Todd Bishop
Todd Bishop is Editor and Co-Founder at GeekWire, a media company he co-founded in 2009 and where he remains active. He is a business and technology journalist with expertise in in-depth reporting, podcast hosting, and live event moderation.
Temporal rises to No. 1 on GeekWire 200 after $550M raise at $12.55B valuation as AI and hardware firms climb
Temporal is now the No. 1 company on the GeekWire 200 after a $550 million raise valuing it at $12.55 billion and surpassing $250 million in annualized revenue; the Fall 2026 ranking highlights growth in AI software and advanced machinery for space, energy and defense across the Pacific Northwest.
Stoke Space CEO Andy Lapsa says he might not have started the rocket company in Washington today, citing politics, schools and tax proposals
Stoke Space CEO Andy Lapsa said he and his co-founder might not choose Washington state if they were starting the fully reusable rocket company today, citing a hostile political climate toward successful founders, insufficient state support for startups, struggling public schools, and proposed wealth taxes. He made the remarks during a keynote at a Seattle Space Week event urging Washington to do more to retain and attract next-generation founders.
Live show: Amazon, Meta and the fight over the future of AI; Plus, is Seattle still the place to build?
This week: Amazon is blocking Meta's new Muse AI assistant from shopping on Amazon.com, saying the agent doesn't identify itself and violates the site's conditions of use. We explain why the standoff is an early sign of a much bigger fight over whether AI agents can use websites and apps on people's behalf, and why Amazon has so much riding on the answer. For the definitive word on the issue, we ask Muse what it has to say for itself, and get an impressively sophisticated and evenhanded answer. We recorded this week's show live at Daniel's Broiler in downtown Seattle…
AI House hosts Demo Day in Seattle with 25 startups pitching to investors flown in from Boston, New York, Colorado and the Bay Area
AI House hosted a demo day in Seattle where 25 early-stage startups—many outside the incubator’s portfolio—pitched to investors flown in from Boston, New York, Colorado, the Bay Area and other cities to increase outside capital for local founders. Organizers aimed to showcase diverse Seattle startups, from revenue-generating companies to ambitious technologists, and attracted both national and local venture investors.
Augmeta, founded by former Opendoor and Amazon leaders, raises $3M seed to deploy AI agents for each KPI
Augmeta, founded in 2025 by former Opendoor and Amazon leaders Salman Jamali, Nitin Bhaskaran and Arslan Jamali, assigns AI "operator" agents to monitor and investigate individual business metrics around the clock. The Redmond startup raised $3 million in seed funding led by Depth Ventures to accelerate customer deployments and expand agent capabilities, with Tractor Supply as an anchor customer.
Temporal raises $550M at $12.55B valuation to commercialize durable-execution backbone for AI agents
Temporal raised $550 million at a $12.55 billion valuation, more than doubling its February valuation, after building durable-execution software used by customers including OpenAI, Nvidia, Netflix, Snap and JPMorgan Chase. Co-founders Samar Abbas and Maxim Fateev say the company’s technology, developed over years from their AWS Simple Workflow Service experience, records each step of long-running distributed programs so they can survive crashes and continue rather than failing midwork.
Truveta CEO Terry Myerson to Retire in September; Co-founders Jay Nanduri and Ryan Ahern Named Interim Co-CEOs
Terry Myerson, co-founder and CEO of Truveta, will retire at the end of September and become an advisor, while co-founders Jay Nanduri and Ryan Ahern will serve as interim co-CEOs as the board searches for a permanent replacement; Truveta has grown to about 500 employees, a valuation above $1 billion, and aggregates de-identified records from 30 U.S. health systems for customers including drug makers and researchers.
Neuramill founders Nistha Mitra and Nick Khormaei build software to capture retiring machinists' know‑how; win six‑figure defense contract
Neuramill, founded last year by Seattle-born engineers Nistha Mitra and Nick Khormaei, is building software that captures veteran machinists' tacit knowledge to generate manufacturing plans for aerospace and defense shops. The startup has early traction including a six-figure contract with an unnamed prime defense contractor and pilot users such as Diamond Machine Works, VTN Manufacturing and Astranis.
