across being part of multiple acquisitions…

Erin Quick

Erin Quick is the Co-founder and CEO of PairTree. With more than 20 years of global brand marketing experience, and more importantly, as a two-time adoptive mother, Erin is a leader in the movement to modernize adoption in the U.S. Previously, Erin co-founded Stoke Strategy, a Seattle-based brand strategy firm, which she led for 12 years. She began her marketing career at Addison in San Francisco and New York, where she worked on global branding for Domino’s Pizza, Merrill Lynch and The Make-a-Wish Foundation. Erin is a recipient of Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40-Under-40 award and most recently, PairTree, under…

Melissa Widner

Melissa Widner is the CEO of Lighter Capital, the pioneer and leader in revenue-based financing for tech startups and scales-ups. Prior to Lighter Capital, Melissa was the Managing Director of NAB Ventures, the VC arm of the National Australia Bank and a General Partner at Seattle based SeaPoint Ventures. She was also the founder and CEO of 7Software, and the CEO of Northwest Industrial Supply, where under her leadership, both companies generated over a 10X return to investors. Melissa is also the co-founder and Chairperson of Sydney based Heads Over Heels, an organization that supports women entrepreneurs running companies with…

NFTs, Metaverse, Web3, and new realities of startup investing, with Founders Co-op’s Aviel Ginzburg

So much of what happens in the startup world comes from serendipitous moments, random interactions that lead to fresh insights and new collaborations. And so much of that has traditionally happened at events, meetups, coffee meetings, and other in-person gatherings. Two years into the pandemic and remote work, what are the implications? That's our first topic on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, with entrepreneur, software engineer and investor Aviel Ginzburg, general partner at Seattle-based seed-stage venture fund Founders Co-op. The former Techstars Managing Director for Amazon's Alexa Accelerator, Ginzburg was co-founder of social analytics platform Simply Measured, acquired by…

Jesse Proudman

Jesse Proudman is the co-founder and CEO of Makara, a new investment platform democratizing access to the cryptocurrency markets, and the co-founder of Strix Leviathan, a crypto investment manager powered by a sophisticated proprietary trading platform. Prior to Strix Leviathan and Makara, Jesse founded Blue Box, a cloud computing startup that he led to a successful acquisition by IBM. During his time at IBM as an IBM Distinguished Engineer, Jesse focused on blockchain technology and cryptocurrency applications. With more than two decades of experience as a technical entrepreneur, Jesse serves on the board for the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship at…

David Wolf

David Wolf is the founder and CTO of JetClosing, a tech startup in the Real Estate space working to make all-digital home closings the new normal. A UW and Stanford CS graduate, he has worked in the Seattle area tech scene for over 20 years. Prior to JetClosing, he worked At Amazon, where he ran the team who built the Amazon retail shopping iPhone app, used by millions worldwide. He also led teams at other local tech companies like Xome, Motricity, and Infospace. David also happened to be one of Redfin’s first customers in 2006, and is passionate about transforming…

Joe Ottinger

Joe Ottinger is a management consultant, board member, author, and thought leader in the areas of entrepreneurial leadership, Innovation, and strategy execution. After a 15 year technology career, Joe co-founded a global management consulting firm called Kotter International with Harvard Business School professor John Kotter. After Kotter International, Joe founded his own management consulting firm called Iinnovate which provides comprehensive strategic advisory services to CEOs and senior teams that are scaling, as well as CEO peer forum groups for CEOs of companies that are scaling. Joe is the author of books and articles on entrepreneurial leadership, that have appeared in…

Pioneer Square Labs

This week our partners chat with Greg Gottesman, Managing Director & Co-Founder at Pioneer Square Labs, a startup studio and venture capital fund based in Seattle, WA.

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…

Christy Johnson

Christy is an intrapreneur, entrepreneur, and strategist. She is currently building her fourth start-up, Artemis Connection, a boutique strategy consulting firm passionate about helping innovative leaders reach their goals. She loves working for forward thinking executives who want results. She has seven years of experience working in corporate strategy, including nearly four years at McKinsey & Co. Before this, Christy was an award winning economics and mathematics teacher. Come join us to learn a little more about how Christy got to where she is today! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adam Wray

Adam Wray is a cloud enterprise technology entrepreneur and serial CEO. In 2017, Adam founded AstrumU, an AI company created to translate educational experiences into skills that lead to predictable career outcomes and economic opportunity for every learner. With over $13 million in funding, AstrumU is being used by an initial cohort of colleges and universities across the country including the University of Washington, the University of Kansas, and American University. In this episode we discuss the inspiration behind the idea that launched AstrumU, how they are creating opportunity, and changing the way in which education and industry work together…