Raiders RB Ashton Jeanty invests in Nukleus and becomes public face of athlete advisory platform
Nukleus, a startup creating a shared operating system for athletes and their advisors, has signed Las Vegas Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty as an investor and public spokesperson. The Issaquah-based company’s backers also include Microsoft finance EVP Mat McBride, WaFd Bank CEO Brent Beardall, former Vulcan Capital investor Skyler Nelson, and Dr. Brett Kindle, and it operates with a core team of 12 plus engineering support in India.
Independent report: Seattle’s JumpStart payroll tax penalizes senior hires and concentrates revenue in 10 largely tech firms, risking $50M loss if one large employer shifts 10,000 workers
An independent 127-page City of Seattle-commissioned study finds the city’s tax structure, notably the JumpStart payroll tax, disproportionately penalizes hiring senior high‑pay workers and concentrates revenue risk in a few large tech employers. Researchers warn that reliance on a small number of firms—10 companies account for three-quarters of the payroll tax on large employers—exposes Seattle to significant fiscal vulnerability if large employers relocate or stock‑based compensation fluctuates.
McGraw Hill acquires Teachally, five-person AI lesson-planning startup led by Daniel Bernstein; terms undisclosed
McGraw Hill has acquired Teachally, a five-person AI startup founded by Daniel Bernstein that helps teachers create standards-aligned lessons and assessments; financial terms were not disclosed and all employees have joined McGraw Hill, with Bernstein becoming senior advisor for integration and growth.
EIT Pharma, led by ex-Athira CEO Leen Kawas, raises $35M Series A to advance lonafarnib for chronic hepatitis D
Kirkland-based EIT Pharma, led by former Athira CEO Leen Kawas, raised $35 million in an oversubscribed Series A led by Propel Bio Partners to support FDA review, manufacturing and commercial preparations for lonafarnib as an oral treatment candidate for chronic hepatitis D. The FDA accepted EIT Pharma's New Drug Application for lonafarnib on Aug. 11; the drug was acquired from Eiger BioPharmaceuticals' 2024 bankruptcy sale.
Marc Whitten, ex-Microsoft Xbox exec, named president and CEO of Dolby Laboratories as Kevin Yeaman retires
Marc Whitten, a veteran of Microsoft, Sonos, Amazon, Unity, Cruise and Meta, was named president and CEO of Dolby Laboratories, succeeding longtime leader Kevin Yeaman. Fred Hutch announced leadership changes naming Dr. Lawrence Fong as senior VP and director of Translational Science and Dr. Andrew Hsieh as the inaugural endowed chair, and Microsoft AI saw executive departures including CMO Andréa Mallard.
Pro.com co-founders Subramanian, Williams and ex-BofA CIO Zachary Harl launch OnTrade, an AI startup for wealth managers backed by General Catalyst and Madrona
Pro.com co-founders Rajalakshmi “Raji” Subramanian and Matt Williams, with Zachary Harl, launched OnTrade, an AI startup for wealth management that has been building in stealth since 2024 and is backed by General Catalyst, Madrona and angels to deploy AI agents that automate advisors' analytical tasks while keeping human approval.
Skyfarer founder Nick Tsang launches nationwide marketplace linking pilots to instructors, mechanics and aircraft; 14,000 users, 8,500 listings
Skyfarer, founded by Nick Tsang in July 2024, is a marketplace that connects pilots with instructors, mechanics, examiners, gear, flight schools and aircraft across all 50 states, aiming to unify a fragmented general aviation market. The self-funded startup (with early angel backing) has nearly 14,000 registered users and 8,500 listings, expanded from online instruction to in-person training and acquired competing marketplace InstructAir in 2025.
Levanta raises $22M led by Volition Capital to scale influencer-brand matchmaking across Amazon, Walmart and Shopify
Seattle startup Levanta raised $22 million led by Volition Capital to expand its platform that connects brands with influencers and manages affiliate partnerships across Amazon, Walmart and Shopify; the company says revenue is up 80% year-over-year in 2026 and it has more than 90,000 vetted creators. Founded in 2023 by Ian Brodie, Spencer McKenney and Rob Schab, Levanta provides tools to find creators, send products, set commissions, track sales and handle payments.
Flipboard acquires Portland startup Graze to integrate its algorithm engine used by 12M users and 41B posts
Flipboard has acquired Portland startup Graze to integrate Graze’s customizable algorithm engine into Flipboard’s open social web products, combining Flipboard’s discovery tools with Graze’s creator-facing algorithm builder used by 12 million users and responsible for delivering over 41 billion posts.
Amazon to acquire DuckLabs; DuckDB creators join AWS while DuckDB stays open-source under a foundation
Amazon will acquire DuckLabs, the Amsterdam team behind the open-source DuckDB database, with DuckDB remaining free under the DuckDB Foundation while DuckLabs employees (including co‑founders Hannes Mühleisen and Mark Raasveldt) join AWS. Financial terms were not disclosed; Amazon expects the deal to close shortly and DuckLabs to become part of AWS in early September as Amazon pushes to make S3 a hub for direct data analysis.
Amazon's drones finally take off, inside Anduril's Seattle-area buildup, and an AirTag leads to a secret Amazon facility
This week: Amazon's Prime Air drones are finally going national, nearly 13 years after Jeff Bezos unveiled the idea on 60 Minutes. GeekWire's John Cook goes inside Anduril's unmarked Bellevue office as the defense company builds toward 1,000 Seattle-area engineers. Plus: a reporter hides an AirTag in a rare book and tracks it to a secret Amazon book-scanning facility in Las Vegas. With John Cook and Todd Bishop; edited by Curt Milton. Related stories and links Mentioned at the top Want to know what Jeff Bezos brings to Liverpool FC? Study Amazon's Leadership Principles Amazon drone delivery Amazon drone delivery…
BuyWander moves HQ from Spokane to Kent, Seattle area; grows to 325 employees and adds four executives
BuyWander, a retail-returns auction marketplace founded in Spokane in 2023, moved its headquarters to Kent in the Seattle area, expanded to 325 employees, added four executives (including two former Amazon leaders), and is growing its national warehouse network and market presence.
Harell Data founded by Harlan Robins raises $15M to let data owners securely monetize AI training
Harlan Robins, co-founder and former CSO of Adaptive Biotechnologies, launched Harell Data with $15 million in funding to let proprietary data owners securely host datasets for AI model training and receive direct revenue shares instead of waiting for downstream royalties.
InduPro raises $77M Series B, doses first patient in Phase 1 trial of IDP-001 targeting tumor protein pairs
InduPro raised $77 million in Series B financing and has dosed the first patient in a Phase 1 trial of IDP-001, an antibody-drug conjugate that uses the company’s ARRIS platform to target cancer cells by bringing two surface proteins together.
Lev names startup veteran Jay Bartot as CTO to build its ‘AI co-founder’ and productize PSL playbook
Lev, a Pioneer Square Labs spinout building an 'AI co-founder' for entrepreneurs, named veteran startup builder Jay Bartot as CTO to help productize the venture-studio playbook and launched Lev Learn, a free guide to startup terminology.
Former Amazon Operations Chief Dave Clark Moves Auger HQ to North Dallas, Keeps 115-Person Bellevue Engineering Office
Auger, a supply-chain software startup co-founded by former Amazon operations chief Dave Clark, has relocated its headquarters from Bellevue to North Dallas while retaining a 115-person engineering office in Bellevue; the 2024-founded company has raised $150 million and counts Meta, Fanatics and Kimberly-Clark as customers. Clark says the move was driven by talent, family and proximity to customers rather than taxes, and he warned that Seattle’s dominance in tech hubs isn’t guaranteed.
Elon Musk's Starlink swagger, SpaceX vs. the cloud giants, and Seattle’s tech universe revisited
This week: SpaceX reports its first quarter as a public company, and Elon Musk says Starlink could deliver a majority of the world's internet within a decade, leveraging production facilities in Redmond. Musk also explains the company's data center ambitions, calling terrestrial infrastructure a trivial problem next to reusable rockets. Plus: we bring two Washington tech universe posters into the studio, 17 years apart. The 2009 original turns up gems including Boeing's unlikely connection to Classmates.com, a 1990s forerunner to Facebook. The 2009 poster also brings back memories of Teledesic, the Craig McCaw venture backed by Bill Gates that tried…
Organizations
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GeekWire Editor and Co-Founder 2011–present · current
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GeekWire Co-Founder · current
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Seattle Children’s Therapeutics current
Education
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California State University, Chico B.A., Business Admin, Journalism · 1991–1996