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…

3 stories show how the pandemic is changing our lives

The world of the COVID-19 pandemic is unlike anything any of us has ever experienced. We covered three stories this week that give us a glimpse into how the virus is changing our lives: We’ll talk about the new realities of work, through the lens of a Seattle area startup that just ditched its physical office space. Then on to education, with the latest on what classes will look like at the University of Washington and other schools this fall. And finally, sports. For Seattle Mariners fans, “take me out to the ballgame” is going to be a virtual experience…

Nikesh Parekh

Nikesh (Niki) Parekh, CEO and Co-founder of Suplari, has built a career growing private and public technology companies in Seattle. On the What Fuels You podcast, Niki discusses what it took behind the scenes to execute seven acquisitions worth $430 million and six financings worth $150 million, the types of people he’s drawn to when building a winning team, and how recruiting and hiring have been for Suplari during COVID-19. You’ll also hear him look back fondly on his life-changing time in India doing social service and takeaway some lessons from his “happiness journey” over the last several years. See…

Leading a startup through the crisis

For startup leaders accustomed to building their businesses in boom times, the economic impact from the COVID-19 pandemic goes beyond mere setback, into the realm of complete shock. But even in these unprecedented times, there are lessons to be learned from past downturns, and from the steps other startups are taking to navigate the current crisis. "We have a whole generation of people who never went through anything that looked like a dislocation or a downturn," says Dan Rosen, chair of the Alliance of Angels, an investor, biophysicist and veteran tech executive who has been through multiple economic cycles. "This…

Bill Gates on the future of work; Vicis reborn; Nintendo meets Lego

Here’s what we’re talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast. Bill Gates talks about how work will change after the coronavirus ... and how school shouldn't. A Seattle startup that is trying to make a safer football helmet gets a new lease on life. And Lego and Nintendo bring Super Mario into the physical world in a surprising way. We have a lot of tech news to discuss on this week's episode: Vicis assets sold for $2.85M to Schutt investor, promising to revive failed startup’s helmet tech No Neo in 2020: Microsoft pauses work on dual-screen device running Windows…

Seattle confronts the coronavirus

Here’s what we’re talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast. Seattle became ground zero in the U.S. coronavirus outbreak this week and tech firms were trying to adjust. Meetings and conferences were cancelled or moved online and many firms told employees to work from home for the rest of the month. GeekWire was no exception: Our annual awards event has been postponed. How will the virus impact Seattle’s tech scene in the short term and in the long run? Will it change the way many of us work? We discuss … Coronavirus Live Updates: The latest COVID-19 developments in…

Apple acquires Xnor.ai; Microsoft's bold climate plan; Seattle startup trivia

Apple doubled down on artificial intelligence and boosted its presence in Seattle with the acquisition of Xnor.ai, an Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence spinout with roots at the University of Washington, as first reported by GeekWire this week. It was a win for those institutions, and investors including Seattle's Madrona Venture Group, but it's also an example of an ambitious startup selling to a tech giant before it has the chance to become one itself. So how should we look at deals like this? Plus, Microsoft's ambitious plan to go "carbon negative" puts the tech company at the forefront of…

Kabir Shahani

Kabir Shahani, rightfully so, was recently recognized as one of the “100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs” by Goldman Sachs. As a child, he got to travel the world playing violin and began attending summer college classes when he was only in sixth grade. Kabir co-founded his first company, Appature, at the age of 24 and successfully sold it in 2013. He is now the Co-founder and CEO of Amperity, which has received $37 million in funding in just three years. Kabir discusses Amperity’s values, how they hire, and the important role philanthropy plays in the company and his life. You’ll also…

Greg Gottesman

Greg Gottesman, a major influencer in the Seattle startup community, sits down and shares his knowledge about entrepreneurship, his passion for the early stage of building companies, and the story behind what sparked the idea for Rover, where Greg is a co-founder. Greg serves as a Managing Director and co-founder of Pioneer Square Labs, both its studio and fund. He was a partner of Madrona Venture Group for 20 years and founder of Madrona Venture Labs. In this episode, he also discusses the entrepreneurship class he teaches at the University of Washington, what he looks for in entrepreneurs’ pitches, and…

  • Oren Etzioni
    Oren Etzioni Executive, Former CEO, Founder and Emeritus Professor, Former Professor, Former Leader of TrueMedia
  • Avi Geiger Lecturer, Affiliate Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • Babak Parviz
    Babak Parviz Professor

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